Digital Badge D

Chapter 5 was interesting. I really liked the emphasis on becoming fluent in technology. I feel that many teachers are so scared or intimidated by technology in the classroom because they either don't know how to use it or fear that it is just not reliable enough and will take away from class time either fixing it or tying to get it working in the first place. Becoming really fluent in technology is important for me because if I'm hoping to one day become a very natural teacher and teach without having to have a lesson plan glued to my hand, I'm going to need to really know the ins and outs of the technology I'm using and hope to have the students using.

I found this YouTube video online that is a futuristic view of teaching and the kinds of technology that could be incorporated into every part of a lesson. This was geared towards high school classrooms but I can see the same kind of technology being used in elementary school lessons, especially the presentation methods used by the teachers. The video was a very positive look on technology in the classroom, and is appropriate for this chapter because of the confident use of technology by both the teachers and students, they are very fluent in information technology.

 

Another important advance that has developed with technology is the new way of doing research. I remember in elementary school learning about the Dewey Decimal System, and then discovering Wikipedia in middle school and never looking back. I don't know what is being taught in elementary school now in terms of research method but I surely hope the decimal system has been taken out of that lesson. Learning about how to properly research online is so much more important in my opinion. Even now in every library there is a computer that will tell you where the exact book you're looking for is. Teachers especially need to learn and utilize this new system of researching and being teaching it to students. I think that the hardest part about online researching is that it's so easy to get off track and check Facebook or play a game or even just get completely off topic and research about things that don't have anything to do with the topic you're working on. Learning how to effectively research is another useful skill that students should be introduced to at a young age, as well as how to use technology productively. 

As I was typing that last sentence I think I realized that I would enjoy that to be a focus in my classroom. Whatever technology would be used, I want my students to know that it is being used productively and that they can do the same thing. An iPad isn't just a game machine, it's a planning, calculating, presentation making, communicating machine that can be used for so many more things than your entertainment.

Another productive use of technology is the new way of taking notes. The video above showed students actively taking notes on a computer type thing, but they were able to quickly take them without missing anything it seemed like. No more erasing, or sharpening your pencil, getting distracted with doodling. Note taking with technology is very efficient now, and allows students to focus more on what they wrote down than how they wrote it as the textbook said. I think the examples of recording the lecture and attaching it to sentences in your notes in a word document is a really cool advance in technology and am definitely going to look into that for myself!

This chapter was insightful and made me feel more comfortable with the thought of using technology on a daily basis in my classroom.


Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

http://youtu.be/uZ73ZsBkcus