My Current View of Technology in the Classroom

After a quick and thorough introduction to the use of technology in the classroom, I feel more comfortable saying that there are many tools available that can be easily manipulated by the teacher to reach any designated educational audience.

At the beginning of school, my biggest concern was finding an efficient way of reaching the parents and families at their leisure. I strongly feel that a blog is an instrumental tool for the teacher regardless of the students' abilities. The blog allows me to easily post any thoughts or pictures from the classroom and has the security settings appropriate for educational use.

I am excited to bring my director the idea of creating a classroom or department wide blog. I think this will excite the parents and help keep them interested in their child's educational journey. The comment section could potentially be one of the most useful aspects of the blog because the parents could give me their feedback or even post the words or ideas of their children.

Post #12

The Computer Delusion

Todd Oppenheimer's article The Computer Delusion brings up many points that I think are crucial to the development of school curricula. I strongly believe that school provides the foundations we need to pursuit our innate skills. It is the uniqueness of each person's skills that creates the advancement of society. I think it is necessary for schools to introduce students to their skills and support them along the way, as varied as the skills may be.

Oppenheimer brings up the point that now many vocational oriented classes are being replaced with computer classes. It is very important to stay current with the technological trends, however, I think that by removing the vocational classes we are doing a disservice to society.

Our society, as technologically advanced as we become, is always going to be reliant upon those people who do our dirty work. Not everyone is going to have the brain power to advance on to college, and it is important that we develop the skill set for those who wish not to continue their education after high school.

Post #11

Class Experience

Educational Technology has often been a topic that I would consistently avoid within the classroom. Because I teach in Early Childhood, it is difficult to due the research to find developmentally appropriate uses for technology. The technology department at the school has spend many meetings within our early childhood building, and each time it seems that they were pushing materials, such as smart boards, that would have little use other than collecting dust.

I am excited to be learning ways to explore and create technological teaching and communication tools on my own, making me less dependent on the busy people in the technology department. Much of the material we have covered thus far, including the website and the blog, are of high importance to me because I have been thinking of updating the way I communicate with families.

For the future, I would love to be able to review a list technological tools that are developmentally appropriate for stated ages. This could help teachers narrow down the vast search of classroom tools, making it less daunting.


Post #8

Copyright issues for teachers

Copyright issues are becoming increasingly worrisome for teachers. As teachers, we are constantly being pushed to utilize numerous technological tools to reach all types of learners. For many teachers who are not entirely comfortable with all the technological mediums, copyright issues can be very tricky and confusing.

I find being in the field of education makes copyright issues even more confusing because teachers are allowed to use copyrighted material depending on how and where they use it. For others who are not in the field of education it is pretty straight forward; if you are not paying for the right to access and use the material then it is illegal.

Based on experience with other teachers who are not too technologically savvy, it seems that it would be very beneficial for IT professionals to explicitly describe what teachers can and cannot do when presenting material to the class.

Universal Design for Learning

The universal design for learning is essentially the foundation for special education teachers. It is important to always be aware of the numerous different learning styles within one classroom, and because of this, the teacher must create numerous different ways to have a similar impact on all students.

Technology helps teachers accomplish this task. For many teachers, the idea of differentiating your lesson plan to custom suit each child in the class can be overwhelming and frightening. The more I learn how to navigate the technological tools that are aimed at teachers, the easier it seems to reach a broad audience within the class.

The key point of the UDL is flexibility. The flexibility is reached when a student is able to access different resources with links that are embedded in the text. The UDL also emphasizes the ability to use whichever medium you prefer, not limiting a student to a medium that is extra challenging for them. Flexibility is key for a student to teach students with special needs, but it could be extremely difficult for a teacher to be flexible enough if they are not familiar with all the recent technological teaching tools.

Post #5b

Healthy and Active Life

My focus is Healthy and Active life in grades k-4. I enjoy teaching young children how to live healthy and happy lives. Much of this comes from basic techniques that can be demonstrated or shown to the students. The younger the child the more interactive a lesson needs to be.

Digital imagery will help the students identify a theme or activity with their limited vocabulary. By manipulating digital images, I could engage them with funny photos or incorporate some of their iconic figures.

The inspiration program would be most applicable to the teachers during the planning phase. It is useful as a brainstorming tool during meetings that could later be organized and accessible for all teachers.

Post #6

Concept Mapping

Concept mapping would work for me in Early Childhood by creating a map of different lessons and possibilities. My classroom is student driven, and whenever a topic intrigues the students we explore it further.

With concept mapping I could have some ideas already mapped out from previous years as a potential guide for the paths and tools that are applicable.

Using the Inspiration program makes concept mapping very easy. You can begin with your initial idea and stem off of that. After I entered my data, I decided I wanted to change the way it looked to better suit my needs. The program allowed me to easily drag the bubbles to where I thought was best.

Blog #5