ss+final+reflection

Type in the content of your page here. ** Final Reflection ** Technology should play a pivotal role in today’s classroom. Technology offers unlimited learning resources and opportunities, and allows students to receive immediate information and feedback from their teachers, as well as immediate connection around the world. Technology allows for collaboration among students, as well as other learning professionals. With this said, a teacher’s first priority must be the safety of their students. Great care must be taken to protect students from inappropriate sites on the internet, as well as protecting the privacy of the student. Students need to understand ethics as it relates to technology use, what is appropriate, and what needs to be avoided in terms of copyright infringement, plagiarism, and safety. In the article “Turning on the Lights”, author Marc Prensky feels that students should be given the opportunity to use technology in school. It is interesting to consider that children today have the ability to connect to almost every part of the world in real time. However, when they enter into school, our students are required to power down. To help to keep students interested in school, students should be encouraged to use technology in the classroom. There are many ways that technology can be used in the classroom. Students should be encouraged to use web 2.0 to not only receive information, but to create information on the internet. Educators also need to use technology to be able to share their expertise online, so that it can be received immediately by anyone who would find it useful. The class wiki pages have incredible potential in the classroom. They promote online and offline collaboration for sharing ideas and resources. The article “Wikis, Digital Literacies, and Professional Growth”, discussed how the New Literacies Wiki is being utilized, as well as the far reaching opportunities that it brings. This hands on learning has the potential to hold the interest of many of our students. The classroom clickers that we had the opportunity to try the first night of class really interested me. The article “Classroom Clickers Make the Grade” discusses the benefits of using clickers in the classroom. The benefits are to both students and teachers. The article describes the immediate feedback that clickers provide “Software logs the students’ answers, enabling the teacher to determine if students understand the topic as the topic is being discussed” (Associated Press, 2005). This immediate feedback would be an invaluable resource to both the teacher, as well as the student, to make sure that all of their students have an understanding of a lesson, before they move on to the next topic. I have experienced personal growth in this course. I have gained a great deal of confidence in my abilities to use technology, and plan to continue to explore the opportunities that technology will bring to both me and to my students. I plan to continue to use the skills that I have learned in this class. I look forward to exploring many other educational resources which are available through technology. I will explore ways to most effective utilize technology in the classroom. I plan to continue to develop my e-folio, which is an amazing resource I will use to present my portfolio in a very professional way. On the class visit to Cityview, we had several opportunities to try different classroom technologies. As we were working with, Skype, I could not help but consider the opportunities that this technology could bring to the classroom. From tutoring a student who is unable to make it to class, to using this technology for parent conferences, this technology has countless possibilities. What excites me about what I have learned in this course? Everything. I have gained a tremendous amount of new skills and information in this class. I see limitless opportunities that technology can bring to a classroom. I do not think that technology in the classroom should be limited, as long as student safety and confidentially is the number one goal. I am excited to share the information I have gained through this class with my colleagues. I am also excited to collaborate with my peers, to increase the educational opportunities for all of my future students.
 * Technology in the Classroom ** ** Sandra Solheim **