I would be lying if I said that I loved technology. It is true that technology has it's benefits and it has provided me with many avenues for success professionally and personally. I would classify my relationship with technology as a love-hate relationship. While I see the many benefits, technology can be frustrating at times. I consider myself to be proficient with technology but there is always room for improvement. Many teachers probably feel the same or feel that technology is not worth the hassle. This could be why so many of our classrooms are lacking technology. Sometimes students know more about technology than teachers do. While that at first seems strange I think it's important to note that this is generation that is rising up. Our students are 21st century learners and we are expected to become 21st century teachers. In order to meet the needs of these kids, we have to be able to provide different avenues for assignments and lessons. Technology can engage and support our students in ways that are beyond our realm of teaching.
Throughout this course I have learned many different ways that technology can be incorporated in the classroom. I have learned that a classroom website can be beneficial for students, teachers, and parents to follow. In addition I have learned how to incorporate edomodo, skype, animoto, voicethread, digital story, blogs, and webquests into the curriculum. I believe that utilizing the various technology pathways can support my ESL students tremendously in their English proficiency and academic growth.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Digital Divide
The digital divide project was very eye opening as Megan and I associated this divide to the support that our population of students deeply needs. By researching digital divide, Megan and I quickly saw the faces of our students, many of whom are in the low income category. How can we make technology more accessible for these kids? The digital divide is an ethical issue that needs to be addressed (NETS Standard for Teacher Social, ethical, legal, and human issues). There needs to be a greater emphasis for meeting the needs of low income students and making it a priority to provide professional development for teachers.
We communicated via skype and created an animoto for this presentation. I enjoyed the animoto for graduate work but also for potential classroom use. The animoto is very user friendly and can be interpreted similarly to voicethread, which I use on a monthly basis with my students.
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