Reflect on the activities you have done so far in class. How has your view of technology integration changed? What do you think will be the greatest challenges you will face integrating technology into your classroom. How do you think you will overcome these challenges? What has been the value in completing the course tasks? How do you see yourself using one of the tools in your classroom in the future?
My view of integration of technology has not changed drastically as a result of this class, but this class has certainly enlightened me as to the potential benefits of using technology as a tool in my future classrooms. I think that my greatest challenge that I will face when integrating technology into my classroom will be finding new and fun ways to maintain the focus of students on the content behind every lesson, and not just to see the technology they use as a toy rather than a tool. I will attempt to overcome this challenge by laying down firm ground rules at the beginning of each and every school year regarding the proper procedures for using technology within the classroom, as well as finding programs that foster both engagement and interest in the content being taught. I think all of the course assignments have been valuable to me in learning more about the various tools that will be potentially useful in a future classroom setting. I see myself integrating technology in many ways with many of the tools that we have discussed in this class.
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What is Assistive Technology? How could AT help a student in your class with a learning disability? What tool/device might you choose? What will the student use the device to do? Not all students need AT. How will you handle the “That’s Not FAIR!” argument in your classroom?
Assistive Technology can really be anything. Any sort of mechanism that enhances the learning experience for a learner that needs more help can be categorized as a form of Assistive Technology. If the class has to read a certain amount of a story by a certain amount of time, but Timmy requires a little more help sounding out the words to comprehend them, possibly I would have the story up on his iPad and have a program in place that allows him to click on words he needs help with, and the words will be sounded out over his headphones. This is an example of Assistive Technology, but it would not necessarily be obvious to the rest of the class that Timmy is getting any extra help when they are all reading along on their iPads, just sans the headphones. When there are some students that do not need Assistive Technology, the issue arises among them that they feel like Timmy is getting more attention from the teacher, while they are not, which in turn leads to children making the students that require extra help feel like they are dumber or slower, which is of course not the environment that we want for our students. The students who may need Assistive Technology should never feel alienated or lesser in any way because they need a little more help, but unfortunately children can be really mean, and the easiest way to avoid alienation of either child is to make sure that every student is aware of the fact that not everyone brings the same strengths to the playing field, and that they should be grateful that someone is willing to give their classmates the help that they need to stay on the same level as everyone else. Knowledge that all students should be equally respected regardless of the things that they might have or lack, is the fundamental rule that I will be bringing to my classroom in the future. How much have you used blogs and/or wikis in your personal life prior to this class? Give an example of how you would use a blog or wiki in your classroom. What other technology tools do you think can help promote writing across the curriculum? How do you think you might use one of these tools?
Previously, I was the editor-in-chief for my high school's newspaper, The JagWire. This included managing the weebly site where other students were expected to post weekly articles based on national and local news, along with things that were specific to our school, like when the football team played next and when prom would be. This gives me a decent amount of experience working with online websites, both building and managing sites. Because of this, I like to think that I will bring a better perspective into the classroom regarding using things like weebly or other blogs in the classroom. In my own classroom, I think it would be beneficial to use something like edmodo or google classroom to ensure direct contact with both parents and students and to send out reminders about things like upcoming assessments and online homework assignments. This would help in making sure that students are reminded of assignments that are necessary and making sure that they don’t let the due dates slip their minds by reminding the parents directly and circumventing the whole “I forgot” and the “teacher never told us when it’s due” and make sure there is little or no room for miscommunications. The easiest way to bring blogs and other things like weebly into the classroom is to have students have designated assignments online, like a weekly blog recounting the things they learned in class and maybe micro assessments that require more than memorization and then regurgitation of facts. Your first blog post assignment is to describe your view of technology integration in the classroom. Make sure you include your own thoughts and include examples of technology integration you have seen or participated in.
When I was in high school, there were laptop carts that a teacher could reserve for the day to work on laptops within the classroom, but it was not often. This, combined with the fact that students were not allowed to bring their own personal computers to class, led to me taking more and more online dual-enrollment courses through a local community college in order to spend more time in a computer lab. These classes were a blessing in disguise, and allowed me ample time to relax or work on assignments online in between my AP Lit class and my other obligations senior year. The lack of technological interdependence led to a large amount of paper assignments, as teachers could not guarantee that students had access to the internet at home. This, obviously, could not be nearly as healthy for the environment as electronic assignments are, with their lack of wasteful printing. In stark contrast, where it is financially feasible, many modern schools have become very tech-heavy in their teaching styles. When I was doing my field experience at Liberty County Elementary School, I was in a fourth-grade science classroom that had one-to-one iPads for each student. This could potentially pose a distraction should the teacher lose control of the students' attention, but with a well-acclimated teacher, they can be a tool rather than a hindrance. The apps within the iPads were used to do things like refresh and assess students' knowledge in their multiplication tables, or to collaboratively quiz the class with a fun trivia game about the pilgrims. These activities were engaging and entertaining for the students, while maintaining the content necessary to keep the children on track. The generation of students that are in grade school now are more tech-savvy than their educators can hope to catch up with, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing when you think of the way that the world is headed. |
AuthorMy name is Skye Morris, I am a sophomore at Georgia Southern University's Liberty Campus. This is my third major-specific class, and I am very excited to be here! Categories |