Having never encountered a class like the one I am currently enrolled in, this question intrigued me. I thought, at first, why shouldn't we? Technology is sometimes the bane of my existence. Isn't all this technology ruining children's creativity? Where are the games that are played with running and balls and by the way, do kids still jump rope? Aren't all students already over stimulated with iPads and Kindles and Gameboys? Halfway through a video I was assigned to watch (linked to at the end of this post) I was more convinced then ever. One young student, a female I believe, noted that she watched 16.5 hours of TV a week. Of course, I kept watching, working my way through the 4 minute 30 second video and my opinion changed. I went back to a website that was mentioned in class and I took a poke around. Free Technology for Teachers is an excellent resource for teachers to "get into technology".
There are a ton of excellent ideas on this website, but the one that caught my attention is Draw It Live. Did you know that you can use online whiteboards? No more messy, smelly, over inked white board markers. Never again will you use paper towel after paper towel, or even worse, replace dry erasers. And, they can draw, the kids will be using their minds. This isn't some mindless application or game found on a phone or a Kindle Fire, it's real learning, put into today's world. Just to give you a small preview, and in case you...dear reader...are unable to click on links from your classroom I'll let you see this awesome application.
Not only can the students doodle and express themselves, but the teacher can get on the action and they can do everything from tutor a student in math, or draw a time-line of the American Revolution (something more near and dear to my heart than long division).
Can it get better than this?
After I posed this question, to myself, I thought...It sure can. In fact, it will, it is. Every day, or month or year, there is some new piece of technology. The best part of this ever changing technology is that the youth are getting these new products when they are young enough to understand it. For some educators it's not easy to come around to the thought that computers are the future. It's new and sometimes frightening to learn things you don't understand.
The question I have now is... Why aren't we integrating technology into the classroom? Just for the record, I think I'm going to get the answer to that question in the next 11 weeks.
Chew on this video until next time.
I am happy that you looked around the free technology for teachers website. Each day he posts awesome educational ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Often times, these tools are misconstrued as "fun" rather than educational. I think when people "understand" how they can be incorporated into lesson planning they will finally see that they can be educational for the classroom. I am happy to see you are open to how tools can be brought into the curriculum to enhance it, while engaging students.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. I to felt the same way as you in the beginning. We often hear so often that do to technology it is taking kids away from playing outside, being creative, and it is hurting their development. Although I am beginning to find a lot of this is because too many people aren't educated on the technology that is actually out there that can be utilized for educational purposes. All people really see is the gameboy games, or mindless apps that are on phones or Ipads. But like you stated, when you look deaper into what is out there, you find that there are many forms of technology that can be utilized by educators that do "educate" children. The can still be creative. It can help with their cognitive development, fine motor skills, and language development. I feel that we just need to be more educated ourselves on what is out there that we can utilize in our classrooms.
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