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!