Digital Blog Post L

Chapter 12

The beginning of this chapter talks about an educational change because of technology integration in classrooms. Yes, there is a change. Technology can be used in so many different varieties and makes teaching and learning so much easier. I also agree with the book when it says Technology integration and educational change do not automatically occur just by including computers in a lesson and in a classroom. It should be well thought when providing technology to children. The book describes 2 elements of working with technology to create successful learning. The first is Teachers mindset. A teacher need to think carefully about how to use technology in the lesson plan. It should be planned before use. The book says "content must come before technology", I agree because otherwise students would have to much free using time with it which might lead into seeing age inappropriate content through the Internet.
     I sometimes use youtube to find songs for the children. We also have CDs and tapes with music and stories for the children, but with the help of Youtube, the variety of songs and educational material and stories grows bigger. One of my favorite songs to show the children is the compound boogie by Dr. Jean. This song is fun to sing for children and teaches them compund words. The video shows pictures of 2 objects that will be put together to form the new word and they will see a picture of that word too.

     The second element is multiple pathways. The book says there are an ever increasing number of  ways for teachers and students to use technology and achieve important learning goals. New teachers tend to assume that effective technology integration happens only when schools have one computer for every student. I agree with the book that states that exciting instructional activities can occur using only one or two computers. Also it explains that technology integration is more about how technology is used by teachers than about the amount of technology provided. In our class, we integrated a small group time because the class contains 19 children total. 15 minutes of the day, each teacher gets 9 or 10 students to sit together doing projects or learning a new concept. The computer is perfect for use in our small group time. It lets us adding educational videos and games into the lesson or concept that we currently talk about. The 10 children can sit in front of the screen and watch a small sequence together while learning about a specific content.
     Next, I am talking about the section "Technology Integration Stages and Issues". Teachers today do best if they have some basic skills in using technology to integrate it in teaching. It need to be chosen wisely how we can introduce technology to students as learning material. The book defines a technology using educator as someone who makes informed choices and uses technology wherever it increases students involvement in learning and not using it for boring, confusing class activities. I think, computer use should mostly be teacher directed or at least with rules made up before student use. For one of my lessons that I planned, I let the children watch a short sequenced video about a specific topic, for example recycling, and after that let them draw a journal entry about what they have learned and remembered from the video. After that, they can explain one of the teachers in their own words what they drew. This promotes listening and thinking skills and helps to enhance vocabulary knowledge for our preschool children. A technology using educator also explores technology. Students learning with a technology using teacher are not just consumers of technology but creators and critics of it as well. They are aware of technologies power to improve education or impede it. Technology offers a wide variety of tools to use in classrooms. This class taught me even more tools than I already have seen before. It is amazing what kind of different possibilities we have to integrate in lessons. A technology using educator promotes change  at the classroom according to the book. I think, technology can make teaching and learning more creative and more colorful. We can move away from the traditional blackboard/worksheet learning experiences and start reaching learning goals interactively.
     I have learned there are different opinions between people about using the computer in classrooms. In our school, I try to limit the free use of the computer for children to one day of a week because it will result in a large group of people sticking in front of one little screen. After a while they would start fighting about taking turns and watch and play different things. Now, every Friday I will give turns to small groups of students in our aftercare program to explore and play with the computer. We told them to follow some rules we have made so the computer use is safe. Some teachers told me the computer is considered as a center and can be used on a daily basis. Our new director was very sceptic when I told her that I integrate the use of a computer for educational purposes into our VPK wrap up circle sometimes. She would like tapes and CDs more than pictures and videos on a screen. I think, we have to watch closely what our children do within the free computer use time. We allow them to play educational games and watch some educational cartoons like the magic school bus. We gave a limited access to Youtube for them and always ask them to let us know what they watch. It is very important to keep the internet use safe.
The article "Do Computers in the Classroom boost academic achievement?" from the Heritage Foundation, written by Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D, discusses if it is really effective to use computers as a teaching tool.    
     The next section I am talking about is "using the technology you have successfully". The book says that there is no single formula for what to do best, just because technology is not evenly distributed among schools. Some schools have access to multiple computers and some schools have access to just one or two computers per classroom. Some instructional activities will work well with multiple computers will be impossible with just a one computer access. I agree to the book that as a teacher, you have to think carefully and creatively about how to use technology that is available to achieve maximum learning potential. The book suggests to ask other teachers what they do and ask students what their experiences are. A teacher should always be curious about the most effective ways to maximize the potential of the tools. I have 2 boys in my Afterschool group who always want to be planning helpers. They give me suggestions about what they like to try out at School off days, or they tell me their favorite activities that we did in the past and ask if we can repeat them. I do fun experiments, directed projects or creative food activities with the children on No-School days. They always have fun with it and they mostly talk about them weeks and months after we did them. It is a good thing to integrate the children into planning and ask them what they like because at the end it is them who will be the main people in this lesson because they try, explore and learn from it. We shouldn't do different with Technology use. Let them decide what they remember from before and let them help choosing fun games and activities. While using so much technology in classrooms we still should remember that their is a variety of things to do away from a computer and those things should not be forgotten. A Teacher should find a healthy, fun mix of traditional teaching lessons and electronic teaching lessons to keep the day interesting and free of stress.

citations

Beeblebrox01-Kindergarten(2010) Dr. Jean - Compound Boogie (video) retrieved from Youtube.com

Freitag, Julia (2015) Computers integrated in Lesson Plan vs. No Computers integrated in Lesson Plan (Mindmap) retrieved from Bubbl.us

Johnson, Kirk Ph.D(2000) Do Computers in the Classroom boost academic achievement? retrieved from The Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Schoolastic.com/magicschoolbus/ , The Magic Schoolbus (2015)