Tech Trends of the Future

In terms of my future classroom, I think that the "peer to peer" aspect of technology would be one of my main focuses.  I would love to use online resources to stay connected with my class outside of the classroom.  I find education websites, like edmodo.com, to be a great resource for keeping students connected as well as providing them with a space to share ideas, concerns, or thoughts about class.  I would love to encourage students to post articles, videos, or interesting information that they find that relate to what we are learning in class on a shared webpage.  Overall, I want to encourage the building of relationships within and beyond my classroom.  I also would like to use "peer to peer" technology by setting up Skype dates with a Spanish-speaking classroom.  This would allow my students to cross cultural boundaries in my class as well as force them to use Spanish as the only source of communication.  Plus, I think this would be such a rich and unique experience! Another aspect of technology that I can see myself utilizing in the future are the "web apps".  Apple already has a Google translate app and it is very useful when I can't remember a word in Spanish and need a quick way to look it up.  This would be beneficial to have in my classroom and I would encourage my students to get the app like this that could help them with Spanish.  There are so many great options for using apps to help advance learning and I'm excited to see what other type of language apps are created in the future.

Communicating "student-friendly" objectives

After reading the blog about "student friendly" learning goals, I began to reflect on whether or not objectives in my classrooms have really enhanced my learning, and if so, how? I started to think of classes in which the teacher began each day by giving us an overview of what we would be doing.  I remember thinking that I loved when teachers did this because it gave me a vision for what class would look like for that day.  It was good when the teachers would post the agenda on the board for us to read, but there is something more significant a teacher actively explaining the activities and exercises.  In terms of technology, I think that using PowerPoint to project the objectives for the class each day could be beneficial.  However, I think it would only be beneficial if the teacher actually explained the objectives that were listed on the slide.  Simply putting the agenda or objectives up for the class to see wouldn't have the same benefits as the teacher actively going through and explaining each objective thoroughly.  Another way technology could help with communicating learning objectives would be to generate a end of the class quiz (using clickers) to see if the students feel that they are competent in all of the learning objectives that were set for the day.  Therefore, the teacher could gather a sense of the class's learning for the day.  Also, it would remind the students of the goals and objectives that they should have taken from class. That way, if the students don't feel that they have reached understanding of these objectives, then they can seek out the teacher for clarification.  Overall, I think that the most important thing when it comes to "student-friendly" objectives is not necessarily the way that they are presented or written but the way that they are communicated to the students.  Communication is key!

Technology in Education

Growing up in the 21st century, technology has really been a huge part of education.  I don't ever feel as if technology has taken the place of education in any way but I have seen it facilitate learning in many different situations.  In college, technology through e-mail and websites has really been a lifeline in education.  The communication that is available between teachers and students is really incredible.  I love that everything I need to know about a class is usually available online.  This allows for students to always have access to what is going on and also creates a need for personal responsibility among students.  It becomes the student's responsibility to stay connected and clued-in about class through the technology.  I think that I am satisfied with the amount of technology that is used in classrooms today but I worry about it becoming too much a part of our culture.  I think that technology is good as a helper for education and communication, as long as it is reasonably managed.  In the future of education, I would never want to lose personal contact with my students.  Face-to-face communication is so imperative to me and I would never want that to change.  I do also feel that the action of putting pen to paper is powerful so my hope is that we never stray too far from that.  Blogging is so great but I think I would really like for my students to journal and take notes by hand. In my future classroom, I envision using technology to communicate well with students outside of class, and then really utilizing my time in class for personal interaction time.  I'm excited about the possibilities that  technology brings, especially by increasing communication between students, parents, and teachers.

My initial impression of TEAC 259 was that it was going to be a course on how to use PowerPoint, iMovie, iPhoto, Google, or other programs.  I was expecting to learn step-by-step instructions on different programs that we could use for instruction.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the class is a lot more about how to become better educators USING technology.  I am happy to find that this course will prepare me for teaching in ways that I had not anticipated.