Thoughtful+Analysis

= Thoughtful Analysis =

Technology can be a wonderful aspect of teaching in an elementary school classroom. In my opinion, it is a great way to hook students into a love of learning. Many students in today's world use technology various times throughout the day, so it only makes sense to incorporate technology into their learning. Many professions require professionals to be proficient in technological resources, and there is no better time to begin learning and using the technology then in elementary school.

Personally, I have become very comfortable and content with using technology in my daily life and in my own education. I am very proficient in many resources that use technology. But a weakness of my own is that I do not always trust technology and some times I am worried to only use technology as a source of writing a paper or a long assignment, I usually feel better if I have a hard copy of the assignment as well. Also, I need to continue to work on being patient with new learners of technology because it is so easy to jump right in and want to do the work for them because it would be so much quicker. But as a teacher, working with any student on an assignment, patience is needed and the student must be allowed time to work on his or her own and make his or her own mistakes in order to really learn.

In my future classroom I would love to foster the strengths I have for technology and use different resources. I found the tools for data analysis interesting and beneficial to be used in a classroom. It is a great way for students to voice their own opinions by voting in a poll or taking a survey. I think that the game show clickers for CPS is a great way to keep students entertained through learning. I realize that this would not work on a daily basis, but it is a great way to have students enjoy learning from time to time. It is also very helpful that the teacher can print off the answers and see which clicker had correct or incorrect answers, which would then correspond to a particular student. I also think podcasting would be a great resource to use in a classroom. A podcast is better, in my opinion, then having a student listen to a book on tape, that comes with a textbook because I can add a pre-reading activity and a post-reading activity. I also like that students will be listening to my voice, because they would already be familar with my voice while reading.

I would love to have my students each create a blog throughout the year. I feel this would be a great way to create an online portofilo for students to monitor and view their own progress. Students will be able to compare their writing from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and see how they have grown as a writer. I also feel that blogs are a great way to have a pen-pal from another country. Learning from a text book can be boring at times, and learning about another country may not interest a student very much. But being able to have conversations back and forth with a student from another country, would really fascinate many students.

As with any work that I have my students complete in my future classroom, I will have to monitor the use of technology, especially if I were teaching younger grades. I would be sure to view all work before it was posted publicly online for safety reasons. I would also be certain that my students understood the need to use proper grammar when typing with technology. I would stress that the use of technology does not allow a student to write using abbreivations or common short cuts.

Technology is really growing and expanding every day. I never thought that students would be using ipod touches in a classroom when the first ipod came out years ago, and now this is a very common practice. I can see technology being used in every classroom within a few years, (5-7 years), where as not every classroom involves technology in schools today. I think technology will continue to grow and become more competitive which will drive the cost of the devices and resources down, helping more school districts afford it. I think eventually (25-30 years) students will not be required to spend so much time learning to read and write. I feel this way because there is so much assistive technology being used now for students with reading disabilities, and a computer can read any writing to the student. It is only a matter of time before this technology replaces typical skills taught; writing, coloring, cutting, etc. I do not think that technology should replace these skills as of yet in the classroom. In thirty years, if technology is all that is used, than I would re-think my opinion, but today, I believe basic skills must be mastered in an elementary class before incorporating technology.