Megan Rerucha

Title: 5 Innovations From The Past Decade That Aim To Change The American Classroom

Website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/technology-changes-classrooms_n_7190910.html

This article focuses on five technologies that have greatly impacted and changed the way that teachers teach and students learn.

1. New Types of Chalkboards:
Over 2 million classrooms (60% of classrooms in the US) have interactive whiteboards. There are various uses for this type of technology. but they all allow teachers to write on and save notes to send to students. It conveniently combines multiple technologies into one!

2. Remote Learning:
Students can view lessons online when they are not physically at school. On a snow day students don't appreciate this type of technological innovation, however, students that are homebound or in the hospital for longs periods of time certainly do! They can stay caught up in school and still interact with their peers.

3. e-Books:
These mobile online textbooks are cost effective and convenient to use. There are tools incorporated within e-Books that allow kids to highlight, take notes, and search for key terms with a search feature.

4. Computer-Based Testing:
This new trend is far from perfect, but it is the direction we are heading. Testing online gives students quick feedback on their progress, which they love. Once all the bugs worked out, this will become an even more widespread practice.

5. Educational Games
Teachers get kids engaged and excited about learning and can see where students might need some extra work.

Although there are many great things that have come from the use of technology in the classroom, there are also some drawbacks. One of the major concerns is cheating. The good news is that we have already started to create ways to monitor this (turnitin.com). Another problem with using technology is that kids are so easily distracted and keeping them focused on the task at hand can be a daunting one.

As you can see there are some concerns for using technology in the classroom, but at the end of the day it seems as though the pros far outweigh the cons. Over the last ten years technology has made learning personalized, immediate, and interactive. I wonder what the next ten years will have in store for education!

Ben Tompkins_Article Reflection

Title: "A Look at Recent Findings on Technology in the Classroom" by Drew Hendricks

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-hendricks/technology-education_b_2867458.html

Reflection:

The article A Look at Recent Findings on Technology in the Classroom by Drew Hendricks focuses on the one main reason we need to implement technology in the classroom. That reason? Simple: everyone is different. We say it all the time, but what are we doing to reinforce it? The article states that there are no "cookie cutter" lessons or a "one-size-fits-all" education that will work for every student. We constantly talk and preach about how to differentiate in the classroom. You want to know the easiest and most effective way to differentiate in the classroom? Begin implementing technology. The article goes on to state that technology allows us to cater to each student's individual needs. We're actually able to accommodate every student in a way that was never available to us before.

Sounds good, right? So, what's stopping us? Change brings the unknown, which brings resistance. We're currently facing a string of challenges with implementing technology in the classroom. First, not every school as quality technology, which ends up causing more of a burden on the classroom. Second, not every teacher or student understands how to use the technology in the most efficient way possible. This point is beginning to change. With awesome classes, such as those offered by Doane, being taught to soon-to-be teachers, we're preventing problems with technology down the road. Third, practice makes perfect, and some teachers just don't want to take the time to practice. I mean, why should they? They've taught for over 20 years, understand the lessons, and know exactly how to teach the content. I would presume it's difficult to teach teachers the efficiency of using technology when they have spent their entire life crafting their teaching methods to be as efficient as possible.

Overall, this article says what all teachers need to keep in mind: technology helps us differentiate. It's not going anywhere either. Technology is only going to become more and more intertwined in our lives, so we might as well sit back and plug in.

 

Title of Article: Reading the Web

Resource: The Reading Teacher

Volume 68

Published on behalf of International Reading Association.

           The article I read is about how a teacher, Ms. Peters, uses technology within her second grade guided reading group. She incorporates four strategies within the text that consists of predictions, clarifying, summarizing, and creating a question. As a group, they preview the guided reading level J text called Kangaroos. Students make predictions about what they will be learning about in the text. Then they engage in clarifying discussions with the teacher regarding pronunciation and meaning of a word. At the end, the group summarizes the book and a question about the content is created. The question they created is the following: What are the different kinds of kangaroos?

After a question is created as a group with the assistance of the teacher, they move on to the search engine KidRex. It has the following three elements: title, snippet, and URL. At this point, Ms. Peters models how to use the search engine to find information about the different types of kangaroos. Together they look at the search results title words are the same as the words in their question and if the words are bold, read the snippet, and look at the URL to decide which resource to use to answer their question.

Once a link is chosen, the students use their individual iPad’s to explore the selected webpage and find information regarding their question. During this time, students are able to make text to text connections. Also, based on the format of the website Ms. Peters divides the text between the children. Finally, they create a collaborative summary of their reading and students use the Popplet app to organize their information about the three different kinds of kangaroos.

            After reading this article, I am eager to try this strategy within my guided reading groups. I am curious to explore the search engine that this teacher used along with the app. This is an interesting and exciting way to use technology within the classroom to enhance students’ knowledge on the concept being learned in class.