Tech & Learning

I am completely amazed by all of the technology that is available, if the funds are there of course, for teachers to use in the classroom. I came across and article in The Tech & Learning, April 2011 magazine, titled "Assitive Tech: May We Help You?" and once again I was taken aback by the ability of this technology. As a child, I was never exposed to technology in the classroom until I was in eighth grade and we did Autocad for shop class or when I typed my first paper. I do remember a brief typing class in fifth grade that was held in the gym/cafeteria along the wall with computers on protable tables with wheels. We never had a computer lab in grade school, and we had watched movies on film strips that had to be synched with a tape recorder for the sound, and if it was perfectly timed then the sound was off and it was like watching an old Japanese movie. Funny now, but many kdis do not realize how far technology has come and the great advantages they have now. I was never, and probably never will be a big fan of having elementary students type out papers rather then writing them, just because I know the importance of fine motor skills that they receive from wrtiting and not from typing, but I'm starting to change my ideas on technology in the classroom and how it can help various students in today's world. For one, students will need to know more about technology when entering the work force, where all I had to do was complete a typing test, I'm sure they will need to know more programs and actually know how to use them. And now to my point of how technology can help students. The article I read began with an autistic, but a fully capable student who absolutely refused to write a sentence, but with the use of an interactive whiteboard, the student was able to type out his first paragraph. In the changing times where students use more technology at home, I do think it is time for it be used more often in the classroom especially when it comes to unlocking potential in students that may have not been possible without the technology. One impressive device is the Epson BrighLink Interactive Projector. It is very similar to an interactive whiteboard, but it is a projector that puts and image on a wall and then a person can modify and change the image. Another cool program is Reading A to Z's projectable book in which students can "pick apart a story, and work in a group despite the wide variety of learners and abilities. Students can circle words, underline them , draw things in and even though the story may be more appropriate for the younger students, but the higher-functioning students can dissect it better. Another neat program was the VizZle, a web based lesson-creating resource that teaching teams can access through shared student folders and track assessment information." A teacher can put in an IP goal they're working on and drag lessons into that goal so that every time they do that lesson it is measured and then at the end of a certain time, a teacher can print out a progress graph. There were a lot of innovative programs teachers can use in a classroom. The biggest roadblock seems to be funding. Our teachers just recently recieved SMART boards in the classrooms, but are finding out that the technology on them are already going out of date, or that there is something better out there. Like I said before, I'm not a huge fan of using a lot of technology in the classroom, but finding out all of it possiblilities has really started to make it more appealing to use. Only if I could use it in my library!