Blog #5- Technology

I thought that our technology exploration day last week was awesome! I personally found it extremely benefitial, practical, and a lot of fun! It was a nice change of pace from a regular day of TE class. Amongst all of the technologies that we explored, a couple stood out in my mind that would be very useful in an elementary classroom. Google Earth is a fasinating tool that could be used on any computer to provide the students with motivation to learn about geography and/or social studies. Last semester, I planned a lesson for social studies ELL students to learn about maps and cardinal directions. As an idea to open the lesson, my group and I thought we could show the students' homes on Google Earth to get them motivated to study it more. Because we were able to use Digital Story first-hand in Erik's class last semester, I feel competent in the program and excited to introduce it to my future classroom. Students could easily complete projects and/or assignments with this program. It is fun, interactive and very unique for students to use for many different kinds of assignments. I also think that blogging is a good piece of technology to bring into the classroom. Ever since Erik showed us "Today's Meet" last semester, I thought it would be fun to do after-school hours for my future students. I plan on setting a time once a night for an hour to have students log into our class' chatroom on "Today's Meet." During that time, students and their parents can log-in to ask me any questions or state any concerns regarding homework and the like. I also plan to organize and design a class Wiki, much like the one our class is currently using. Announcements for parents and information for the kids will be updated daily on the site and kept up by me. I realize that unfortunately, every student from my class will not have a computer with internet at home to access, therefore will plan on making accomodations for these students and their parents. These accomodations could include a "homework hotline" to call during a certain hour in the evening and/or send extra flyers home with the student for their parents to read, so they will be receiving the same information that the students/parents are getting from the Wiki. Overall, technology day was a huge success for me and it was nice to learn about all of the many different options (and I didn't realize there were so many!)