Technology in the Elementary Classroom

I chose to follow Deborah J. Stewart on twitter.  She is very active on both twitter and Facebook.  She is very technologically advanced when it comes to posting things in the education field.  All of her blogs are interesting and fun to read. The best way to enhance your classroom and teaching skills is through other people’s trial and errors. She also puts funny things on there in between her links to useful information.

Although I am not as involved in these online spaces as Stewert, I wish her style would rub off on me.  She describes herself as interested in early childhood education teacher trainer, speaker, and freelance writer.  She has been in the field for over 20 years.  Her main goal is to make a difference in the professional development in many schools.  She has many classroom management ideas which I find to be very useful when I have my own classroom.

Here is her homepage so you can see if you find her as interesting as i do.

http://www.preschoolprofessional.com/

I think that technology will bring a change in the traditional student and teacher roles.  Most of us were taught in the traditional method of having the teacher dispense information to the students.  The teacher was the center of attention who  set the goals for the classroom and provided the structure by which we all abided.  The student on the other hand sat passively listening to the teacher trying to absorb everything that was being said with little or no input into the way things are done.

When technology is brought into the classroom the students suddenly get to play a more active rather than passive role in how things are done.  The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain and display information.  The teacher on the other hand is no longer the center of attention but a facilitator for the class room.  It is the teachers job to provide support for the students and make suggestions as he/she rotates through the classroom looking over the shoulders of the students who are independently working on their technology based projects.

This very is very interesting. It shows how a district in Colorodo uses technology to enhance communication and learning. It shows how a techer changed the whole dynamic of the classroom by videotaping his class. Now children have to veiw the lecture before class for homework, and do what used to be homework in class. Technology has changed the classroom for the better in this case. Enjoy!

As I was reading “Whom Am We” I found myself thinking about my nephews who are young and just starting to use the computer.  To be perfectly honest with you it was a little scary.  No one in my circle of friends was ever really involved with any of the cyber games so I wasn’t as aware of what was available to young people today. 

 Reading about the couple who found it quite acceptable to have virtual affairs and cybersex made we wonder what their real life was missing and the even scary part was reading about young kids playing virtual games where they take on different personalities and become slayers and killers.  These are dangerous games who children who have difficulty separating fantasy from reality.

 Children today face enormous pressures.  Usually both parents work are busy trying to get dinner, take care of the house, take care of other siblings, get homework done and get ready for the next day.  The internet has helped replace the television as a suto-babysitter for occupying a child’s time.  A child who is shy or feels lonely could easily get sucked into a cyber world where he can create the kind of life he is control.  The scary part comes when that world stops being a fantasy and starts becoming his reality.

Who would have imaged twenty years ago that today the largest global flea market in the world “Ebay” handles over 1.4 billion auctions every year, many from people’s bedrooms.  I’m sure this was certainly not what Ted Nelson had in mind back in 1965 when he first tried to build out his concept of hyper linking pages which was the core idea behind the web as outline by computing pioneer Vannevar Bush.

 Back in the early days, many were concerned about expensive it would be to put information on the web.  After all it would require hours and hours of labor to document. Enter, and download all the information that was already in libraries, references books and manuals.  In the mid 1980’s the internet was established and funded for research not commerce and policy of the National Science Foundation who ran the Internet backbone was that it stay that way.

 Fast forward to the 21^st century and today you can find almost anything on the internet.  It has become the go to place you anything you need from buying a car to finding a doctor.  Bossiness run off the internet, doctors communicate with their patients as well as other doctors through the internet, parents stay in touch with their children through the internet.  The use of the internet has exploded into ways that were never dreamed of. 

 There are those that will argue that this has helped to distance us from each other.  We no longer visit friends in person we socialize on “Facebook” or “Twitter”.  We e-mail each other now instead of picking up a phone and talking to each other and for the most part they would be right.  I like to think though that the internet is a tool and is it all in how you use.  For some the internet is place to hide from the world and communicate through a computer without having to have any face to face relationships which is a shame but certainly their choice.  For others the internet has become a way of sharing ideas, thoughts and information with millions of people around the world that you would otherwise never have a chance to get to know.

This video is on Classroom Performance Systems. I first heard about them while doing one of my observations at Chews Elementary School. I was most interested in them because every student was participating and having fun with this hands-on learning experience. At the same time, the teacher was giving them a quiz and they were excited about it. Assignments done using this CPS are instantly graded and can be put in to the teacher’s grade book. This new technology engages students and also allows them to answer questions on their own and respond quickly getting them to think fast and react.