What a fun class this week. I've heard of and seen SmartBoards before, but was never given such a great demo of the multiple capabilities. My mother actually won a grant to have a SmartBoard permanently mounted in her classroom. She uses it for everything.
What I enjoyed even more was the opportunity to see the subscription websites Doris has for elementary kids. I'm familiar with what the public can access through the public library, but I don't have a way to access the educational subscription websites. Demoing these sites right before doing this week's reading (on educational sofware) really gave me a lot to think about. The sites have all sorts of cool graphics and the videos are fun, but I think as teachers we have to use these resources cautiously. They should enhance the learning experience, not replace it. Doris is obviously using it to enhance what she is teaching, but I can see some lazier teachers relying too heavily on websites and software. The other problem is sometimes it seems like you click through lots of layers to get to something interesting that doesn't last very long.
Of course it always good to get into an actual library to see how each librarian organizes the library and makes use of the space they have. Doris has done a lot with a very small space.
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