EM+Final+Relfection

Technology is one of the most important things in today’s classrooms. The students that teachers are seeing now, in today’s classrooms, are technologically smart. It is a part of their day to day lives—it is a part of their hour to hour lives. This is important in classrooms now because technology in the work world has advanced, and will continue to advance. Students today must know how to use this technology to succeed in the work force. Not only must students understand and know how to use this ever advancing technology, it interests them. Technology is engrained in their lives. Most high school students can send a text message with their cellular phones while the phone is in their back pocket. I’m sure there are middle and elementary school students that can do the same thing. Cellular phones are only the beginning. There are students in my kindergarten classroom that wake up in the morning and turn on a DVD while eating breakfast. They know how to run complex television systems better than their parents and their teachers. Using this technology, and other forms of technology in the classroom, is what can, and will keep children engaged in the lessons. Technology also gives the opportunity for students to //own// their learning by creating projects—PhotoStories, presentations, podcasts, wikis and blogs. When students own the learning, the lesson learned has a better change of sticking with that particular child for a longer amount of time—maybe even the rest of their lives.

I came into this course knowing quite a bit about technology and the “new” things used in the classrooms of today. I use a SMARTboard every day. I have done presentations on the SMARTtable. I am attached to a microphone each day. My students make PhotoStories. We listen to podcasts. I do not feel that I have done much growing personally in this class. I feel that my personal growth will come in the next school year, when I have students back in my classroom. I also believe that my growth will come this summer, when I take more time to explore the tools and topics introduced in class.

I do admit that technology is something that I have always been interested in. It is amazing what one can do with a simple computer these days. The internet is unbelievable to me. I plan on staying on top of technology advances next year and incorporating them into my kindergarten classroom next year. I would like to find ways and tools to use with the younger students—mine are five and six. There were a lot of things covered in class, but a lot of them seem difficult to use with younger children, like the wikis and blogs. That does not mean that I wouldn’t like to use them in my classroom, because I most definitely would. I just need to, and am looking forward to, using some free time in the summer to explore these tools and become familiar enough with them to teach them to the younger students.