Three technologies effectively used in the classroom.

I plan on teaching Kindergarten Language Arts. The SmartBoard, Google earth and Kidspiration are three ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. The SmartBoard is a useful tool because it requires hands-on activity for the students. It also gives the teacher a chance to observe the children who may have a difficult time understanding the lesson. Google Earth is a specific tool useful for virtual learning. My virtual tour on Google Earth was called Virtual Vacation to five different countries. It took the students to five different and they were required to follow directions when they clicked on the country. Google Earth can be set up individually, as the vacation to five countries is, or it can be set up as a group project, preferably for younger children. Kidspiration is also a hands-on tool in the classroom. It is used to set up group, oral assessments, or it can be used as a guide or learning map.

Learning Games are not always appropriate for teaching a child. Games can be distracting and they can lose their meaning quickly. Learning games should be a privilege for students who as advanced to the next level in the lesson. Games should not be used in the classroom as an actual way to teach students.

Using games, simulations, and virtual reality in the classroom

Yes, I see myself using interactive whiteboard activities, simulations/role playing, & virtual reality/worlds. It helps the children learn effectively in the classroom. If the game, whiteboard activity, ect corresponds to the lesson and it will help the children grasp the area of content it will work in my classroom.

The concept map is one way I would engage my students in their own learning. Using the assessment map as a way to guide the young children to learn whatever the lesson may be is a useful tool to use for the students. Using a game related website, such as starfall.com has a lot of learning games that teaches young students how to read and understand material. Using technology in the classroom can be a very useful tool to the students and the teacher.

Digital Nation

Digital Nation depicts technology as being beneficial to teaching and learning because in society today technology is becoming more and more active in the lives of our students. It is a distraction but incorporating it into teaching and learning will help the students understand the lessons being taught. Seeing the students attendance rate and learning rate go up after technology was enforced in the schools is a really be effect. That goes to show the change in technology has on our younger generations.

            Digital Nation depicts digital technology as detrimental to teaching and learning because students still find ways to go about not paying attention and wandering off onto prohibited sites while the teacher is teaching.

            The teaching with technology clip sums up the positives and negatives of teaching with technology. Today’s society is problem solvers and using technology to embrace those characteristics is the best way to go.

Using Word Processing to Construct Meaning

I chose to work with Kindergarteners because it’s a big responsibility and what I teach my students will follow them all through school. What my students learn in kindergarten will reflect what they are capable of doing years from now. My content area is phonemic awareness, word recognition and fluency standard. Which means my goal is to teach my children how to pronounce words and read fluently. My newsletter corresponds with my standard because it shows the students pictures and they have to recognize the picture and say the word. Being able to pronounce the first letter of the word and putting the rest of the word together helps them read and understand other words. If my student can tell me the sound the letter “A” makes then they can gradually put together Apples and by recognizing the picture they will no “A” goes with Apples. So any word that makes the “A” sound should be easy to determine.

            The newsletter helps the child determine their strengths and weakness. If they teacher sticks to the grade-level indicator and learning objective using word processing to teach the child will be easy for the student and the teacher.

Wikipedia? Good or Bad?

Wikipedia has a neutral perspective in my opinion. It’s both good and bad. Just for entertainment purpose Wikipedia is awesome. When I was in high school as most students know, Wikipedia was the forbidden apple in the web world. It was an unreliable resource. It can also be a guide but not an actual resource. I’ve used Wikipedia as a guide to certain information but never as a resource and I was very successful in my work. In one of my class here at UT, I had an assignment to find answers to questions my professor gave me using Wikipedia. It was a failed task. Then I had to use a website other than Wikipedia and all my answers were found. It’s not a reliable resource when it comes to academic purposes.  As a teacher, I will encourage my students to use Wikipedia ONLY as a guide for any academic work, and not to rely on Wikipedia as core source.