Week 2- EDT6010 – Integrating Technology in the Classroom

Week 2- Discussion

Using one of the examples provided in the reading, explain how you will change your practice (teaching and learning) to integrate technology into your instruction. Your peers can provide feedback and recommendations on your practices.

I feel privileged to have a smart board, 2 desktop computers, and access to 5 iPads and 5 iPods each and every day. Although I use these for a number of activities, reading the articles this week I found a few new ways I hope to use them. I interned at a school that had a student response system that looked very similar to remote controls. I loved that idea of asking questions and students being able to respond without being put on the spot. My goal is to look in to the current technology I have access to and see if there is an app I could use to link with my teacher issued iPad. Having a student who is non-verbal, I think this would be a great way for the student to participate in different activities. We have adapted to a handful already, however, with poor fine motor skills I cannot always rely on the student to write or draw his answers. Having some type of system that could possibly be more in the moment would benefit my students.

Another article discussed digital books and how one day we will actually be able to write notes or comments with in the digital text. This would/could then be shared with others who have read the book or are currently reading it. My understanding was that this would allow people around the world discuss a number of different topics on any particular book. I think this would be great for students! Our school had the opportunity last year to have “One School, One Book”. The same book, Humphrey, was given to each student and staff member. The book was to be read at home but some teachers tried to include it in their daily routine. I was one of those teachers, knowing my little guys would probably not read it at home or have anyone to read it to them. Each Friday questions were asked based on the scheduled chapters. When the books were distributed, an outline was given to follow so we could all read it together. It was very interesting to see 5^th graders talking to 1^st graders about what was happening in the story. So when reading the article about collaboration happening digitally this experience came to mind. How great it would be to do this as a school. Post questions and comments in digital form to collaborate. To take it to the next step students could collaborate between schools also. So, my goal here is to keep up to date on technology so when this becomes available I can discuss it with my school as well as include it in my classroom. Until then, I think we could find different ways to post using other programs for now.