Hologram Teaching: Emerging Technology

Virtual reality has been a concept that engineers, graphic designers, and every little kid has dreamed of for years. In recent years game developers have begun to make this dream a reality with the oculus rift and other such headsets. However, an emerging idea in technology today is augmented reality, which is a blend of reality and virtual reality. The iPad app Aurasma has been designing augmented reality pictures that allow the user to see a 3D moving picture through the iPad. The picture is overlaid on reality, for example the user might see a dinosaur prancing around on their algebra homework or virtual warriors dueling on the kitchen table. Augmented reality thus far has been limited to apps that only allow you to see the augmentation through the device. However, in recent years and even months Microsoft has designed a wearable headset that overlays augmented reality on everything the user sees.

Microsoft Hololens is similar to the idea of Google Glass, which was sadly cancelled, in that it overlays your vision with virtual objects and resembles a pair of glasses. Where Hololens differs from Google Glass is that notifications are not brought up in front of you, but displayed on everyday objects. As CNET said "read your email on your fridge, get Facebook notifications from your toaster, and watch the latest news on your cupboards". Unlike Google Glass or Aurasma, Microsoft Hololens is interactive and you have to physically move around to get to different settings. For more information click here to go to Microsoft's website. Hololens is still a relatively new product that hasn't been made accessible by the public yet; however, click here to see a pretty convincing demo of the product.


Hololens has huge ramification for education. As teachers we strive to teach our students in every learning style, but for some concepts and ideas that just isn't physically possible. With Microsoft’s Hololens we could reach the visual, kinesthetic, audio, and reading/writing learners. Imagine a geometry teacher able to create a regular icosahedron in a shared augmented reality. The students could twist and manipulate the object. This ability to create 3D objects would greatly increase the learning of students in all subject areas. As a teacher, I would use this technology to show my students concepts and allow them to manipulate graphs and shapes in real time. There are many uses for this device, several of which have been named here and several more can be seen in the Microsoft Hololens trailer below. Enjoy!

Assistive technologies(The SmartPen)

Have you ever taken notes for a long lecture and then looked back at them and had no idea what you were writing? Or do you wish you could write everything the teacher was saying down on paper? Just like you, students all over the world have difficulties keeping up, more so those who have learning disabilities. In school, teachers provide students that can't keep up with PowerPoint slides or notes. However, nothing can really compare to hand written notes and the teacher's lecture. For several years now, students lucky enough to discover smartpens have been able to take handwritten notes and record the teachers lecture. Now teacher's are using this technology to allow students to playback their lecture over and over again.

What is a smartpen? A smartpen is produced by several companies, the most widely known being Livescribe. A smartpen, in conjunction with special paper, records notes and the lecture at the same time.The lecture at a specific point can be accessed by touching the pen to that point in the notes. So instead of searching through a teacher’s hour long lecture or simply not having it the smart pen finds the section you want based on your own notes. The notes taken on the special paper can then be uploaded onto the computer and turned into computer text. To learn more about Livescribe and smartpens check out their website here.

This technology has huge ramifications for students with learning disabilities and even regular students. In the video below Wichita Collegiate School adopts smartpens as a record-able lecture tool for all their students. As an educator, and a student, I am excited by this technology. If I had the ability to record my lectures in concentrated bits with student’s notes I'd jump on the opportunity. In a math class these tools are especially helpful. Teachers often add little tidbits in with their lecture that students may not write down. I know as a student that I often write down the teacher’s example and not the little tricks he says. As a math teacher I would use the smartpen to record my lecture as I gave them to the class and upload my notes and lecture online so my students could refer back to it for homework help anywhere or anytime.

Top 10 Professional Developement websites

Professional development is hard to keep up on, especially with the rush of technology into education. That's why I created a list of my top 10 websites for technology in the classroom. Five of these sites are education blogs about technology in education and another five include math education to the mix. These blogs were written by teachers for teachers so they include ideas and current concerns about technology in the education scene. I chose blogs, and these blogs specifically, because they provide an insider look at how technology influences learning. I hope you enjoy my list.

Click here to view my Top 10!

Digital Citizenship

Prezi is an interactive PowerPoint that allows its users to move from slide to slide along a designated path. Prezi is a great alternative to PowerPoint as it provides an engaging and visually appealing way to convey information. Prezi is a free to use tool that allows you to make your PowerPoint follow any path you would like. Choose from hundreds of 

pre-made paths or dabble with your own unique path. Instead of the conventional slide to slide of PowerPoint, try hiding slides within slides or within the crook of a letter.

The subject of my Prezi below is digital citizenship, when it comes to computer viruses and infections we can unwittingly catch. I created this Prezi using the pulse path. In this path I had the option of circles, squares, or invisible slides. As you progress throughout the Prezi you will see how I hid slides inside of slides, such as the slides in the bullet points or the slides hiding in pictures. My Prezi was designed to educate teachers and students on what malware, adware, and spyware is and how to protect against such infections. While I provide many possible protections, the best protection is to educate the students on what to do while online. The hope of this presentation is to have students take responsibility of their digital citizenship and make smart choices while using the internet.

Please click on the play button on the Prezi below to view. Thank you and enjoy!