Week 7: Tech in classroom

It's a grey area for how far teachers should go to match the technology their students use on a daily basis. You have to remember that there are underprivilaged students that do not have access to the latest and greatest that others do. Also for a teacher to try and keep up with all these new gadgets and how to use them would take more time and energy away from what is still the most important, learning. However to completely banish technology from the classroom today is almost silly; there are helpful tools with powerpoint and the internet and Microsoft Word.

I would not allow online chats or I.M. in my classroom. You can not monitor every conversation 25 students are having at one time. That is something for students to do on their own time, when there in my classroom, that's my time to teach them, not try to fight with technology for their attention.

I suppose that if a student were physically incapable of coming to a classroom then text-based learning would be better than not learning at all. However the comfort of having the instructor present to personally ask questions seems always more profitable for the student.

Again, it depends on the student. If they are physically incapable of coming to class than this would be a great alternative, as far as being passive, it would seem that both parties involved would have to be serious about it for it to work.

I do not support videogames as a positive learning tool. Even though companies have developed these leapfrog and other videogames that are suppose to help learning; all it does is set up parents and their children for fighting in the future. Sure they may be helpful as a child is learning numbers and ABC's, but once their older and teens, trying to take that videogame away when all there playing are nasty, violent games, is a battle. Kids need to learn from early on, that they are not going to go to school and play videogames so don't teach them to learn from a videogame. And though my son is only a baby, he will not play videogames everyday. They will be a privilage and I hope he will be involved in more positive activities that develop positive social skills and self-confidence; which videogames do not.

Personality Test

Well according to the personality exam I just took, I am a giver. When I read the description of my personality type, I was shocked at how almost completely accurate it was; there were just a couple of things that I would say were not my personality, but for the most part it was correct.
I do enjoy helping people, just for the satisfaction of helping people, I am socialable and getting to know new people. Other aspects of my personality were: honest, straightforward, giving, sympathetic, socialable, able to bring people out of their shells, emotional.

I think some of these traits will be invaluable for teaching. One of the compliments for my personality was that my people skills were great, especially for teaching, because I can relate to different people from different backgrounds or be sympathetic. Not one student will be like another, just like all students learn a little differently from eachother. I think that this would be an interesting test to have students take on the first day of school just to see what they think of the results.

Excel in the classroom

I think that at first Excel can be intimidating to anyone who has never worked with it before, but once you learn and get the hang of it, it seems invaluable. As a future teacher it will be a great help to me for grades and worksheets. And the great thing about it is that you don't have to have a calculator, Excel does the work for you. Of course we all know that computers can get viruses and collapse and what not, so I would always recommend to having an actual gradebook.
Not only though is it a great asset for teachers, but you could actually encourage your students to create a spreadsheet at home for their grades. How often does a students question an average or a grade on their progress report or report card, but always seem to lose or misplace the paper they need to prove otherwise. This way it not only teaches them organization, but responsibility.

I thought the video was detailed and interesting. It basically has everything a student would need to make a slideshow presentation or help organize ideas for an essay. I would use it in my classroom not only for myself, to help with visual learners, but also encourage my students to take advantage of all the helpful tools it provides. When you think about it, most students stress out the most about the organization of an essay and how to start it; this could easily minimize that stress and provide more creativity than only using pen and paper.

As I said in my previous paragraph, I think this tool would be especially useful for essays. The different ways it allows students to organize and manage their thoughts is great. Of course it would also be great for projects that they wish to present in powerpoint format. Not only would this would this be great for personal use, but also can be used for peer review. It would be easy enough for students to print out their outlines and give them to their peers for review, because sometimes it is not easy to read handwriting. However I would not encourage students to email eachother their outlines or anything of the such for peer reveiw, it would be too easy for copying.

technology in classroom

As far as using blogs in my classroom or encouraging my students to use them in the classroom, I do not think it is a great idea. I think that encouraging students to blog will make it very easy for them to cheat and share answers, and as a teacher I do not have the time to sit around on the internet for hours and try to make sure this is not happening. Blogging to me is a more personal hobby than something for the classroom.
However, I do believe that some technology is very helpful for students that are strong visual learners or have a difficult time seeing the white board. Powerpoint presentations enable students to become more involved and can be more capturing of their attention than watching a teacher constantly write or having to just sit and listen, and hopefully not fall asleep.

A little bit about me

Hi everyone, my name is Ashley, but as you can see by my go-by name I am a blessed mother. I am currently a junior at Commerce and my major is English and Literature for secondary education. I am married, and my husband and I just welcomed our first child and son, Kevin into the world 3 months ago. He is such a blessing and I love him dearly. A little bit more about me, my favorite color is pink, as you can see, and I am a sucker for Romantic Comedies; much to my husband's dismay lol.

I hope this class will help me to become more computer literate, because right now I know basics and that's about it. Which of course I need to know more before I start teaching. Hopefully I can keep up.