I believe that using technology in the classroom should enhance understanding, communication and life skills of every student regardless of their economic background.
Digital Citizenship
Skills in digital citizenship can be communicated and modeled whenever using the internet in class. When citing sources, making an online presence and researching any content the teacher can communicate the do's and dont's, the rights they have, and the level of appropriate behavior they should have on the internet.
Tech Tools
A Web 2.0 tool I found in this class was Desmos; which is an interactive graphing tool that teaches the intuition behind using graphs and equations. Another that inspired me was Nearpod, this website creates an interactive "powerpoint" where the teacher can make polls, quizzes, drawing contests, fill in the blank and more. I recently found another Web 2.0 tool called Brainstorm and its gives student scenarios like they were engineers and astronauts, bankers, etc. In these scenarios students are asked to problem solve using math and science techniques from their grade level. I think this could be an amazing tool to not only build problem solving intuition but spark curiosity to the different fields of math and science.
Limitations
Although technology can bring many wonderful things to the classroom it does have limitations. Many resources have linked depression to the rise of technology,elaborating about how it has allowed kids to avoid communication and have little face to face relationships. So in a classroom its really important to balance face to face interaction and screen time wisely. Another limitation is the technological gap with students from lower income families. I experienced this myself assigning an online assignment to a student who didn't own a computer or wifi. Being aware of this gap and bridging it with lesson differentiation is a great skill to learn as a teacher.
Assistive Technology
Technology comes in many different forms, one of which has a key role in the quality of education for students with disabilities. This is assistive technology, in my future teaching I plan to practice differentiation in my lessons so my lessons can be adaptive to any students needs and levels. Graphing calculators are very necessary in some math classrooms. For students who struggle with pressing small buttons I can offer online calculators and for a more manual version we can use graphs on dry erase boards and smart boards.
New Technology
Technology is constantly changing and evolving and I think some of the best ways to stay connected to new technology is to talk with students and have an active online presence. In class we set up a twitter account and the chats I've seen are very informative of new technologies and strategies to use them.
The Active Teacher
The most important concept I've learned in this class is learning how to be an active teacher. Not active in the sense of being energetic and spunky but being aware and alert of the little things like siting photos and reading the terms and conditions of a website.
Being an active teacher online as well as in the classroom
There's much more to teaching than how to communicate content; a lot of teaching is about being proactive with your students like building programs that inspire students and being informed about what's going on in the world. I learned a lot in this class and I aspire to be a tech savvy proactive teacher.
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