Classroom Technology: Endless Possibilities
Author: k5blog
Many teachers grew up without computers in the classroom. Remember when floppy disks were really big, floppy disks? Today, floppy disks are a thing of the past and computer technology has evolved at light speed so the need to be literate and proficient with computers has only grown more pressing. Classroom technology presents teachers with some challenges, that is true, but also unparalleled opportunities.
Teachers have a difficult job. They must teach using all the educational resources available in their classrooms, schools, and increasingly from the internet. In these years of economic crisis, accessing educational media via the Internet is becoming more and more popular. Using the internet, videos, software, interactive white boards, and other traditional educational resources at their disposal is part of creating authentic learning environments. By using these tools effectively, teachers engage their students and eager learners remember more and test better. How can you integrate these resources into your everyday classroom? By step-by-step—you can’t learn it all at once—training on new equipment and applications and trying out and implementing techniques that work for you.
For the Teacher
- Take any professional development or product training on new equipment and systems available to you. The extra weekend of classes can make up hours in your lesson development and assessment. Many districts that adopt educational technology systems have free training and consulting through the companies that provided the systems. They also have online tutorials at their website or youtube that may resolve issues you had or may provide lesson ideas.
- Look for internet articles that discuss various ways to use educational media resources (i.e. educational videos, white boards, multi media) for researched-based techniques for improving lessons by using the resources effectively.
- Use online grading programs. This makes doing quarterly grades a snap, and a bonus is many programs allow students and their parents to access their own grades.
- Use the internet to research lessons and educational resources. There are many reliable sites that teachers use to talk about successes (and failures!) of lessons. Remember, many companies are committed to providing appropriate content and grade level media resources, so don’t forget to look at the professional sites.
- Communicate with parents via email or your own class website. Parents have wildly varying schedules, and this may be the best way to communicate with the most people. This also allows you to show what is happening in your classroom efficiently and timely. Most school Instructional Technology departments can help you set up a class website.
- Use programs to detect plagiarism. Use best practices for explaining to your students how to use content ethically and teach them appropriate techniques for documenting content from the internet.
For the Class
- Use school videos to supplement lessons and to engage students in learning. You can use DVDs, VHS or stream video clips online. You can bookmark educational sites and even watch historical evens unfold live, such as the inauguration of the President through various public websites.
- Use PowerPoint – either teacher or student created – to highlight the main points of a lesson or unit. Interactive whiteboard flipcharts are also a new application for creating lesson presentations.
- Use the internet to talk about reliable and unreliable sources of information.
- Internet Research: do webquests, which teach the students techniques for sifting through mountains of information to get appropriate and truthful information they need.
- Check the top news each day for current events, or use different sites to talk about critical thinking skills for evaluating information.
- Use a free blog and have a group of students update it daily or weekly with what has been going on in class. This way, parents and family can check in too. You can also find “pen-pal” blog classes to communicate with across the country and around the world.
- Use your imagination!
There is an endless array of uses for classroom technology and methods to incorporate it. You don’t have to create a website with video feeds your first day. Start with an educational video or a lesson on doing online searches. From there, the options open up infinitely.
