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.
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4 comments:
I think that there is a way to incorporate technology in the classroom even at such a young age. I feel that imovie can be used in a kindergarten or first grade classroom. Maybe the students would not create the imovie, but you as a teacher can put together a short clip to show the parents. It could include things about what you plan on covering throughout the year, how you plan on teaching the students, etc. On the other hand, I totally agree with you when you mentioned how we need more time in class to do work. I do feel that this class is very stressful and it is very difficult to keep track of all of our work that we have to do. I also think that she should give us more time in class to work on projects because it is very hard to set up a time with your group to meet because everyone is so busy and has different schedules. Furthermore, I have learned a lot of new techniques that I can use in a classroom of my own one day or just for my own use. Overall, I love your points you made and you did a great job supporting them.
I think that teachers should have an open mind when going about teaching their children. By thinking that this class is not useful as an early childhood teacher, will not allow you to think outside of the box. Projects such as the iMovie that we completed could be adapted into an early childhood classroom. You have to be able to think of ways that young children can work with this tool. For example you could have them get in groups in make the assignment easier and incorporate direct-instruction. I think that it is important to find a way to make things work in an early childhood classroom especially if it has the potential to benefit your students.
I agree with Lauren. As future teachers, we need to be open-minded and willing to have high expectations for our students. Some of the skills may be above the level of kindergarten or 1st grade, but it is not impossible for an elementary student to use programs like iMovie. Also, we should definitely have a higher skill level than our students who are 6 years old. In order to be successful teachers, I feel that we need to know a lot more than just what needs to be taught. This class is frustrating and requires a lot of work, but I think it's preparing us for what our near future is going to be like. I do agree with you when you say we could use some more class time to use on projects. This would definitely be helpful, but being that we only meet once a week it's understandable that there's not always time for this. Hopefully you will change your mind about using technology in the classroom because it can be a great benefit for students to use, in the classroom and in our rapidly changing society.
I agree with the idea of having more class time to work on our projects. Many times, it seems like we spend so much time in class doing things that there couldn't possibly be any more work to be done outside of class.
I do not entirely agree with some of the thoughts about using technology in classrooms. I have seen students using research for projects and making their own PowerPoint presentations using that research. Students who are taught these things will be better prepared for their future in middle and high school students. While some of the activities that we do seem too advanced, they can be adapted to be more developmentally appropriate for early childhood students.
The points that you make are valid but it is also important to keep an open mind when completing the assignments we do in class.
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