Reflection 4: (podcast) Tech Chicks #81

 Tech Chicks-TCEA 2011

The Tech Chicks were at a Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) conference where they first talked about a few new Google apps coming out. The first one I am really excited about and can definitely see it being a great resource in the classroom. It is called Google Art and it lets you take virtual tours of museums and their artworks. I think this is so awesome. Not only could you take tours with your class of museums across the country you could use it as a refresher or to point out certain features of artworks in museums you visited with your class just the day before! It also has a personal gallery feature that lets you save pictures of specific pieces so you can easily access them when you need them. Also it lets you get closer to the pieces than you are allowed to in real life! How fun! Google Body Browser is another new app they talked about. This app allows you to look at a 3D model of the human body and peel back anatomical layers of the body. It also gives you a unique URL so you can share it with others and as a teacher you could send it to your students. Then they can see exactly what you are seeing or what you want them to see. I think this is a great resource for the classroom as well. However, I could see it being a distraction for the students since the idea of peeling back layers of the human body could definitely cause focus to be shifted off track.



One of the stations they had at the TCEA conference was called unpacking the standards. At this station the teachers sat down with the technology standards on the national and state level and broke them down and made them easy to understand. We have started doing that in one of my classes here at KSU also and I have learned through this that the standards aren’t as scary as they look and in fact they are my friend and guide! So I am sure that was very beneficial for the teachers at the conference. They also told us that the standards are more focused on choosing the right tool rather than navigating them all perfectly.