Technology+Integration

//Technology Integration!//

//Sarah Walls // //I watched quite a few videos on Edutopia and all of them were pretty intriguing. I feel like a lot of the time we are encouraged to integrate technology in the classroom simply to keep the attention of the students not to actually teach them anything specific. Now that we’ve learned that a lecture setting is ineffective we have this pressure to bring in technology but sometimes it comes without reasoning. After I watched “Connecting High School and Taking Ideas to Jobs and Careers”, I realized that technology is a huge part of the learning process that translates to a higher level of thinking about technology. What I liked most about the video was seeing how excited the students were about what they had learned that day. They would run home and tell their parents all about their classes and what they had learned. It also highlighted one of the girls in middle school who was teaching elementary school students some things as well. This clip proved to be successful in persuading me that technology is hugely important in the classroom and is used for more than mere attention getting and keeping. Also these students will be able to take this instruction and apply them in a career that they choose in the future. It shows that students need to be highly developed and capable of using technology to be successful in the future and with integrated technology they really are getting the tools they need to be contributing and thriving members of society. // //As I’ve mentioned, it has been made clear that integrating technology is a powerful technique in the teaching and although a lot of what I saw applies to science and math skills, I know I can incorporate technology in the English class as well. I know that I can use technology for simple tasks such as opting for a parent portal into the classroom so that they can be involved and also for more comprehensive lessons within the classrooms. I think technology is important for discussion boards, peer editing, composition (blogs etc), and exploring different aspects of certain lessons. Hopefully through this class I will continue to find more and more ways to effectively integrate technology into my future classroom. //