How would you use technology in your classroom?

That is a great question, how would I use technology in you classroom?  I think that I would use technology in my classroom to make it more engaging for my students.  I feel that interactive power points are a wonderful tool because you can either go through them with the whole class or you could have students do them independently and that way you could use that time to work with students that maybe need some extra help in anything that they were doing.  The bog I feel would be another useful tool because here students can work on their language art skills while talking about interesting and important concepts with other students.  The wiki spaces are great places for students, parents, administration, and other teachers to get important information that you may have for them and it is readily available on the web and they can grab it when they need it or want it.  There are many different ways that I could use technology in my classroom and besides talking about Ipads, Ipods, computers, etc. there are many different programs that I and my students and their families can use.

Insights in Technology

     During my time in this class I am gaining a lot of insights in my technology class.  There are many things that we are doing that I have never done before and never thought I could do before.  One of those things is making a brochure,  I know you may be saying that everyone knows how to make a brochure, but I never knew the different design techniques to use so that it looks more fun, interesting, and professional.  The brochure that I made, I am hoping, can actually be used in the institution that I made it for. 

     The other insight that I have gained is the interactive power points.  I feel that these are very beneficial to students and their learning and also for my self as a teacher.  With interactive power points you can actually use that with your teaching in the sense that you can do the power points as a large group, small groups, and individual.  Interactive power points also make it possible for differential learning because it is another outlet for students to use to learn and because this way you can students going through the power point on the subject area that you are working on while you are working with another group of students that might not be at the stage where they can use the power points.  I also like the interactive power points because it actually engages students in learning because they have to interact with the lesson and that it is just not all reading from the teacher and going from slide to slide.

     Another insight of the technology class is the use of websites.  Particularly the delicious web site where you can bookmark all of the websites that you use on the site and then you can access that anywhere.  I think this is a good tool to have because you don't always do your work at your work computer sometimes you do it at home and when you put a website in there it is easier and quicker to access at work and it is also easier to share with other people.  The other website that I really like is something like Google Docs, Google Mail (or any kind of email where you can share things like the calendar feature).  These are great for a teacher because then you can set an account up for yourself, professionally, and put in all the events that are going on in the school, in your classroom, and in the community that will be beneficial to parents and send that to them so that they can follow their students and be more involved.

      There are many new insights that I have learned while in my technology class and these are just a few that I wanted to share that I thought were the most beneficial to me and my future career of becoming a teacher.

Thoughts on Technology

So I have to discuss the current thoughts on technology's role in the classroom and discuss the level of my technological expertise. 

Technology's role in today's classroom is very prominent and important.  In today's society technology is everywhere and it becomes more prominent each day.  In the classroom it is also increasing.  Some of the technological advances that we have seen in classrooms are the computers are more prominent and that has even switched to laptops through out the years and now that there are I-pads, those are going to be seen more and more.  There are also more smart boards in classrooms replacing the chalk board and the white board.  These are more interactive for students who are growing up in a instant stimulation world.  Before smart boards there were projectors and before that there were overhead projectors that you had to use the copy machine to make the see throw copies and trust me in my day that was the big thing, those overhead projectors.  Technology is becoming more and more prominent in classrooms today and soon technology will be completely integrated in schools and that is all teachers will use to teach.  Though it is an important thing, technology coming into the classrooms it just makes a teacher and even the students rethink what their future is going to be.

     Myself, I don't have a high level of technological expertise.  You could set a computer in front of me and I could tinker around and figure out most of the functions on the computer but it seems that I never really know too much about any one thing.  A lot of my expertise comes through trial and error.  You could compare my technological use to being in a dark room with lots of objects in it,  I don't really know what is there but I can walk my way around and find where everything is and what everything is and can get so good that I wouldn't bump into things anymore.  I think I lack mad skills with technology because I am not the person that has all the new gizmos and gadgets.  You can think of me as old school.  I have a laptop, a generic cell phone,  a palm pilot (when I can find it!), I-pod touch (that's pushing it), and that is really all that I can think of.  Though in school I was able to use more technology.

Mariah