1a-+How+Technology+is+Being+Used

How technology is currently being used at Prefect Middle School

This page contains a few examples of how technology is currently being used in our school. Please feel free to contribute your ideas here to share with other teachers. (This can also be a place where teachers can form a Professional Learning Community and support learning.)

Many teachers use classroom computers as a reward for students who finish their work. Students typically visit Internet games on sites such as Starfall.com and funbrain.com. This is, unfortunately, the extent to which many of these computers are being used so let's begin to brainstorm our options.

Some ideas for how to "step up" use of technology in the classroom are:

**Audacity:** Students can create podcasts to narrate movies or to demonstrate narrative skills. Audacity can also be used in the elementary classroom to help monitor and support fluency in reading.

**Classroom Blogs:** Each student has the option to join and participate in classroom discussions online. Teachers can create the discussions and be responsible for keeping them interesting and lively.

This blog is for a seventh grade class to give students the opportunity to clarify information outside of class: []. (See "Questions Blog.")

Classroom Wikis can be used to supply both parents and students with necessary information needed to be successful in any given content area. Below are 2 examples of Wikispaces used in classrooms.
 * Classrooom Wikis: **

The Wiki below is used in a third grade classroom mainly for Math Challenges to support the current math program. This wiki allows students to think critically, using higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy to analyze student work samples. After reading the challenge, students are to respond in the discussion area to support their thinking, and respond to one other student. [|www.stoyle.wikispaces.com] This Wiki was created as a math resource for an entire grade level. This site is used by teachers, parents, and students to communicate resources and best practices in regards to mathematics. [|www.grade3math.wikispaces.com]

**Digital cameras/ Windows Movie Maker:** Students can create image only movies on a topic that is being studied. Students can also transform existing Powerpoints into movies using this program.

Students can visit geographic locations they are studying through the use of this site to make the learning experiences come alive.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">Google Earth: **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%; overflow: hidden;">**Skype:** Students will partner with a similar age classroom across the country to complete a book discussion / talk about the geography of their region.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 200%;">Why are we not at the optimal situation? **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">As Susan Brooks-Young aptly stated in her book, Critical Technology Issues for School Leaders, "One of the impediments to effective technology integration is the fact that most teachers in classrooms today did not grow up as technology users themselves." (p. 8) Additionally, the rapid growth of current technologies has outpaced our ability to adopt new practices and adapt them to our curriculum. Lastly, we have not had a lot of hands on computer time to work with our students on projects. It is only in using technology on a regular basis that our students' (and in turn, our own) skills will improve.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">And things are moving fast. Many schools are adopting a more ubiquitous use of technology, letting students use cell phones, Twitter, social networking or laptops in the classrooms and as part of projects. And, some schools are beginning to think about replacing text books entirely with e-readers. In order to work most effectively within the situation we have, we need to maximize our opportunities to effectively incorporate technology with what our students are doing, both in the classroom and beyond.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 150%;">We cannot use technology as a time waster or to accomplish a task we would have done in another way (unless the technology is truly enhancing that experience). Examples include allowing students to play education games or having students read a book and then take a quiz online. We need to re-invent dynamic, interesting technology based projects based on 21st century skills that allow students to collaborate, create, communicate and engage in critical thinking exercises... Once every teacher is committed to incorporating technology in this way, we will have achieved the optimal situation.

Let's Begin Learning to Change....Changing to Learn!

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">References:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Brooks-Young, S. (2006). Critical Technology Issues for School Leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Learning to Change Changing to Learn Advancing K-12 Technology Leadership, Consortium for School Networking (COSN) Video (n.d.) YouTube retrieved from [] on November 5, 2010.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">[|Step-Up Image] (n.d.) retrieved from [|http://www.google.com/imgres?] on November 3, 2010.