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Hi, my name is Dan Owens. I teach economics at Johnson County Community College. Today
I'm going to talk a little bit about the Smart classroom, how I found it beneficial, and
a couple of the tools that I use to make education more valuable, more interesting. Let me say,
first of all, getting to teach in this room is a real privilege, and if you're lucky enough
to get to do it, you should really value that. I would teach in this room every class every
semester if I could. You may have discussed the furniture - I was skeptical that the design
of furniture could improve student outcomes, but I can say, based on the limited sample
of one class I had, that the students got to know each other better in this room than
in any class I've ever had. The interaction was much better. I think a lot of that has
to do with the fact that they were looking at each other throughout all the classes.
When you think about using tools like even just the Internet but also the Smart Board
- if you play videos, the document camera - I feel like you always have to stay focused
on learning outcomes. How is this going to illustrate points better? How is this going
to help people understand things better? Now there is also an element of livening up a
classroom, switching from just me talking in front of the room to something being demonstrated
on a separate board in another part of the room...that certainly helps. But at the end
of the day, it's how I can use the tools in the Smart classroom to deliver economics content
in a more meaningful fashion that makes all the difference to me.
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