Technology in the classroom

Thinking back about all my experiences with technology in my classrooms shaped the way I feel about integrating technology today. In grade school, technology was used more by the teachers then students due to the limited amount of computers as well as access. When children are given the opportunity to use technological appliences in the classroom, it gives them varitey. I think that variety is not only helpful but also important in getting the students motivated and ready to learn. However, I think there should be a limit as to what students should be doing for example when using a computer. Some children may think computers are the easy way out. To some extent they are. There have been so many times where the computer has helped me increase a grade due to the help that microsoft words provides for my grammar. The problem with that was when it was time to actually handwrite the paper myself, I had a number of grammar mistakes that I most likely did not notice because nobody underlined it for me like the computer does. In high school, technology was introduced a bit differently. It was strictly used for assignments, and introducing new information. Unlike in elementary school, I did not get the opportunity to use the computer for learning games such as phonics, math etc. Though I still think it gave me variety which as I mentioned before definately motivated me.
As I looked back at my first blog, I still feel the same about teachers using technology for lessons in the classroom. I happen to be a visual learner, so when teachers provide powerpoints to my classes, I learn and understand the information more efficiently. Not only had my technology experience made things easier for me, but it has also introduced me to so many new ideas and skills and still help me today. Using technology may at times be the easier way out, but if the students are learning like I did then I feel it is okay.

Red Group: Effect of Attitudes & Experiences

My attitudes about technology and my experiences with it definitely affect the way I think about how, why, and when technology should be used in various classroom settings. My techno-bio and classroom situation posts overlap. In my techno-bio, I mentioned my uneasy relationship with technology. I’m sure my unease stems from relative inexperience beyond the basics of word processing, emailing, and online researching. Overall, I’m a late adopter of almost any new technology (in or out of a classroom), not because I oppose it, but because I’m not easily convinced that I need the next new thing.

In my classroom situation post, an inadequate number of computers in the library affected the successful integration of technology. At my current, overcrowded elementary school, there is no classroom with a 1:1 ratio of computers to students except the computer lab. It is nearly fully booked each day, so it’s hard to get access to it other than your own scheduled Special. In my post, I didn’t use a classroom example from my K-college years. The technologies used now are light years beyond what was available then. That the media have changed doesn’t necessarily make the old ways more effective or less effective; some older technologies have a place in today’s classrooms. From working in K-3 classrooms for the past six years, I’ve seen that students don’t mind the old technologies. While the kids love a chance to use computers, it’s also exciting for them to write on the chalkboard, use markers on dry erase boards, use manipulatives to learn math facts, or get picked to write on a transparency.

From my classroom experience, I’ve also noticed that teachers’ first choice is to use technology they are familiar and comfortable with. With some exceptions, I’ve seen that younger teachers are more likely than older ones to use new technologies. For many teachers I’ve observed, it is easier to use tried and true technology like overhead projectors. However, I think that appropriately integrating new technology can become simpler for any educator, including future media specialists like me, with enough initiative, practice, and planning.

Technology and Me

Technology has been part of my life for a very long time dating back to elementary school. As I got older technologies such as pagers, cell phones, TI 83's, and laptops were introduced. I have always been fond of technology, my favorite toy as a child was my Vtech ( a computer-like toy). I got my first pager at about 13, a cell phone at 14, a computer at 14, and numerous cell phones, Ipods, and laptops later here I am, the tech. freak...

Blue group

I think my experiences in the classroom have really made my beliefs about technology in the classroom what they are today. I also feel that my experiences with technology in every day life are not consistent with what is appropriate use of technology in the classroom. I feel that technology in the classroom needs to be regulated, and also not relied on too heavily. Students should not think that their only reference tool is the internet. I also feel that technology should only be used for educational purposes ie: reference, educational games, etc... However, I do not use technology in this way in my leisure. I mostly use technology for communication, games, and other sources of entertainment. I do use technology for educational purposes frequently, but the bulk of my technological usage hinders toward the entertainment side. I would say my view own technological use is similar from my technological biography in that I only referenced entertainment purposes in my autobiography. I didn't mention any educational references to my own use of technology. In my other post, I said how technology had benefited my own learning in the classroom. When technology can be used to help understand a concept, it should definitely be integrated. My technological biography and my classroom post were completely different in these two regards. On one, I only wrote only about my experiences in the classroom, and on the other, how I use technology as entertainment. I do also believe that techonlogy in the classroom should have some sort of fun aspect to it, but should not be its main purpose.

Blue Group Post Feb. 9, 2009

I think that my attitudes and experiences shape what I think are good and bad uses of technology in the classroom. For example I think that I am at a medium level of technological literacy and I feel that I could integrate different forms of technology into my classroom as a teacher that would be able to help my students visualize and conceptualize information. I think that with my blog on integration of technology I would want to incorporate different technologies that helped me learn and others as I see it helps my students. I feel that it is good to use visual aides that help students see and hear the same material. I would want to incorporate different technologies that would accommodate different learning styles. Students that were more audio visual learners would benefit from sound bites and visual power points. Students that are more hands on learners could be involved with making their own power points and using different technologies themselves in the classroom. I think that email, cell phones, and other communicative devices are considered "bad" technologies and shouldn't be used in the classroom. But I think in some forms they are just fine. For example I think that using cell phones to stay in touch with the teacher or group members is just fine, yet using the cell phone for keeping in touch with friends during the school lesson is inappropriate. I think that email is a great technological tool that can send ideas, questions, and information from student to student, teacher to parent, and student to teacher.
There are a lot of similarities between my latest two blogs. I think that I am familiar with a lot of technologies that are used in the classroom. I know that from my best classroom experience the technologies that were used I have become familiar with and try to use in presentations and in my teachings at internship schools. There are some differences, I know there is one piece of technology that I did not become familiar with which was pod casts.
I do feel that technology can be incorporated into the classroom accordingly and can be beneficial for student learning.
-Kami B.

Blue group-post 1

My opinions about the use of technology in the classroom have been shaped somewhat by my own experiences of it in the classroom. I think that educational videos, access to the internet for research and activities that reinforce learning, and communication devices all have a place either in the classroom or as a resource outside of it. For example, the Bill Nye videos I watched in science really helped to reinforce the concepts I was learning, so I think that anything that helps students visualize what they are learning is appropriate and helpful in the classroom. My experience with using the internet as a source for verifying and researching information helped me to complete assignments, and I think that is a valuable resource to have in the classroom. Communication through e-mail, social networking sites, and cell phones help students and teachers to communicate about projects, homework, etc. This has been extremely necessary, especially in college.
However, I don't think that all technology is apprpriate in the classroom, and this relates to my technobiography. Although I use technology often, I do not think I am an expert at using a computer, a cell phone, a DVD player, etc. I feel that if those things were mandatory, I would not be good enough at using them to efficiently integrate them into the classroom. If I was expected to teach students how to use certain technologies, I don't think I would be able to clearly explain them since I do not understand them myself. I feel like students should not always use computers or calculators when they can get the answer easily enough without them.
My technobiography mentions that I use technology in my everyday life. Because of this, I do believe that technologies which are necessary for use in everyday life are appropriate in school. This includes how to use a computer to type a paper, look up information, find pictures, and send e-mails. However, I don't think it is appropriate to teach students how to use computer programs that will not be used often just for the purpose of integrating technology. That might be a waste of time that could be spent on more valuable instruction.
I think the only connection between my technobiography and my experiences with technology in the classrom is that both of them list technologies that I could use in everyday life either for communication or learning. Therefore, that is what shaped my views about what technology is appropriate to use in the classroom.
-Chrissy C

Classroom Technology

Throughout my education there has always been some kind of technology in the classroom used to help the students learn. One specific example that I can think of comes from when I was in high school. I was a Junior in a world history class and part of our requirement for the class was a research paper. At the beginning, none of the students knew exactly how we were going to do our research or what we were going to write about, good thing the teacher had a plan. The plan was to use the mobile cart of laptops and bring them into the class so we could walk through how to use the research database Ebsco. By allowing everyone to have a lap top, it made it much easier for the teacher to tell us students exactly what we wanted. He could just show us what to do on the laptop hooked up to the projecter, it helped lay the ground work for our papers. Other then the benifits already described the use of the laptops in the classroom placed everyone in the class on the same level, in terms of how we were to complete the assignment. The instruction was clear and that day in class if we had any questions they could be easily answered with a demonstration of how to use the database. Starting our research for our papers this way was definitely very benificial to everyone in the class.