Reflective thoughts

I have really enjoyed the last eight weeks while taking an online class on the implications of technology in our world today. Before taking this class, integrating technology in my classroom would bring to mind using a power point presentation or showing a video. Throughout this course, I have learned how to use blogs, wikis, and podcasts to enhance education. I had no prior experience to blogging, setting up a wiki page, or how to record on a podcast. For one of our assignments, I recorded some of my students and got to see first had how excited they were to use the technology of creating a podcast. Students in this day and age love technology because it is such a huge part of their lives.

I hope to find ways to incorporate the different technologies I have learned about in this class into my own classroom. When students take more control of their learning and use the resources available to them, they can take more ownership of their work. If I can stay up to date on new ways to integrate technology in the classroom, my students will benefit from the skills they will acquire as a result of using that technology.

I have two long-term goals for my classroom. First of all, I would love to use blogs or even wiki pages to encourage students to research and then discuss their research regarding history. If students can find some aspect of history to research and then connect it with other areas of history, real learning and understanding will take place. Second, I would love to see groups of students working together with the technology so that all students have a chance to see how their skills can benefit a group. For example, if I implemented podcasts as an assignment, students can use writing and researching skills, acting and producing skills, etc. I can accomplish these goals be creating assignments that will involve these areas of technology and hopefully students will benefit and learn from these types of assignments.

Using technology in the classroom is an exciting goal and one that I take seriously. It is important to help our students of today have a better chance of succeeding in a world that is so driven by technology.

Profiling the Students of Today

For my assignment this week in my online class, I had to create a survey to give to my sixth graders. The survey was to gain an understanding of how much technology they use on a daily basis. I also asked them questions pertaining to technology use in the classroom and for educational purposes. The project was very informative and the students had a good time helping with it. Here is the link for my podcast I created stating my findings from the survey:

http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/3725