The Role of Technology in a Classroom

Technology is all around us, without it the world would be a much different place. Every thing in our lives is in some way connected to or touched by technology. If I ask the questions; How was it made, how did I get it, what is it made from, and how is it used? I can’t think of anything that is not somehow connected to technology. The thing about technology is that it is constantly changing, advancing, and becoming more and more a part of our lives. So the question is, how do we prepare for a technologically advanced future?

As a teacher it is my desire to incorporate technology as a teaching resource so that students can become familiar with the tools, learn skills they will need for their role they will play in the future, promote responsibility, and most importantly to inspire student learning and creativity. I feel it is important to model and promote digital learning by using digital tools to assist with teaching and assessing lessons that I teach. I plan on doing this by integrating spreadsheets that help students and myself to keep track of their progress and grades, using computers to help bring in videos, Web-Quests, PowerPoint presentations and, podcast's to bring lessons alive, and using a class blog to keep parents and students up to date on what is going on in the classroom. I envision creating online games, survey’s, and using online quizzes as a resource to help assess students learning in a fun and inventive way.

For students to learn the skills they need for a digital era, they need the opportunity to use the technology. I will be integrating the use of computers; digital cameras, smart boards, iPads, cell phones and any thing else that might be created technologically that can enhance students learning and creativity in the classroom. My desire is to have students manipulate the digital tools to conduct and analyze research, collaborate with others to present presentations, correspond with other students in the community, and promote student’s creativity by having students come up with solutions to real issues.

By giving students opportunities to manipulate and use technology I am promoting personal growth through learning. My vision is for my students to walk away from my class with a good foundation of knowledge and skills on technology that they can build on and use for a lifetime. I feel using technology as a teaching tool enriches students lives and helps prepare them for the future to become a flourishing member of a technological society. Here are a few videos that I feel shows the realism of how technology effects and enriches the lives of students and as a teacher how I would teach students for a digital era.

Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is a social software web-page that was generated in class with a group four students. As a group of future teachers we decided that Zoho Projects is a tool we could use in being creative in delivering lesson plans. Using different social software, gives students access to different ways in which students can be creative in completing their projects. Zoho Projects is just one of many social software tools that gives students and teachers a way to participate in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others. For me as a teacher, I would have students work as a group to complete a presentation on any science lesson using Zoho projects.

I would have students use Zoho because Zoho allows students to work on the presentation simultaneously from different locations and the presentation is stored so students and teacher always have access to it. Zoho allows me to put the due dates of projects on the calendar so that students always know when the project is due. With using the time tracker application students and teachers can track how much time students spend on projects. When Students and teachers use the chat application they can converse with each other and save their conversations to look at a later time. Because everyone has access to past chats, no one can say they didn't get the information or that they can't remember what was said because chats are stored. Zoho is a great social software for students and teachers in and out of the classroom.

Annotated Video Play List on the States of Matter

Here is a play list of videos I compiled for my science lesson on Solids, liquids, and Gasses. These videos help explain and define what solids, liquids, and gasses are through examples, songs, and experiments. Hopefully these videos give students more insight to better help them understand the science lesson. These videos give students a new way of learning science that will hopefully leave a lasting impression on them.