Technology is so engaging to students. They love to use it and deserve to have it in their instruction. We are teaching 21st century students and have to cater to their needs. Students are growing up with a need for technology. As sad as this might be to some people, it is sometimes the only way to engage students. No matter the circumstances or our beliefs, we have to meet our students’ needs on a day by day basis. Technology makes learning more engaging and hands on for our students. Just the looks in their eyes when engaging in technology makes it all worth it.
Technology is always changing.
Teachers have to stay aware of and up to date on the latest and greatest technologies to teach their students in the best way possible. Teachers need to go to professional development opportunities on new technologies as often as they can. It is hard to learn new things without actively trying them out. It is so much easier to learn new technologies when going to professional development. It is not absolutely necessary if the teacher is actively learning and keeping up with technologies, though. I personally feel that it is worth it to go to professional developments though, especially if you need the professional development hours.
We have so many resources as teachers, that we really have no excuse as to why we are not using technology in our instruction. If we are up to date on technologies, we can easily incorporate them in our lessons. I do have to actively try and remember to incorporate technology, but when I do, it is so worth it. Technology can easily make any lesson into a group lesson. It is so easy to use if you keep up with it and are not making excuses. All in all, the point of this takeaway is not to make excuses!
My favorite assignment was creating the screen cast video. This assignment was very interesting and opened up a new way of giving instruction for. The task was so effortless to create but the impact was great. Especially with the distant learning going on , making screen cast videos became very important for me to relay information to parents and walk them through the information needed for their student to be successful. It also made it easy for me to engage with my students as I used screen cast to read stories and record activities that I later shred with my students. So this little hack that I learned in class has been utilized a lot over the last few weeks.
I will also definitely be changing my habits this year with my technology instruction. I slacked a little when it came to incorporating technology into my lessons. I used it only when I had to or in my small groups but after learning many new ways to use technology in the classroom I will definitely make technology in the classroom a priority. I also plan to use the websites that we learned about more, such as AVL, ALEX, PBS, etc. I will use ALEX more to find more detailed activities to coincide with my current lessons. I will incorporate see saw into my lesson to keep students engaged and excited about technology. I also plan to use some of the grading features to help cut down on paper and hand grading which will free up time to do other activities with the students. I have really enjoyed this class this semester and it came at really appropriate time considering how the world was thrown into technology and depended on technology for learning and surviving during this pandemic. I have learned more about technology these past few weeks and what is available to keep in touch with just the click of a button and never leaving home through zoom, webex, and google classroom/meet. This has really been an eye opener for what is really available for learning and the possibilities are endless. We as educators just have to open up and be willing to make technology a priority and I plan to do more of that in the years to come.
Wilson's Way 