Elementary School & Technology
The link above will take you to my digital portfolio. Essentially, it is a website which showcases all of the projects that we've worked on in MD 400: Educational Technology as a Graduate Course. The common theme throughout the site is how easy and fun technology can be integrated into the classroom. Each project goes beyond a typical Smart Board, Powerpoint, and YouTube scenario and got me a bit out of my comfort zone as far as technology goes. As each project was hard to connect into a classroom setting at first, I was quickly proven wrong. Each project was fairly easy to create and can be used across many subjects from K-12. I am interested in the future to see how I can integrate these new projects and tidbits into my own classroom...
Enjoy.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Computer Delusion(al)?
The Computer Delusion by Todd Oppenheimer
This article talks about the country's push towards spending millions on integrating more computers and technology into the classroom while cutting programs such as music, art and phys. ed. It frames the argument that schools are not keeping up with the times and that although we are spending lots of hard earned tax dollars on these technological programs and high powered "machines", we are not seeing many results. To quote, "In the classroom, however, teachers never really embraced the new tools, and no significant academic improvement occurred." Precisely. We keep cutting human jobs and replacing them with all this fabulous technology thinking we are cutting costs and delivering the same, quality product. Wrong.
While we are integrating more and more technology into the classroom, (let's be honest here, technology is very present in all of our lives and it would be foolish to deprive our children from using and learning through technology because they are probably more fluent growing up with it than we are), we need to remember that a teacher's job can never be replaced by a machine. Nor can a teacher ever replace a machine's added support to the classroom. It is the happy medium between the two that we will find the most effective and most efficient learning process. In the next few years there will be more of a push to integrate this technology, but with any large investment people are going to want to rest assure that their money is being put into good use and thus see a return on their investment. Teachers: we need to embrace this technology. Though it will never replace a good book, technology: is what the children these days fluently speak. Not to mention as adults we reference and use technology to support our daily lives and we need to encourage the students to reference and use the technology not as a toy, but as a scaffolding to build upon an education..
This article talks about the country's push towards spending millions on integrating more computers and technology into the classroom while cutting programs such as music, art and phys. ed. It frames the argument that schools are not keeping up with the times and that although we are spending lots of hard earned tax dollars on these technological programs and high powered "machines", we are not seeing many results. To quote, "In the classroom, however, teachers never really embraced the new tools, and no significant academic improvement occurred." Precisely. We keep cutting human jobs and replacing them with all this fabulous technology thinking we are cutting costs and delivering the same, quality product. Wrong.
While we are integrating more and more technology into the classroom, (let's be honest here, technology is very present in all of our lives and it would be foolish to deprive our children from using and learning through technology because they are probably more fluent growing up with it than we are), we need to remember that a teacher's job can never be replaced by a machine. Nor can a teacher ever replace a machine's added support to the classroom. It is the happy medium between the two that we will find the most effective and most efficient learning process. In the next few years there will be more of a push to integrate this technology, but with any large investment people are going to want to rest assure that their money is being put into good use and thus see a return on their investment. Teachers: we need to embrace this technology. Though it will never replace a good book, technology: is what the children these days fluently speak. Not to mention as adults we reference and use technology to support our daily lives and we need to encourage the students to reference and use the technology not as a toy, but as a scaffolding to build upon an education..
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
...Reminiscing & Reflecting
Originally I found this course extremely frustrating. As a non-tech-savvy teacher I was hesitant to incorporate the projects learned in this course to lessons in the classrooms. Midway through the course my attitude changed drastically. As I have seen the Smart Board technology incorporated into the classroom beginning in Kindergarten all the way into high school courses I have seen how interactive technology can be. As well as, how interested, intrigued and excited the students are to actually interact with the technology. That was the main reason my attitude towards incorporating technology into the classroom - student interest.
Podcasts have been particularly useful in creating. In Kindergarten and 1st grade, listening to stories are popular and an efficient way to learning letters, letter sounds, and recognizing text. Many classrooms still use book on tape and the tape players are Ancient. A perfect example is when a teacher wants to edit a book and leave parts out. For instance, learning about holidays around the world - leaving religious views surrounding these holidays are critical in a public school system. Creating a podcast allows you to record a text and purposely leave out specific parts that you do not want to children to hear.
This course has also opened my eyes to many different teacher resources which I will use in my classroom such as BrainPop, Wordle, and other teacher blogs. Just an awareness of these resources that we are exposed to in the course has been extremely helpful.
Podcasts have been particularly useful in creating. In Kindergarten and 1st grade, listening to stories are popular and an efficient way to learning letters, letter sounds, and recognizing text. Many classrooms still use book on tape and the tape players are Ancient. A perfect example is when a teacher wants to edit a book and leave parts out. For instance, learning about holidays around the world - leaving religious views surrounding these holidays are critical in a public school system. Creating a podcast allows you to record a text and purposely leave out specific parts that you do not want to children to hear.
This course has also opened my eyes to many different teacher resources which I will use in my classroom such as BrainPop, Wordle, and other teacher blogs. Just an awareness of these resources that we are exposed to in the course has been extremely helpful.
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