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Are You "Plugged In?" - Using Technology to Enhance Your Secondary Agriculture Program

2010; Agricultural Education Magazine; Volume: 83; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

0732-4677

Linda H. Peterson, Amy Frances Smith,

ICT in Developing Communities

As educators, technology is all around us - and seems to be increasing all the time. Each fall, it seems that our students return to school with a greater variety of electronics right at their fingertips - laptops, iPods, iPads, cell phones, etc. Consider the amount of time they spend using technology each day; it is astounding. In fact, one report suggests that by the time these Net Generation students reach the age of 21, they will have spent 10,000 hours playing video games, 20,000 hours on email, 20,000 hours watching TV, 10,000 hours on cell phones, and under 5,000 hours reading (Bonamici, Hutton, Smith, & Ward, 2005). Recognizing how plugged this generation of students is, some educators are embracing technology, integrating it as often as possible into coursework and school-related organizations. Are you?? Do the students in your agriculture courses get plugged or are they encouraged to unplug while in your classroom? In South Dakota, many school districts have become oneto-one schools, in which all students in grades 9-12 are issued a laptop for their use while in high school. As a result, teachers are then encouraged to seek out additional ways to integrate technology use into their classes - and decrease the dependency on paper/pencil assignments, tests, etc. Certainly, there are a number of excellent tools and resources being used by secondary agriculture teachers across the country. Some such resources can be beneficial for enhancing instruction and making learning more meaningful; others are beneficial for program management, communicating with students or student organization members, or a variety of other purposes. However, trying to incorporate them all - or knowing which resources are most beneficial - can be overwhelming. This article is here to help. In the pages that follow, you will learn about several online technology resources that have been tried and tested by secondary agriculture teachers. Read about them, pick one or two, and try them out in your classroom. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Classroom Resources Skype (http://www.skype.com/ intl/en-us/home): Have you ever wished that the budgetary constraints that often limit field trips didn't exist? Or, have you sought a specific individual, who would be an outstanding guest speaker to come visit your classroom, only to face scheduling or travel conflicts? Thanks to Skype, both of those barriers can be overcome. Available as a free download from the Internet, Skype offers teachers the ability to easily and affordably offer their students opportunities previously not available. In addition, Skype can be beneficial when conducting chapter officer meetings, advisory council meetings, or collaborating with other secondary agriculture teachers. Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo. com/): If you're familiar with Wordle (www.wordle.com), Tagxedo is the next best thing - allowing you or your students to create word clouds in various shapes and formats. For teachers who seek fun ways to add meaningful graphics to student work, this resource is a must. When teaching the FFA Creed, students could create word clouds in the shape of the FFA emblem. Or, when students are writing papers, Tagxedo could be used to help them identify recurring words of emphasis. There are virtually limitless possibilities to using this resource! Shared (http://www.4shared. com/): Losing years and years of files accumulated from teaching courses, advising FFA activities, and supervising SAE projects is devastating! To prevent this from wreaking havoc on you and your program, check out 4Shared, a free file sharing service. With 4Shared, you can upload zipped or compressed files up to 50 mb in size, and provide links for your students to download the folder when needed. Each free account provides you with 10 gb of storage space, making 4Shared great for backing up files you don't want to lose if the school's server or your external hard drive crashes! …