It Takes a Village!

Hello parents! Welcome to my comfy corner of the internet, where ideas are born and shared, passed around, then passed back even better than they were before. I'm reaching out to you about the benefits of incorporating technology into classroom instruction. The PTA is holding a funding drive to update our technological resources, and we're reaching out to the community to participate in the fundraising efforts. I, however, will be reaching out to you.  Many of you I have been able to meet and talk with at length about our common concerns. Well, finding new ways to effectively deliver classroom content is on my short list of priorities, and it should be for you as well, for it involves the academic success of your children.

First, I would like to clear up some common concerns.

• "Unsupervised access to the internet poses a danger to students if they give away too much information about themselves to strangers."

Our school has a firewall in place that blocks all unsafe content considered to be unfit for their viewing.

• "Having access to computers can only serve as a distraction."

This is always that possibility for students who are unsupervised, but all projects in which computers are a central component will have very specific websites that they will utilize, and all others will be blocked out. The truth is that most job fields will require a strong understanding of how to use a computer and the software that's integral to them. Consider growth charts, money-over-time models, and simple data entry tasks when you think of the most rudimentary job skills that will be necessary. Furthermore, as continuing generations are increasingly "wired-in," digital presentations through computers and interactive whiteboards can only enhance our ability to keep the students engaged, motivated, and academically successful (Robyler & Doering, 2010, p. 14). Not only can we keep them engaged with the incorporation of technology, but it introduces new ways of learning, while still enhancing the more traditional ones.

Promethean Interactive Whiteboards

You remember the old "See-Say-Do" speech as you were making your way through school as a young tike? Those techniques are still central to what we call a differentiated methodology. The truth is that student bodies are not only becoming larger in general, but more varied. This means that we must try that much harder to ensure that everyone's best style of learning is represented. Let's kick those old transparent slide-toting projectors to the curb and start using an interactive whiteboard like the Promethean. Think of it as an iPad the size of a classroom's movie screen.  Not only is the teacher able to interact with the board directly with a tablet, but it can utilize text as well. Other assistive technologies such as microphones and object magnifiers are fully integratable and compatible. Using ActivInspire software, all the notes taken for the day can be saved and sent to the students individually via email, copied on a printer for their personal use, or posted to a website dedicated to classroom content.

• Example: In order to learn about graphing, students are encouraged to think of monthly payment plans they use to pay for a service. All of them pay their phone bill, so this is the model they decide to go with. Using point slope and slop intercept form, they determine a line that represents how much they pay over time. Then they make a separate line representing how much they must pay if they go over their minutes. Using the graphing, line drawing, and color-coding capabilities, their group is able to save the content and send it to their email addresses, or print it out on a printer if they do not have one yet.

 

Netbooks 

As students advance in their knowledge and the study of Mathematics gets more involved, it is important to give the students respite by showing them the interesting ways in which these strange numbers, characters, and symbols relate to the real world! By having one or two Netbooks available to students working in groups, they can be pointed to multiple examples on the web of the fascinating and even bizarre ways some of these theories are being utilized.

• Example: There is a wealth of websites with pictures of things in nature that are examples of how the Fibonacci sequence was first observed. By putting the students in groups and having them find information and pool it with the group, they can offer each other their perspectives on what they found as well as valuable feedback. This type of peer, group interaction makes my job a lot easier once they have a better idea of what I am going to talk about!

Just to reiterate: supervised use of technology with a specific project in mind can only help the learning process. Hopefully the examples I shared with you will dispense of any preconceived notions some of you may have had about the incorporation of technology in a classroom setting. I know many of you are all for it, but we need to reach a common ground if we are to have any level of success in getting the funds to accomplish this educational goal. To this end, I would love to get your feedback in the comments below. I know there are still some of you I have not had the pleasure of speaking with as of yet, so this is our opportunity to change that! Let's keep the ball rolling, and be sure to also share any ideas or resources that can help us spread the message about our fund drive. And remember, "It takes a village to raise a child."

References:

Roblyer, M.D., & Doering, A. (2010). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson


DISCLAIMER: This blog is an assignment for an educational technology course at National University. It is not a real fundraising blog.