Technology and its implications are seen everywhere and this is for both adults and children alike. With todays students the most plugged-in generation to ever walk the earth, the value of technology is often taken for granted. (Waiting Room, 2011) Todays students are using technology more than just for educational uses, they are using it as a form of communication and entertainment in their daily lives. With technology playing such a vital role in the lives of both adults and children, schools need to find ways to prepare students to become digital citizens within society. How can we achieve this job today? As educators, we need to give them the skills, knowledge and teach them how to use technology as a tool, not just for entertainment where they are unable to imagine a world without it.( Waiting Room, 2011) As educators, this is a great opportunity to educate both adults and children on the options technology can give them. I am a 5th grade teacher at a small school in Nebraska. I currently have 16 students in my classroom that all have a MacBook computer. Being 1:1, we are able to use technology on a daily basis within all subject areas but I understand how important it is to teach the kids that technology is a great tool that can benefit them academically not just for personal entertainment. Within my classroom, I try to challenge the students to be creative in a higher order method when it comes to using technology in the classroom. One way that I incorporate the use of technology is through assessments in my
classroom. I use various assessment tools, for example Schoology or Kahoot on
a daily basis to gage what my students are learning. Not only am I using technology as an assessment piece, but I also use it to allow the students to be creative in the classroom by making iMovies, PowerPoint presentations, recording their voices while they are reading a passage and even creating and posting articles to our classroom blog. The use of technology is endless when it comes to incorporating education. Integrations of technology in schools has changed todays education and also the way teachers and students use their classroom. (Sahakov, 2014) Todays education has changed immensely with one major change being the pressure to do well on the State Standardize Test. Today, the State Standards are raising the bar on how we as educators are teaching our students. Lindsay Daugherty stated in Early Education Plays Role in Bridging the Digital Divide, As soon as 2015, most states will move to computer-based standardized testing. If we do not educate our children on how to use technology effectively, will the children do as well as they can on the test? Our children need to have the tools and knowledge of what is being placed in front of them before we expect them succeed on the test. Check 4 Learning, C4L, is another tool that I use in my classroom to help my students become familiar with the online test that they take in the spring. Not only are my students familiar with the lay out of the test, but they are also using the tools and tutorials to help them answer questions in Reading, Math and Science.
Using technology allows educators to refine teaching strategies and
learning processes, and to be more inclusive of all types of learning styles. (Hollenbeck, 2009) Technology is a great tool that allows me as a teacher to reach out and help all my students no matter their background or academic level. I am able to take each of my students learning styles and incorporate the use of technology to help benefit them. Cooperative learning and communication by the users is one great way that I can use technology to address the diverse group of learners in my classroom through the use of PowerPoint, Google Doc, iMovie, the choices are endless but all of these tools of technology would increase the cooperation and communication of my students, which to me is an important asset to my classroom environment. Through technology that is offered in my classroom, I would like to have my students in Social Studies to discover the differences between the cultures around the world by using the World Wide Web. By seeing the differences and similarities of other cultures, I am hoping that it would create views that bring new ideas and practices to my students. To display their findings, I would like the use the idea of semantic webbing ( Saravia-Shore, 1992) by allowing the kids to make a web, Prezi would be an online tool that is very easy for older elementary students to use, of what they attained from articles, stories or movies that they researched from other cultures. This would allow us to have a visual to display and share what was learned. This use of technology will create an environment that fosters student learning and self-esteem, but empowers educators to go beyond their traditional boundaries. (Hollenbeck, 2009) Students and adults can
now use technology and its implications to become contributors to todays
culture.
References: Hollenbeck, James. (2009). Using Technology to Bridge the Cultures Together in the Multicultural Classroom. Retrieved January 19, 2015 from https://drive.google.com/folderview? id=0B0furo7_ulDCMGFZZ2hPblBvUXc&usp=sharing Sahakov, Roman. (2014, January 15). 2 Pros And 2 Cons To Education Technology. Retrieved January 26, 2015 from https://drive.google.com/folderview? id=0B0furo7_ulDCbm5vWnY4TjZqVzA&usp=sharing Waiting Room. (2011, June 30). Teaching with a No-Technology Day. Retrieved January 26, 2015 from https://drive.google.com/folderview? id=0B0furo7_ulDCbm5vWnY4TjZqVzA&usp=sharing Daugherty, Lindsay. (n.d.) Early Education Plays Role in Bridging the Digital Divide. Retrieved January 19, 2015 from https://drive.google.com/folderview? id=0B0furo7_ulDCMGFZZ2hPblBvUXc&usp=sharing Saravia-Shore, Marietta. (n.d.) Chapter 2. Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners. Retrieved January 19, 2015 from https://drive.google.com/folderview? id=0B0furo7_ulDCMGFZZ2hPblBvUXc&usp=sharing
