Group 1 Rocks :)

Google reader has been a LIFESAVER this year with catching up on everyone's blogs. I have been able to go to one site and scroll my way through a weeks worth of data entries on 15 different peoples different websites. I have found that there are so many little things on the internet that work to the benefit of students and educators alike. The Blog and the Wiki have also been very interesting forms of communcation I never expected to use for a classroom setting. It is an easy way to find a lot of information in one area.

Within our cohort, we started this semester with a lot of different technology information but have now come on the other side with a lot of new knowledge. It is funny to see the similarities between my classmates on the same questions even though we have different subject matters. Everybody makes valid points of how to use different technology aspects in different context.

Lots of people had ideas about brining technology into the classroom but one that I did not see or remember well is on Megan's blog about the site Scribd that allows a classroom to be mainly paperless by being a site that is an avenue for students to submit papers. For someone in science, it is awesome to hear of other students in my class that are looking out for the environment in their own fields. I know English teachers have a lot of papers to grade so having them be able to use less can help our carbon footprint a lot. Other then it helping with a carbon footprint, it allows easily for collaboration on the work that a student submits. There are more opportunities for people other then the teacher to comment on a students work, just like we do on blogs and wikis. It seems to come full circle. 

Another idea that I found very interesting and unique was on Sarah's blog about the use of more mainstream technology aspects in the classroom. She explains how iPads/iPods/iPhones can be used for assistance in classrooms, especially for students with hearing impairments. I would never have thought of something that now seems so common for most of our students to have access too or use at times to be beneficial to their learning styles. It shows how educators are ever changing to the new demands of their students.

Students need to be comfortable with the technology that is around them but understand how to use it well and appropriate where needed. Students are interacting with more then just themselves on the internet and there are plenty of people that will be out there reading what students write about or express on the internet. All of my classmates have appropriate ways to incorporate these newfound glories to their class, but the main feelings I think as a group we think are that these tools need to appropriate for the audience, collaborative with others to learn from not just yourself, and enjoyable since no one wants to participate in something they don't enjoy. I feel ready to start my student teaching with a a full amount of toolbox items that continue to help me be a more effective teacher.

References:

Lacey, M. (2011). Finding the words: Literacy in the classroom. Retrieved from http://mlacey.blogspot.com/

Pierz, S. (2011). Language Arts in Action: Putting assistive technology to use.  Retrieved from http://mrspierz.blogspot.com