Technology in the Classroom...Good?

I learned a decent amount about technology in this course. Before this course I only knew very basic things about technology. There are things I learned that will most definitely be beneficial for my future classroom. I had no idea what a wiki was before GNA's class and I am glad I got to learn more about it in this class because I think it is something I would use as an agenda/resource/discussion space for my students. As a high school student, I do not remember having too much technology involved in my classrooms but in today's world I believe it is necessary to implement technology of all kinds in the classroom because technology is moving fast and I feel like my students may even know more about it than I do because it is a huge part of their generation. It is vital to move with the times.

The only thing I probably would not use is the Voki. I might use it myself for my wiki but I don't know how I would get my students to use it. I did not see this as an instructional tool but you never know how it could be incorporated and it was fun to create if anything. I do feel more comfortable moving forward with technology and hope to learn even more. I appreciated learning the different technologies available for  students with disabilities. This answered quite a few of my questions.

Overall, I thought the class was really fun. It was both educational and a good time. I had a great time working with my group on the video and editing it as well...and I had a really interesting time creating the different projects like the SMARTboard activity and learning about the different technologies available in and for the classroom.

Exploring Google Reader

Google Reader is pretty awesome. It is so convenient to have all of my colleagues blogs in one place. It just makes my life that much easier. As I scrolled through their blog posts, I noticed how many resources can be used by each content. There were so many different resources used. Also, I really enjoyed reading about what everyone thinks is a "good teacher". That was probably my favorite part of people's blogs...and Google Reader makes it that much more great because of the accessibility and ease of use. The most common use of technology throughout the blogs seemed to be the use of the wiki along with other interesting uses of technology within the classroom. The post that stood out to me most was Megan's post about Literacy in the Classroom. I really liked her idea about using Scribd in her classroom. She says "In fact, it looks as if I could make my classroom almost entirely paperless, should I work at a school in which each student had access to computers both at home and in school (e.g., laptops, desktops in the classroom for all students). I believe this format for submitting homework, presentations, and projects would be ideal for an English Literature classroom. Using a website like this for submissions would allow others beside myself to view the work of my students, such as parents, administrators, and maybe even the people making the standards I am supposed to teach by" (Megan, Literacy in the Classroom). As an English teacher, I think this is a great idea. There is so much paper involved in all the content areas but I really think it would be beneficial to have a paperless or at least a reduced paper environment. Great idea Megan =)