EDUG 522 Assign2B

Chapter #2 Ideas/concepts used in the classroom.

This chapter was extremely informative and gave me a new insight into how detailed planning lessons for technology can be.  The learning theories noted are definitely useful as a guide to the planning of objectives, lessons and assessments according to the lesson being taught.  They reiterated the fact that it is a technology world out there, and children are highly motivated and captured by technology, and it should play an important role in our teaching.  I take my first grade class to the computer lab once a week, and during literacy groups in the morning, going to the computers is the  most visited center.  The children can accomplish the tasks set before them at their level, and don't feel the pressure of falling behind the class during instruction, or being bored having to wait for everyone if the child is more advanced.  This is one of the most encouraging aspects of technology in the classroom.  The TPACK model discusses the importance of teachers  having a strong knowledge of how to incorporate technology into the classroom.  I feel sometimes teachers may use computers as a chance to teach the lesson instead of using them as an extension.  Children need to have the prior knowledge, and then use technology to allow them to extend and  apply the information learned. That may be one of the "muddier points"  that I have. Being able to use the technology as an extension while still allowing the children to gain prior knowledge and then to assess. Computer programs are becoming more assessment friendly, but I think you need to have a true sense of what you want to teach, how you want to teach it, how you want the students to respond and what knowledge did they come away with at the end.  The assessment will be different for each child, as each child learns at their own pace, even when they use technology.  But I think technology is more flexible and there is more opportunity for students to have differentiated instruction.
 This can all be accomplished through the TIP model, which guides teachers in the right direction to avoid the pitfalls and difficulties teaching with technology.  I feel the model is very helpful. While some of these phases many of us can say we touch on, I feel these will personally help me to use technology more efficiently in my classroom. To actually have steps to follow or a guideline is much easier than trying to reinvent the wheel and come up with your own ideas on how to reach each student. This model lays it out for you very effectively, and allows the teacher a great deal of reflection on their teaching and pedagogy towards incorporating technology.  I feel following these steps will help us to see where we need to improve or gain more technological knowledge in order to teach our students effectively.  It is really easy to put on a youtube video to extend a lesson, but we need to focus on the objective of the lesson and how to accomplish it using technology.  My first grade partner and I both use promethean software in our classroom, and the interaction, as well as the ability to assess student knowledge is so helpful when teaching many lessons in our curriculum. With that being said, I also realize that the teacher needs to be clear when the learning needs to be more directed and when a constructive based learning approach is best.
 Technology has many benefits to children and to teachers.  It comes down to the fact that we need to better understand how to teach with technology by focusing not only on the learning theories, teacher knowledge, and student interest, but also how to make the most of the technology we have.  Many districts need to have more technology available in the classroom and community.  Many schools do not have the appropriate technology or access to it, and I believe that is truly unfortunate.  I am actually moving to second grade next year, and our district is in the process of setting up all classrooms with some form of technology.  I am leaving a classroom with a projector, white board and document camera, to a room with no technology.  I feel it is unfortunate for my students, so I will be trying to come up with different ways to incorporate technology using Ipads and the mobile computers.