When I plan my lessons and activities in my classroom I try to
remember what it was like to be a student. When I think back to
school, I remember a lot of sitting, listening, and taking notes. The
classes that only included these aspects were always the hardest for
me because I found myself not interested in the topic and counting
the minutes until I was able to leave. On the other hand, the classes
that I remember being excited about were the ones that involved hands
on learning and getting to work with others. These are the classes
that seemed to fly by and the ones that I would remember the material
from. I feel in today's classroom technology is the key to making my
classroom that exciting room that students do not dread coming to.
Incorporating technology gives me a chance to give students
meaningful experiences and gets them involved in their learning.
Technology allows teachers to easily differentiate instruction based
on student needs and make the classroom a dynamic learning
environment (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007).
The technology I decided to use in this lesson is search engines,
MindMeister, and VoiceThread. I selected these tools because they
will help my students be organized and collaborate with each other.
Search engines are a major tool that students need to know how to use
in life. Endless amounts of information are available to us by just
doing a simple search. I feel that it is important to teach students
that just because the computer says it does not mean the information
is valid. Students need to know how to pick trustworthy sites and be
safe. Concept maps allow students to organize and visualize distinct
characteristics and see the connections (Laureate Education, 2010).
In 6th grade organization is one of our biggest battles. If students
take notes, they struggle to find information and make connections
between other information. Concept maps allow students to organize
data in a visual manner. They are able to quickly look at the map and
recall information. I feel that concept maps are going to be a great
tool for my students and will be used in many different projects and
lessons. The last piece of technology I decided to use is
VoiceThread. This was my favorite tool we learned about during this
class. This is the easiest podcasting tool I have ever used and
offers students the ability to present their ideas. My favorite part
is that after they make the podcast other students can go in and
leave comments or ideas for the presenter. Collaboration is going to
be a key element in my classroom this year, and this is an amazing
tool for this process.
My lesson answers crucial questions students have in any subject
area. It answers the question why are we learning this. The lesson
gives an example a real-world display of data and an example of a job
that involves data keeping and math. Students are involved in
researching and finding credible information. In the real-world,
people are constantly using the internet to investigate and learn new
information. It is important for students to learn at an early age
that not everything online is true.
The lesson also involves students in multiple forms of learning
styles. The lesson contains two major learning styles, auditory and
visual (Lever-Duffy, McDonald, 2008). Putting different forms of
technology into my lesson helped reach numerous students. The
students that learn by listening had many opportunities to listen to
fellow students and myself and then discuss their feelings. Students
that learn visually were able to watch a podcast showing the proper
research methods and create a visual to organize their data. In my
experience technology always gets the students more engaged in
lessons and makes them meaningful. Every time we teach students how
to use technology we are teaching them life skills they may use in
the real-world. Students come into my room with diverse learning
needs. Technology gives me the ability to quickly differentiate to
each individual students needs. With technology, I can present my
lessons in many different formats. I can create podcasts that explain
lessons both auditory and visually. If a student needs extra
practice, I can put them on a practice website that gives them
immediate feedback. Technology gives students the ability to
collaborate with each other and even myself in the classroom and
outside of the classroom. If a student has a question while working
on homework at home, they can get on the classroom blog and talk with
each other or send me a message. Technology brings the communication
level between students and student to the teacher to an all new
level. My classroom also has a high ENL population and technology
allows me to connect the lessons to their native language. Using
search engines, I have been able to find videos and other class
material in their native language and then connect it to what we are
doing in the classroom.
Technology can transform teaching and learning. If used correctly,
technology can move you from a good teacher to a great teacher and
give you the positive influence on student learning you have always
hoped for (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007). This statement
sums up the integration of technology perfectly. If technology is
used in the classroom and used in meaningful ways, students will
reach levels they never thought were possible. They will leave our
classrooms with real-world knowledge and ready to be a productive
citizen.
References
Laureate
Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Cognitive Learning Theories
[Video Webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com
Lever-Duffy
J. and McDonald J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations. Boston, MA. Allyn
and Bacon
Pitler
H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using
technology with classroom
instruction
that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Schacter
J. and Fagano C. (1999). Does computer
technology improve student learning and achievement? Journal
of Educational Computing Reasearch, 20 (4), 329-343
