Technology in the classroom

Do you agree with this assertion?

"Technology is a central component in a modern learning environment. Technology can also be a great tool for reaching various audiences and making lesson plans exciting and surprising for students. Technology needs to be wisely integrated and controlled in the classroom to create the most effective lesson plans. The teacher must remain the central focus with technology used only as an aid and supplement to the larger goals of the classroom."

Sarah Vbra

www.ehow.com

In my opinion, the most important part of this extract is that we should never forget that technology is a tool and it should be well implemented in our lessons with a clear learning purpose  

and in a fun or exciting way. What do you think?

I have been reading my classmates' blogs... really interesting and informative. I think we are learning a lot! :)
In a way, this is a change of perspective for me. In the past, I used to say that we have to stick to traditional ways of teaching because I thought they were better and more effective.
My experience in my teaching practise at secondary school and all the presentations that my classmates' made for ECO and other subjects proved me wrong.
Technology IS useful, innovative and effective when it comes to teaching English.

Have a look at this article that I found and tell me what you think.

Technology in the English Classroom

There are many ways to use technology to enhance literature and English lessons.

By Amy Wilding

Posted April 22, 2010

Times have changed, and the role of teachers in the classroom has too. No longer can teachers be effective without incorporating technology into their lessons. For some, the thought of using computers, WebQuests, or Promethean Boards is a daunting proposition.  However, there are some easy ways to use technology.

If you are looking for a way to introduce your students to multimedia projects, try using Power Point. It is a very easy program to teach and learn. Students can practice copying and pasting pictures and text from the Internet, and experiment with colors and text effects. Once they have completed their project, students can present their finished work by showing their work slide-by-slide or having the PowerPoint presentation run like a movie. I have used Power Points to have students complete debates, book reports and multi-step projects. Before students begin work on these projects, I create a rubric that requires a specific number of slides, pictures, music etc . . . so that students know what I am expecting. I also evaluate how well the student used the available special effects. 

There is a new program called "Lit Trips" that is great for practically any content area. The specific topic is created by fellow teachers. Each trip contains numerous activities, discussion questions, pictures and even music.  My “trip” was with "The Kite Runner."  Using Google Earth, the trip mapped out the entire book chapter-by-chapter.  Within the trip, students were able to listen to music, take 3-D tours of historical buildings, and see up to date pictures of the cities.  The “Lit Trip” is a fun and interactive way for students to learn about the text and go beyond classroom discussion. Depending on the age of your students, you may be able to let them explore the trip on their own. Otherwise, you could create a specific list of questions they have to answer, or places they have to visit.

Another easy way to prepare your students for using technology is to start a blog. Blogs are an interactive way for students to communicate their ideas. The blog can be used for regular classroom assignments. After students have read a piece of literature or completed an assignment, they can comment on the classroom blog. This was a particular success with students who were afraid to share ideas in class. Using the blog, these students could communicate in a more comfortable environment. Once a week we would review the comments and questions in class. An additional benefit to using the blog format is that the same one can be used for several classes so that students can share ideas with students who aren't in their class.

www.lessonplanet.com/article/english/technology-in-the-english-classroom


Some interesting tools mentioned in this article:

- PowerPoint presentations: they had really worked for me during my teaching practises. My students told their unusual experiences in one of this presentations and, as I´ve already told you, they designed their own digital yearbook in the same format.

- Blogs: through this subject, I discovered the actual benefits of using blogs: sharing your experiences with your classmates and being able to "go back" to your own thoughts by revising and editing your posts and comments.

I would like to find more information about Lit trip. Can you help me?

5th course yearbook

I'm working a lot with my students in the design of their own yearbook in a Powerpoint presentation as our final project. It is great to make them use their netbooks and it seems that they are enjoying a lot working with technology in the classroom.

Using Google Docs

As regards my last post I consider that in that moment, I had a very negative perspective about my teaching practise and the use of ICT. It is not that difficult to incorporate the use of technology in the classroom. However, we have to be well-informed and up-dated in order to use it properly and in a useful way.

            What I could see in my second lesson is that they really enjoyed working with their netbooks. I asked them to work in small groups to look for some pictures related to extreme sports, famous people or exotic places (we were working with unusual experiences) and they came up with amazing photos and even videos. The outcome was much more interesting that the one I expected and it was great because they enjoyed it a lot and they worked until the last minute of the lesson.

            I think that we have to concentrate in the positive things and in the ways in which we can work with technology and students can profit and not just complaining because many of them do not have their netbooks as I did last week.

Here is an interesting article that I found about working with Google Docs…

USING GOOGLE DOCS AS TEACHING TOOL

            With the coming of Web 2.0 there have been remarkable changes in the way we use the computer. A webpage used to be static and contain data which surfers could just browse or download. Now web 2.0 has enabled users to interact with a website and therefore give their opinions, play online games or even store data on virtual hard disks.

            In this article we will explore the possibilities offered by Google Docs, a Web 2.0 application which has experienced significant development in recent years. Google Docs is an office suite of free software that allows users to create and edit documents online and store them in what is known as the cloud.

We will concentrate on the advantages of using Google Docs for teaching purposes, such as:

·        It is no longer necessary to carry your laptop with your favourite programs installed. As this application is available online, you can use any computer with Internet connection and may only have to carry a portable USB storage device like a pen drive.

·        Google Docs works with the most common digital formats like .ppt (MS PowerPoint), .pdf o .doc (MS Word).

·        It is deal for storing data or multimedia presentations that can be shown using an interactive whiteboard.

·        It facilitates collaborative work among teachers or between teachers and students as documents can be accessed online from any browser with a user name and password.

·        It runs with Windows or Linux.

·        It is a free application that only requires having an email account in any of the Google services.

HOW GOOGLE DOCS WORKS

            To get started you need an email account provided by Google such as Gmail or any other service like Reader, Blogger, etc.

            From right to left, you can see the following items:

·        A small screen showing the document that you have selected or highlighted in the list appearing in the middle screen. You can add a brief description and establish certain settings. The most important setting is related to sharing your document or not with other people, which offers a great deal of flexibility to work collaborately with the teaching staff at your school or institute or with other users.

·        In the middle there is a list of the documents that have been created and saved on your account. You can store up to 1GB of online created spreadsheets or text documents as well as upload any file from your computer.

TO SUM UP

      As you have seen, integrating Google Docs into the classroom can provide plenty of benefits for teachers and students alike. By using this online tool, documents can be shared and edited by multiple users at the same time, which enhances collaborative work.

      Teacher can make the most of its free storage capacity of 1GB to save and open files without having to carry them in a portable memory stick. They can store spreadsheets to manage attendance, record students’ marks or help them to create graphics. And students can answer short questionnaires online or print them.

      This article has been meant as an introduction to online office suites. In the next issues we will offer more examples of useful tools for English teachers, for example, how to use a word processor together with the orthographic corrector, how to combine sound and image in interactive presentations, how to make the most of drawing tools to teach vocabulary and so on.

Francisco García Jiménez

CEIP “Las Mimbres”

Maracena, Granada

Translated by Mariela Stara

The teacher’s magazine

Año XIII Nº 142 Diciembre 2011

Personal Reflection

Today I uploaded in moodle the lesson plan of my third class, which is designed with many tasks for my students to perform in their netbooks.
I find it very difficult to planned it. They have to work most of the time in pairs because half of them have their computer blocked or broken, but the main reason is that I am a digital inmigrant and planning tasks to be performed in the netbooks is still very difficult for me.

IPADS at school

Imagine having IPADS at school!! Great video!