Elmo

http://macsi.org/shop/elmo-machine/

I recently observed in a classroom at an elementary school and I was curious what kind of technology the teacher would use in her everyday classroom and she used an elmo. I have always liked elmos because they can be used at all ages and they are an easy way for the student to see just what the teacher is trying to show. Instead of wasting time passing around a book for the whole class to see one image, you can flip open and have the class look at it together in a much larger picture when projected. I think these are great ways to integrate technology into a lesson, even if it is something small like an elmo. This observation reminded me that you do not always have to have something large planned to use technology, it can be tiny little things daily.

Wiki's

http://www.ikiw.org/category/wiki-adoption-strategies/


I have used both wikispace and weebly at this point and I like wikispace better. I find it easier to organize and there are a lot of options to make it your own. It also seems very user friendly with new people which weebly took time for me to get used to. In addition, I like that you can invite people to come and edit and be members but anyone can view, with weebly you cannot have members. Lastly, I began using weebly for a large project and had a hard time with keeping formatting and inserting scanned items which I grew frustrated with and disliked. The wikispace seems much easier to use and connect other sites to it. I think overall, wikispaces are just easier to use.
In your classroom, you could have students reference a wiki that you make with helpful information for a project, or depending on the age, you could have them create a wiki instead of a project. Research papers seem awful and boring and there is nothing you can do to visually differentiate yours from others and if you chose to have them format their paper in a wiki, they may enjoy the process of doing it on a computer web page and being able to customize it. They can organize the page as they wish in ways that may make more sense to them. They can add images to this and such which would also possibly make the project more enjoyable for the students. These could also be a great way for a group of students to work together on a project since it is something that they can all access easily. I think this would be a great tool for the classroom if the kids are at appropriate ages.

Smartboards

http://hoofbeat20.edublogs.org/

I have never been in a classroom which used a smart board before but I had heard a lot about them and most of it was all good. My prior knowledge about smart boards is that they are great ways to have student interact and resources for the teacher. The example that comes to mind in which they could be very beneficial is in physics. If you are drawing an diagram of a ball that would hypothetically fall off of the ledge because of the angle, then you could demonstrate that and put the object in motion using the smart board. This would have been very beneficial for me as a student since I struggle to visualize things unless I can physically see it, I am a visual learner and if I am not shown, I have a hard time imagining it. In addition, students can write on the board which would be a great way for students to practice handwriting or cursive in younger classrooms. There are many ways in which these boards can be utilized to help to make an efficient classroom and help maximize students learning. Although there are many positives, there are also down sides. Many older teachers are not proficient in technology like younger generations and they may now know how to use it which is a problem. Trying to figure out technical problems can take up valuable classroom time. Also, it is a relatively new technology and so there could still be new problems with it. I also researched and found out that it takes time to learn to write on the boards since it can be very sensitive to writing, just like learning how to write on a chalkboard. In my opinion, I would love to have a smart board in my classroom one day and I think it could be very beneficial to the students and to help me teach more effectively to my students. Technology is advancing so quickly, I cant wait to see what they come up with next! I just hope I can keep up!

Second Language Learning and Technology

http://www.dantemiami.org/


I observed in a second language classroom which the L2 language was Italian and the L1 was English. I got to see how a real classroom with younger children used technology and how effective it was. It was a great experience! The students were elementary aged and the teacher used a powerpoint to teach vocabulary on different parts of the house and food. The part I liked best about the technology was that it gave students a visual to go along with the word! When they said "bagel" or something then a picture of a bagel would appear before the word was shown. This was a great way to activate background knowledge and associate a visual for the words which was shown to be effective later when they were able to recall most of the vocabulary.

Search Engines

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/09/invisible-browser.html

I cannot count the number of times a day that I use a search engine to find out information. It could be as simple as finding a picture or definition to looking up articles for a research paper. I think that this is a really important skill for students to learn. I think that it needs to be taught to them when they are learning to use the internet, which is pretty early these days. I think that there are a lot of people who know how to use it but not correctly and efficiently which needs to be taught. Once they know this skill, search engines can be a great resource for teachers and can provide many activities to keep the students involved. You could have them find something with a search engine which goes along with the topic which makes individual responses which could be very unique since they are doing it individually. There are some problems with search engines though. Students may get side tracked, but most websites such as facebook can be blocked in elementary schools. In addition, people make websites which are not really related to a topic and tag it anyways so it shows up and then you have to search harder for what you are really looking for. I think overall that it could be a great resource to integrate technology into your lesson and that students would really love it since they are familiar with the internet anyways and it will keep them involved!!

Google Docs

Some great uses for google doc is that I love how it saves everything together regardless of if it is a powerpoint or word document. If you had your class have an account together and then they could save their papers in there or presentations in there, it would be a great way to keep everything together and organized and since it is saved by date, it would be easily accessible to everyone and to you for future reference. I also found it really simple to use, and with prior knowledge of Microsoft Word, most people would know how to do it. I just really love how you can save it all together and access it through one single place. It makes everything more convenient!
This would be great for projects and as a general library of information for people to access. I also love that you can grant some people access to see it and some cannot which makes it so that other classmates could refer to yours at any time but yet they cannot change it if they are not a trusted person who can revise it!