Technology Everyday...Allday...

Technology…..Where to begin?? The biggest word that I need to continually remind myself is FLEXIBILITY! We need to be aware that what is going on the tech world is continually changing. We as teachers need to be open to change! Do not shut out what is going on the tech world. It is worth paying attention to trust me. If you stop and think about it, what is one thing that kids latch on to? My answer would be technology and social media. How can we as teacher change our teaching to incorporate technology and social media to further their learning? Blogging, tweeting, using pintrest are just a few examples of ways to spark learning in a tech savvy way.

Using technology as a way for students to collaborate is a way that will help allow them to see different components of something come together? It also allows for a time for students to build off each other. 

Something I am interested in learning more about is how to use technology as a classroom management tool. There was something that I was recently introduced to called Class Dojo. This is a tool that helps classroom behavior. Class Dojo can reinforce behavior instantly from just a click from a smartphone, tablet, or computer. It also allows for teachers to engage students in minutes. I am interested in learning more about other tools that will help me mange my classroom because that is certainly one of my biggest fears when I enter the teaching world for real.

One thing that also scares me about diving into the education tech world is the fear that student are off task. There is certainly less monitoring for students. I think there is also a risk that students are taking from illegitimate  sources. I think this is something that we need to instill in out student’s brains as early as possible. When researching, students need to learn to filter there searches to make sure they are not getting false information. A good tool to use for this problem is to encourage students to start searching with Smart Search. This is a search engine that is designed to students. It is ad free, and offers credible resources for students to pull from.

One of the most remarkable ways I have seen technology used to help with differentiation. Differentiation. Differentiation. Differentiation. Talk about a teaching buzz word… But how to we accomplish differentiation? Technology is one of the answers. Technology can be used to push student learning and provide enrichment, as well as serve as assistive technology to students who may need help.

Technology in the classroom is something that is growing so much! I am beyond on board with trying to use technology. To me it is just about how do I use it in a way that will benefit the students the most! I want to provide them with the technology that will help them see the world in a different way. If used right, technology can make the difference between a good teacher and great teacher. The challenge is that it is up to the teacher to find a way to help the student use the technology in the best way possible to support their learning needs.