Teaching+with+Technology+-+Week+2

Teaching with Technology - Week 2

Another week has gone by and I have learned about technology strategies that will have great impact on the different kinds of learners we must prepare for success. Pitler suggests many ways to teach using technology to help students meet their learning objectives. He provides us with the following strategies: 1. Word Processing applications which allow students to work on word documents to create graphic organizers that provide a clearer understanding to students. Students use this to create KWHL charts. 2. Organizing and brainstorming software which allows students to work together and plan out assignments. These include Kidsperation for the elementary level students and Inspiration for the higher grades. 3. Data Collection tools which help students create projects such as surveys and polls. These include Survey Monkey, Pollcat, Web Surveyor, and Profiler Pro. 4. Web Resources provide students with websites where students can personalize their learning. This helps teachers meet every subject standards set by the district, state and the U.S. The following websites are just a few of the available to help teachers and students create any rubric possible using generic templates.
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 * [|www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics] . 4. Technology for communication with students and assessment of learning. These include such technology as mentioned by Pitler as blogs, websites, and emails.

This week I have read the interesting research of Michael S. Page and John Schacter. Page results showed significant proof that teaching with technology built students self esteem as well as creating a positive attitude towards learning. Despite the allegations that technology are needless attempts to improve education at the expense of classroom funding, Page points out that classroom technology and its effects may not be the cure for all educational weaknesses, but it does contribute greatly to the self esteem of students of elementary and of low socioeconomic status. Similarly, Schacter suggests ways to align technology into the classroom. Technology is a tool that must be “effectively” used in order to have successful student learning. We must think of education first then technology. Teachers can turn to The Milken Exchange to learn about more research about providing students with enough attention, an adequate learning environment, professional quality instruction, as well as technology usefulness. Therefore, technology will be very useful in meeting student’s academic success. For more information, visit [|www.milkenexcange.org].

This week’s videos provided information about the three (3) brain networks which give us a clear understanding of how students learn. This is useful information that will help us provide the right education to diverse students. They are the following: 1. Recognition – gathering facts, identifying, and categorizing what we see. This is the “what” about learning. 2. Strategic – the planning and performing of tasks. This is the “how” about learning. 3. Affective – students are engaged and motivated inn the activity. Students are challenged, excited and interested. This is the “why” about learning. I also learned about many teacher recommendations for teaching students with a variety of disabilities. We must follow the academic standards for all students by accepting the challenge of addressing individual needs of students. Students need to understand what, how and why about learning. The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) along with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guide teachers to include all students in learning. Teachers must consider instructional material, objectives, methods, assessment, and rich lessons with ample opportunities to gain new knowledge. We, as teachers must choose “the right” tools to support every students learning.