Technology

How important is it to incorporate technology into your classroom?

It is extremely important to integrate technology into the classroom because that is the age we are heading in to. I feel like almost everything we do uses technology now, so why not the classroom? Whether I like it or not, people are dependent on technology and know how to use it well (for the most part). If we try to seperate the students from technology we are only hurting them. They feel comfortable using technology, so if we can find ways to use it to teach them, then this will create a better learning environment. Most kids have a short enough attention span as is now, lecturing with a chalk/marker board will put them to sleep.

What are the benefits to you and your students?

For the students, as I said before, technology keeps them interested in the material and will help them to learn. The students use technology so much in their lives that taking it away from them will only hinder their learning. For them to learn the best they can we as teachers have to play to their strengths. Another advantage for the students is that by using technology in the classroom we may be showing the students some tricks that they did not know before. Technology may not only help us to teach them the content, but also teach them skills that they can use in other classes and in life.

As for me, using technology to teach allows me to keep my activities on record on the computer, which can be easier to organize sometimes than the old fashioned binder style. I can keep my technology skills up to date, and if I allow technology to have a presence in my classroom, I'm sure that my students can teach me a few tricks as well. Technology can also keep the class fresh for both the students and myself. With math, a lot has to be done the old pencil and paper way, but that can get dry for many people. Sprinkling in technology can keep the life in the class and give me different days too so I do not become monotonous as a teacher.

What are some of the challenges?

A major challenge when using technology in the classroom is not relying on it too much. Sometimes it can get really fun to play with the cool toys that technology has to offer, but too much technology can be a bad thing as well. I am sure it could also get easy to rely on technology too much, so if forced back into the pencil and paper way, the students might struggle. I would not want to see my students rely so much on technology that they cannot do basic skills on their own. A great example of this is in regards to the 8th grade class that I observed over the winter session. The students were so relient on their calculators that they could not do basic math in their heads, like 8/-1, which everyone should know how to do. Another problem that I forsee is that technology can be a distraction. Sometimes when trying to make a lesson exciting, teachers can lose sight of what the actual lesson was supposed to be about because they got wrapped up in the technology.

What are the important lessons you will take with you from this class and use?

For my age, I like to think that I am kind of old-fashioned. I still use a No. 2 pencil, not pen or a mechanical pencil and I still like doing math problems without the calculator to keep my mind sharp. I am far from the most technology oriented person. I thought that this class was going to be all about using the SMARTboard and stuff like that, but I learned a ton in this class. I learned more about Word and Excel, which I thought I knew everything about them. Now I know how to use simple tools like these in the classroom. We talked about how to use blogs with students, which I think is a great way to stay connected along with email. Learning how to use the SMARTboard was very helpful, and I fully intend on using some of the tools we talked about in class when designing my own lessons. Then there was the out of the box thinking that I liked the most, like using cell phones in the classroom. I think this is a great idea because people are going to have their phones on them anyway, why not use them? I remember being bored frequently in school, but if I were able to use my cell phone for class, things would get a lot more interesting. I also never knew how many great sites there were for teachers, and now I know how to use a site like Diigo so navigate the web easier for what I specifically need. The most important lesson that I learned from this course is that there is always another way to do something. No matter what the lesson or activity is, there is another way to do it somewhere out there. Technology keeps changing, and so should my lessons. What worked 5 years ago, may not work now. That is the main lesson that I learned in this class.

Electronic Portfolios

First I will post my link for an example of a good electronic portfolio: http://www.kids-learn.org/class98/

The thing I liked the most about this portfolio, and what I looked for when I was searching, was that this portfolio had a journal done by the teacher. The journal talked about the activity that the students did during the day. The one thing that I did not like was that the journal was not reflective, but she may not have posted that online. She also had links to the online activities that she used in the classroom so that others could use the same activities. Another nice feature is the guestbook link at the bottom of the page. This portfolio was made over 10 years ago, which is amazing because I could not find anything better when searching, yet people are still commenting on it saying how great the site is. It stinks that one cannot comment on specific entries like a blog, but in 1998, I do not know if that was really an option. The two things that I looked for were a journal of events and activities that the students participated in, witht the guestbook being an excellent bonus.

Here is the link for the not so good portfolio: http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/teares/math/it/samplePort/JAMES/Jim's%20Index.htm

For lack of a better word, this is pathetic. This portfolio was for the sole purpose of advertising himself for a job. No where on this site does the teacher show ANY activities that he would use or had used in a classroom. There was no journal to talk about anything that he did. This had absolutely nothing to do with inside the classroom; he had nothing to talk about with regards to students. I think the most important part of the portfolio is to show what one had learned and to show at least a few examples of things that have worked or that one things may work in a classroom.