Blog #12 My current view of technology in the classroom

My current view of technology in the classroom is a little more open than originally. I think that it can provide some really great resources for projects for students and lesson ideas for teachers. I believe that I will be using computers more in the classroom than I had anticipated. I believe strongly in using adaptive technology in the classroom. I think that it can really help and aid children on their road to success. I still believe that children need to do a lot of hands-on activities that are physically in front of them instead of sitting in front of the computer looking at a screen. I will use technology in the classroom to enhance a lesson. Students need to learn to use technology, so I need to be willing to be more open to using it and introducing it in the classroom.

Blog #11: Non-computer based technology

There is one program that is non-computer based that I really like. This technology is to help children with their letters and writing skills. This system is called Handwriting Without Tears. It is for children who have trouble with their fine motor skills, may have a vision impairment, or may simply be struggling with the writing skills. This program works by giving children a couple different shaped pieces of wood and they can make their letters using these pieces. This allows these students to not get too frustrated when they are having trouble with their writing skills. The student can do their writing, but by physically forming the letters with wood pieces instead of actually writing them out. Eventually students will begin to get the idea of how to shape the letters and begin to write them out successfully. I really like technologies that allow students to show what they can really do.


To read more about the importance of writing and the Handwriting without tears program you can read a newsweek article about it at...
http://www.newsweek.com/id/67956

You can also check out the home page for Handwriting without tears at ...
http://www.hwtears.com/index.html
This site has all their products on it and ways for parents, teachers, and therapists to use the sytem.

This program has come a long way since it first started. It can even work on children's cursive ability.

Blog #10

After watching and listening to many of the ERIC research projects, I feel that I may be a little more open to using technology in the classroom. I still am more of the hands-on activities and getting down and dirty in their work than a computer person. I will be more open to using technology though. I do believe that I will try and incorporate some of the programs that we have learned about in my class. I was really fascinated by the disposable digital camera. I believe those are a really cool idea and I could use them in my class. I did not know they even existed until the presentation that Emily mentioned it in.
I will also utilize the internet a whole lot more when looking for lesson plans. There are a lot of resources out there for me to utilize that have lesson plans and video clips and quizes on them. I find these sites really handy. They make it so I don't have to come up with my own ideas of the top of my head. It is nice to look at what other people have done and see what has worked and what hasn't. I believe the use of computers and technology will probably be more used for my use in my career than for students, but we will have to see. It may also depend on the technology access in the school I end up in.

Incorporating Technology into the Physical Environment

The article I read was entitled "Designing Successful Technology-Rich Elementary Schools." This article was really interesting because the authors did not discuss how to incorporate technology use into the classroom through curriculum, but through physical means. Many studies have shown that the actual physical environment can either enhance or impede learning. This article is about a study being conducted with fifth graders and how they are physically placing computers and furniture into the classroom. This was a study about the ergonomics of the classroom. In the study they are looking at how to create a setting where computers are in arms reach of all children, but are not in the way or a distraction. Also in this study the designers are work with the teachers to discover what works best for the children and what the teachers prefer. It was a very interesting to read about every aspect of the room design they worked on. It ranged anywhere from carpeting to the desk size and the teacher placement in the classroom. It was nice to look at a slightly different topic related to technology.

I would have to say that I liked the article. I would probably give it a 4 out of 5. All the details that went into designing this classroom so it best worked for the students was very cool. I would be really interested in reading about the final results, since they were only two years through their study at the time this article was written.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/1999-02/HFaE-DSTE-010299.php

My Half-way Feelings

Well, my feelings have not changed much since the beginning of the semester about using technology in the classroom. If anything I feel even more strongly against it. I have not found much of anything we have done in this class to be helpful to an early-childhood classroom, except for resources for teachers. Some of the projects we have had to do, such as the Imovie will never come in use in my career as a kindergarten or first grade teacher. They will never use Imovie and I will never use Imovie in my teaching. Many of the skills we are learning in this class are geared more towards students in middle childhood or high school level. First graders are not going to be using ERIC research databases nor will they be keeping Blog's online. I do believe that the internet and technology can be great tools for older students. I mean we used the internet for research and as a resource in high school all the time. I really wish we would study more useful ways to incorporate technology into the early-childhood education class in this course.
I also feel that we could use some more time in class to work on projects assigned. Often times we are left hanging with so much work that it is hard to keep track of it all. For example, the Imovie. I really wish we had been given the time to bring our clips into class and work on it in class for a while. I ran into many problems with my Imovie that even the tutorials could not aid me with, so I had to call student tech several times. I think it would have been much easier to have had some time to work on it in class where I might not have become so frustrated.
This class has taught me some new interesting things. They will help me in personal uses of technology, but not necessarily in the classroom. Like I stated before, I would really like to learn more techniques that incorporate technology specifically into the early-childhood education class because most if not all of us in the class are early-childhood majors.

Internet Use in Elementary Classroom

The internet can be a very risky tool in schools. Many things can go wrong, but there are also good uses of the internet.

Some pros to using internet in the classroom would be to connect students to help sites that will help them with their letters, shapes, colors etc. Another good aspect to internet use is the ability to teach students how to safely search the web. Teachers could also use the internet to let the students look up information on a topic they are discussing in class. The students would be working on autonomy.

The cons of using the internet in the classroom are the lack of fine motor skills young students have. These students must learn to first write and hold a pencil before they rely completely on computers to do their work. Also, there is the possibility that students could end-up on a very bad and inappropriate website on accident. Also using the internet for research can leave the student unable to use paper copies found in the library. Using the internet is also not giving the students the social interaction that is so important to early-childhood development.

Personally, I do not believe in using the internet in early-childhood education. I would tell a principal this and also tell them that the only way I may use the internet is to make accomodations for students with exceptionalities. I would also explain to the teacher that I believe in hands-on, movement involving activities that get the kids up and excited to learn. I do not feel that staring at a computer screen and doing the work independently is beneficial to students at such a young age.

I do believe in teachers utilizing the internet for new and creative lesson plans or curriculum ideas. One website I love is author and illustrator Jan Brett's website. On her site she has many different games, flashcards, activities, and crafts to go along with her books. She is my favorite children's book author/illustrator and I love all the activities teachers can print out and use. It can be a really helpful site to incorporate ideas to use her books in your curriculum! Check out her site! It's awesome!