Teaching+with+Tech+summary

Teaching with Technology was a very insightful class that gave me some great technology ideas to incorporate into my lesson. One of the readings stated, “Unlike a printed textbook, in which the examples are limited in number and selected by the publisher, the array of materials available in digital form (online and on multimedia disks) lets us build expansive collections of examples suited to our instructional needs and the needs of our students.” (Rose & Meyer, 2002) This class demonstrated many of these materials and had us create lessons with them. They include Google sites, wiki’s, blog, and Ebooks. All of these tools are great for individual and group work and assessments. One of our other readings supported this by stating this “…new type of assessment model is perfect for group activity, in which teams are free to consider all possibilities.” (Solomon & Schrum, 2007) The main focus in this class was the group project in which we all had a chance to incorporate the various technology tools into a lesson. The group project was different then others I have been in because it lasted the length of the course. Typically I have experienced 1 week of group work with a 5 week course. Because of the length of time spent with the group members we gained experience using the actual tools we learned about in the course. We also where able to share ideas and concepts we learned which helped broaden our understanding of the materials covered. The group project demonstrated how “ social networking tools have passed beyond personal, spare-time use to full-scale corporate communications tools.” (McPheeters, 2009) We took online tools people use to communicate and created a very large lesson out of them. “Our understanding of learning and teaching is constantly reshaped by theory, applied research, and changing media.” (Rose & Meyer, 2002) This class will help me “reshape” the way I create my lessons and how I assess my students.

References:

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). // Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. //Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web site. Retrieved from Http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). // Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. // Eugene  , OR   : International Society for Technology in Education

McPheeters, D. (209, March). Social networking technologies in education. // Tech and learning. //Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/16350