Using technology to improve your instructional practices can liven up certain aspects of your lesson plan in order to keep the children engaged. If you we're conducting a social studies lesson plan and going over a continent, you can bring up the continent online and bring up examples of what you are speaking about. I can also have the children participate in a cross school program and have children Skype from children around the world. The book also references the amount of disengagement with high school students and the work they do. If they found the work they do in the classroom as relevant, then they will be more willing to spend more time on their assignments outside of class and bring in richer material.
The students could also work collaboratively more easier online. They have more flexibility in addition to the time they would work in the class as well. The book brings to our attention as well that incorporating technology in the class room also addresses the NYSTE and Common Core standards. With more and more schools partnering up with Dell and Apple, we are going to have to start to get used to using smart boards and tablets in the class room. We have to use these to out benefit.
The students can also submit their assignments online as well and this can reduce the amount of paperwork you and they have to handle. The different avenues technology offers also can vary the kind of ways the students present their material as well. We shouldn't ignore or go against the addition of technology in the classroom.
I really appreciate how you mention students finding the curriculum "relevant." Students now know that technology is going to be important to their future careers and lives. For this reason we should teach students using these skills. Students are interested in technology so why not gear our lessons in that direction knowing we will keep them interested? great points
ReplyDeleteI agree that we cannot ignore the emerging technologies influencing how we work, communicate, etc. because they will undoubtedly offer many benefits for helping us improve instruction through differentiation which appeals to the various learning styles of all students. As you stated, one of the greatest assets is being able to engage students utilizing a multi-sensory approach such as showing students examples of continents. Utilizing websites such as Discovery Online, History Channel and National Geographic, with their detailed, interactive maps, is a far superior teaching technique than having to fight with the old pull down maps which, once you've managed to keep them from rolling up, are still too small for most students to see. The online maps have the added benefit of zooming in and out so everyone enjoys a more thorough experience. This is great because many social studies teachers have neglected geography instruction given the difficulties in providing effective, appropriate and engaging lessons. Now, we can re-introduce the topic into our lessons with the addition of this technology.
ReplyDeleteI think one thing we forget a lot is that one way that technology influences us every day as teachers is that many schools use different programs online to keep track of attendance and grades. The grade book has become obsolete. Even supervisors often prefer for you to email them a collection of your lesson plans instead of handing over a grade book at the end of each week. You cannot afford to fall behind because the parents have access to these programs as well. It is a very interesting thing. The parents teachers and students have the chance to be in contact at all times, as if they had each other's phone numbers and can text at any time of day.
ReplyDeleteLet me just say, I love some of the examples you brought up about ways to integrate technology into the classroom. I especially like the idea of Skyping with children from around the world- it's a bit similar to my idea of Skyping with experts, but I think it in many ways improves on the idea by connecting children with children. Ultimately, this is the goal of a technologically globalized classroom- to remove social barriers. Possibly the best way of doing that is to directly connect children with other children from around the world.
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