Cardboard vs. Computer

I have the opportunity to take a graduate class that is located at a local elementary school.  This is a great situation as we do grad school work then go to individual classrooms and observe teachers and students.  After the observation we go back and meet as a class to finish up grad school work.  Last week I watched the teacher I observe instruct her class using a homemade jeopardy game.  She had constructed this huge game board out of cardboard and had questions the whole nine yards.  The students were engaged and having fun.  The students were also learning from each other answers and mistakes.  What a great teaching tool with no bells and whistles.

Then I went back to my grad school professor and watched as she tried to show/teach us something on live-text using a smart-board.  The problem is that she had not used a smart-board enough or ever.  She seemed to be fumbling and making mistakes, and at one point accidentally signed herself out of live-text.  This teaching method caused me to glaze over and never really grasp what she was trying to teach us.

The moral of the story is that technology can be great but take time to learn how to use it before trying to teach a class full of tired hungry grad students.