Over the past eight weeks my ICT class has been exploring many technological tools to use in the classroom when we become teachers and I have been blogging about it!
At first I was unsure about putting random paragraphs on a page accessible by anyone on the web, but after the first two blogs it became a little less unknown/scary and more fun! I quite enjoyed keeping up with a blog and will most definitely have a classroom blog! Not only will this be a great cross-curricular tool but a great communication device with parents/community/other classrooms/friends/ of our classroom. One way that blogging could fulfill outcomes of English and Math are through the use of writing the blogs. It could become a weekly class duty and with all writing in early years students must use proper conventions, grammar, etc. By writing a blog every week as a class students will develop better writing skills and hopefully enjoy it in the process. The connection the Math that could be used is through the statistics that blogger shows. It could be used to calculate how many people on average view the blog, more number games or tasks associated with the statistics, etc. Using Social Studies through technology in the classroom also fulfills another continuum. By connecting with other classrooms' blog in the neighboring community or neighboring continent, students are developing their global citizenship and community knowledge.
Technology is becoming the way of the future and will be prevalent in all my students future careers. I am teaching students for jobs that have not been created yet. There is no better way to prepare students than to integrate the ever increasing effects of technology into the classroom. Although there is still a need for traditional research and paper/pencil work, technology is becoming more important than in the previous generations.
Although many of my education classes are beneficial, ICT has become very influential in how I will teach my future students. Many of the technology tools we learned about were about engaging learning but also about organizing the resources available on the web. I have posted about organizing resources in an earlier blog, look there to find out about those!
Engaging students with disabilities or different learning strategies is also highlighted through using technology. If students learn best visually, having a visuals projected on the Smart board with cater to the learning of these students. If a student is a kinesthetic learner, having a Smart board in the classroom is interactive and can help this student learn better.
Technology has opened up a new world of what I can do for my students and what I can do in my classroom. There is no better resource that is endless and has so many different capabilities. I look forward to my next chapter of student teaching with technology!
