Designing and planning engaging lessons with technology
Its important to use all of your resources, especially those at your fingertips. In doing this you will be taking advantage of the tools that students already have access to and are comfortable using. Some of these tools are photo sharing, video showcasing, PowerPoint’s, and social networking. " students have always been social, and todays technologies are interactive, students go online to meet friends and seek information" (web 2.0). All of these tools can be integrated into lessons to make them interesting and familiar to students who enjoy technology.
Presenting concepts effectively with technology
"give constructive feed back and support as a facilitator" (web 2.0) Students need to be shown the correct way to complete an assignment especially if you are asking them to access a multitude of different information using the internet. By using technology to your advantage you can present these new topics or assignments using blogs, powerpoint's, and videos from online resources such as youtube. When acquiring background knowledge you can never give too much information
Assessing students for learning with technology
When assessing students progress, spreadsheets in "exell" really make a difference when recording grades. You can keep track of all student work and the program will automatically add up the points to acquire a summary of the grades. Other tools that can be used when assessing students are rubrics which can be found online and will generate themselves into an organized template. Electronic portfolios are another way to track student progress these portfolios will actually keep any and all assignments entered in to the program. "Electronic portfolio provides an environment where students can collect their work in a digital archive; select specific pieces of work to highlight specific achievement" (web 2.0)
Managing classroom and technology use effectively
Its important to manage the use of technology, specifically student use on the computers. Students can often become distracted and will get off track on what they should be working on because they venture to another website or computer game. However with the use of webquests teachers can monitor student progress throughout the webquest. "the reality for experienced teachers is that they have too much to do and are busy with all of the regular tasks of teaching. Their comfort level with technology is low and they want to be facile before letting students use it" (web 2.0)
Facilitating engaging learning experiences in the classroom with technology
Its time to get creative the resources are out there for you as a teacher to use you just need to take advantage of them. Make sure to use programs that will benefit and relate to the subject matter that you are teaching. "While their are unlimited ways that these technologies can make a difference, the real difference begins with you" (web 2.0) and the best way to find out what students like to do, is to ask. Inquire what they enjoy and incorporate it in the lesson through technology.
Supporting learning outside the classroom with technology
Blogs and websites are an awesome way to keep students connected and learning after the school day is over and they have gone home. A great example is this website "weebley" you can create a wesite where students parents and teachers can log on and check out the latest postings. You can upload lessons, links to games associated with what the students are learning and links to other teachers pages. The best part is you can post just about anything you want even a calendar with upcoming events. Another tool used is podcasting you can record yourself talking to students about homework or further help with challenging assignments. "podcasting is a way to distribute multimedia files such as music or speech over the internet for playback on mobil devices and personal computers" (web 2.0)
Supporting diverse learners with technology
Keep in mind that all students might not have access to a computer or know how to work or navigate around a computer. This is called the digital divide "although nearly all children have access to computer systems and the internet while at school, the most recent census statistics reveal inequitable access at home" (web 2.0) There are some programs trying to help these students by providing a laptop that the child can use for school and at home. But all of these cost money and that is one thing that schools are often short of. so to help these students out assign them homework they can complete without a computer and have them complete the computer work while at school where they have access to a computer.