Integrating Technology into the Classroom: It Takes More Than Just Having Computers
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech146.shtml

This article is about integrating technology into learning experiences and even gives specific ways to help teachers integrate technology more into their everyday classrooms. The article talks about how technology should be integrated into classrooms, but not as a separate subject, but rather a tool to extend and help student learning. The article says a challenge of doing this and why teachers are hesitant is because they don’t have the time to integrate and are not sure how to help students use it without taking away from core subjects. The article also talks about personal experience being another challenge with teachers. So, teachers first need to find time to use the tools themselves and understand basic terminology before teaching to students. The article gives suggestions on ways to effortlessly integrate technology into daily and weekly classroom routines. A few suggestions were to have elementary student’s access online weather forecasts instead of just talking about the weather, maybe taking a few extra minutes for students to look it up and record their findings if they have a weather log or journal. Another suggestion was to include a URL in teacher’s monthly calendar or newsletter. Encourage students to use them and visit them. Education World has printable calendars that include links for specific holidays and so on. The article listed a whole bunch of great suggestions that were appropriate for different age levels.

I agree with this article completely. I think teachers definitely need to become familiar and understand the terminology before teaching it to students or expecting students to use it. You are not going to have complete participation from the students if you, yourself do not understand what you are teaching them or expecting them to do. Again, like discussed in previous classes it all goes back to allowing time for teachers to explore. I definitely think more teachers would integrate technology if they were allotted time to do so and time to practice themselves. I think it is great that this article is offering ways for teachers to gain experience and helping assist them in integrating more fully into their everyday learning.

I believe there are times when I, myself do not use technology to its fullest potential. I think sometimes I am hesitant because of the students’ age, but in reality some of my students could probably teach me a thing or two about technology. I think a lot of it is maybe letting go and allowing the children more freedom! That is sometime a hard thing to do especially in kindergarten!   I really like the suggestion of having students log onto a weather website, especially when we are discussing a big change in weather or aren't too sure of the weather for the day. It wouldn't even have to be something we do every day but maybe something fun they could do on Fridays. I do think I do a good job with technology but I could always do better and I think this article has allowed me to think of some things I could integrate that I never really thought about doing before. I really liked the last suggestion of the article which was about keeping the students guessing. I think it’s important to keep students on their toes and eager to learn and what better way to help do that than integrate a different spin on teaching by incorporating technology. Whether it’s having students work in small groups on an Ipad to solve a riddle or question, or even a reward for students who finish early or have worked extremely hard, I think it’s important to find new ways of integrating technology into your classroom.

I think it is important to remember there are so many different ways to integrate technology into your classroom and I think this article does a good job of giving teachers suggestions on a place to start when it comes to technology.