Technology in the Classroom

I, as an educator, can see myself using technology in my classroom in the future. I had never really experienced using this level of technology in any of my educational experience, and I feel that it was really beneificial to me. Using technologies allow students to think at higher orders of thinking and allow them to think outside of the box by using their imagination and creativity. I can really see myself using interactive powerpoints that allow the students to get involved in the lesson more. I also like the use of google documents because it allows me as a teacher more freedom to assign group projects. Group members can collaborate their ideas at home or a different location outside of the classroom whithout actually having to sit beside each other to do the work. I also think that using audio and video files would be great to attract those auditory or visual learners that usually are forgotten about. These can really aid the teaching process in that they provide a real life example of how the topic is really used in every day life.

My views of technology in the classroom have definitely changed over the course of the past seven weeks. In the beginning, I was overwhelmed with the amount of technology that I would have to learn and be able to use. However, I now realize that it really isn't that difficult and is very effective to use in the classroom. After seeing my classmates lesson presentations, I have realized that the lessons that they taught were more effective than any lesson I have experienced in my educational career. They really allow the students to think at higher levels. Without having to teach and tell the students everything, a teacher can allow the students to figure it out on their own by researching or collaborating with others to find answers. I think that if teachers would have used these lessons in my schools, it would have reached a lot more students. It also made learning fun. Being able to create a blog, and write in google documents were all fun for me to do, yet very educational. The key to educating children is to make it seem as though they are not learning, but that they are only playing or having fun. I believe that using technology really allows students to have fun.