Final Exam Video

How-to Guide for Veteran Teachers

If I were instructing a veteran teacher on how-to integrate technology into the classroom, I would begin by letting him or her know that technology is forever changing and there is no way to keep up. The only option for dealing with this is to know that it is also forever changing for the students so he or she must be able to efficiently guide and enhance the learning experience of the students via technology. It integrate the new technologies of today, a veteran teacher may choose to enhance instructional time by including a Poll Everywhere Survey as a Summarizing Strategy within a lesson. By doing this, the teacher will simply sign up on the website www.polleverywhere.com and follow the guidelines to create a survey. This is a simple interactive way to include the students in the lesson while allowing them to use their cell phones as a way to text answers within the class. As a current student, a cell phone is a part of my life and they are here to stay; I do not leave home without it, ever! With this being understood, allowing the students the opportunity to text answers during class will also help eliminate the need to fulfill a “tech-itch”; hence, allowing the students to focus on the lesson at hand. Also, as with most things in life, those that are “forbidden” seem to be the most enticing. Therefore, incorporating technology in the everyday classroom makes things like cell phone cameras and test messages seem less enticing because they are not “forbidden”. Also, I would suggest that the teacher integrate non-linear Power Point presentations. I have sat through many Power Points, and they can be 100 times worse than any lecture from a book or other types of notes. By involving the students in hyperlinked questions and answers, or allowing a slide to have a choice by which the lecture can change paths based on discussions with the students or by options the students are given allows the lecture to have an additive for the students to follow. This is a thing for the teacher to add into his or her notes. He or she would just have to right-click hyperlink this slide on the slide he or she wants to embed. I would conclude by saying that if a veteran teacher wanted to include additional ways to include technology, I would instruct him or her to allow the students time to work on assignments that include the computer and the internet. These are two things that go hand-in-hand and most all students have a working knowledge of. It is important to remember that “research” is not the only activity that can be educational via the internet. For example, NASA is working vigorously to engage students in science. In doing so, they have several activities that can be found on the internet and are highly functional with classroom lessons. Why would any teacher not want to actively engage his or her students with activities that are free and available to the students in ways that spark their interest? It is important to remember as a veteran teacher (as even as I eventually work toward that point) that technology is not something that anyone can keep up with, but we must be willing to constantly “learn”. This is what is always instilled in our students so if this is the way by which they want to learn, we must conform to the ways that best interest our students. Engaging the students to learn independently is key, and technology is the one thing that most students have in common in some way or another. This can be used to unify the classroom and invoke students in many ways and will ultimately be the way of the future which will be here sooner rather than later. (Ironically, I read the article at hand on my smart phone because I was away from a computer, but had extra time at that moment...is this another way to conform to student convenience for their learning benefit? Just an additional after thought...)

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WebQuest

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WebQuest

Web Quest 101

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Gabcast

Here my "on the scene" Gabcast Post. I am sorry that it is not to terribly exciting, but it is what it is. Enjoy!

Gabcast! Educational Technology #0