Friday, March 13, 2009

Technology in the Classroom


Technology can be used in the classroom in a variet of ways. One thing that we can do with technology is use it as a communication tool. You can easily create a classroom website which allows you to communicate important information to parents. You may want to include things such as a calendar, important announcements, homework assignments, and project deadlines. This also gives students an additional resource in case they missed something in class. You may want to consider including websites that enhance the content, notes or handouts from class, and a forum for communication between the teacher and other students.

One of the most important things to remember when using technology in your lessons is that the technology used must support the goals of the lesson. It can not be used as a second thought just for the sake of "incorporating technology. Oftentimes when we think of technology, the Internet is the only thing that comes to mind. At least that used to be the case for me. I could not get beyond that, and I did not know how to utilize the Internet in a way that really benefits students. We are lucky to be educators today because we have so many options available to us. You can easily create a blog. Blogs serve as a great forum to keep a record of classroom activities and reflect on your lessons, or you may use them to exhibit student work, give assignments, or communicate with parents. You can also create Internet-based lesson plans, such as treasure hunts or webquests. In another blog posting I have talked about treasure hunts in more detail. If you are lucky enough to have one in your classroom, Promethean boards are also a wonderful tool. Check out some of these videos to see how teachers are using these in their classrooms. Inspiration Software is great for organizing thoughts and creating concept maps. You can download a free trial of this software so you can see how great it is!

Some other technologies that you may want to consider using are cell phones, iPods and Podcasts, and iTunes. Check out the video below to see more ideas of ways to incoporate technology into your classroom.
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