EDCI 505 Post #2

Hello again!!!! I have learned even more about technology since my last post.  I will have to say that I have liked some of our assignments, and I can see me using them in the classroom, but I have not liked some other assignments.  Some of the assignments I did not like because I would personally never use them in the classroom.  That is the neat thing about technology.  Not everyone has to like or use the same types of technologies.  Everyone can use technology in a variety of unique ways.  If teachers use a variety of different technologies, than students will have the opportunity to work with different types of technologies and form their own opinions. 

I had some positive and negative feelings about the graphic organizers that we made.  I like the idea of a graphic organizer, and if gives students a different way to look at, and learn material.  It is also a great way to introduce a topic.  The problems I have with graphic organizers are first they can become extremely confusing when you have a more complex topic.  I want to teach middle school education, and I believe the more complex the topic, the more complex and confusing the graphic organizer becomes.  Also, I personally believe that we hand students graphic organizers ALL the time.  I believe that they simply get old after a while.  I wish there was another way to display this information without using a graphic organizer.  I also had positive and negative feelings about the googledoc assignment.  Once everything is set up, and all the formulas are in place, GoogleDocs is a great resource to use.  On the other hand, I do not believe that GoogleDocs is very user friendly when trying to set up a grade book.  I thought it was very time consuming and frustrating at times, but in the end I guess that is what technology can be like.  These are just some of my thoughts on the past assignments that we have had in EDCI 505!

EDCI 505 post #1

It is hard to believe how far technology has come within the last 10 years.  Not even the last 10 years, but the last 5, 3, and 2 years ago.  Technology is always changing and evolving into something better.  Since I am an educator I understand the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom.  My students are 21^st century learners who NEED technology not only to be successful in school, but to be successful in their futures as adults as well.  I am part of the technology generation, but there are still technologies out there that I am unaware of how to use, and especially how to incorporate them into a classroom.  I believe that using technology in the classroom is not only vital, but it makes learning fun and memorable for students. 

I am currently enrolled in a class (EDCI 505) that is all about incorporating technology into the classroom.  We have only had 4 weeks of class, but I have already learned an immense amount of information about technology.  I have created a Web 2.0 classroom page, as well as my very own interactive poster called a glog. While creating these two pieces, I was extremely frustrated at times, and at other times it all came so easily to me.  Either way, I have learned how to do some many different things that make technology useful, fun, and memorable.  I will without a doubt use these two strategies in my future classroom.  I believe both of these types of technologies offer students a different way to learn.  I have posted my finished projects and Facebook for my friends and family to see.  I have had many practicing teachers ask me if I could sit down and teach them how to create these types of technologies for their own classrooms.  I am so thankful that I have to take a class such as this.  Without this class, I would never have the opportunity to explore the options that are out there for teachers to use in the classroom!!