Educational Technology-Week 2

I have learned so much great information about spreadsheets and databases this week.  This is effective software for helping people more productive on the job and to improve efficiency.  These tools can be used to create documents, brochures, charts, graphs, and newsletters and they have the potential to enhance teaching.  These tools can also enhance learning for students because it has the potential to be made engaging for students.  I learned that spreadsheets are effective for preparing various types of numeric data and can easily demonstrate “what-if” analyses.  Databases can be used for easy access of lesson plans and prepare targeted summaries of content to address students’ needs. 

I am not currently a teacher but I have found a few sites that I will refer to when I am a teacher.  One website that I found that discusses spreadsheet use in K-12 classes is a website made by Dr. Christie.  The URL is http://www.alicechristie.org/edtech/ss/.  She lists many different activities you can use a spreadsheet for in the classroom.  There are examples of different questions you can ask a class in order to give examples of graphs and charts and there are also links to different interactive websites that can help a teacher incorporate spreadsheets.  I noticed that many of her suggestions for using spreadsheets are when teaching about math and science.  I agree that this is a great tool for engaging students in math and science lessons. 

In the past I have used spreadsheets and databases for keeping a budget.  I keep track of our estimated spending for the month and the actual spending we did for the month.  It is very simple to input the amounts and have a clear visual of what we have spent.  I have also used a spreadsheet for keeping track of a large amount of addresses. 

Finally, throughout the week I have learned that one of the best purposes of a spreadsheet or database is to record grades and the students’ progress throughout the school year.  This is an easy way to demonstrate to parents the progress of their student when having a teacher-parent conference.  These resources are also a very efficient and effective way to keep track of students’ grades.  Once you have created the spreadsheet it is simple to input grades throughout the school year.         

Educational Technology-Week One

The first week of class has really opened my eyes to the amount of educational technology there is available to teachers and the influence technology can have on student academic performance.  The most important thing that I learned this week is the National Educational Technology Standards.  Prior to this class I was unaware of the technology standards that are put in place for evaluating the skills and knowledge that educators are expected to teach their students.  I was very thankful to be able to read details about these standards and think about how I would implement them into the way my classroom functions. 

These standards are very crucial; it is great that I am taking this class and I am able to learn about the many avenues of technology available.  I feel that I have already learned about technologies that I was unfamiliar with.  The resource I found very exciting was Mr. Langhorst’s Web Classroom.  A classroom website is a resource that I want to implement in my classroom immediately.  I think that a classroom website would be very effective for an elementary class.  It is a great way to keep parents up to date with the activities, projects, grades, and a volunteer list.  It is also an effective way to post a weekly or biweekly classroom newsletter that parents are able to count on reading regularly.  I would establish the website before the school year begins and discuss the benefits of this resource with parents at open house.  For any parent that could not be there I would send home a flyer for the first couple of weeks with the link and information about the website.

The challenge with this resource would be the lack of parent commitment to checking the website.  Some parents may not have access to the internet as easily as others.  If a parent does not have easy access to the internet and they are unaware of any activities or assignments, this resource would not be convenient for them to get the information they need.  In order to overcome this challenge I would also make copies of the classroom newsletter and send that home with the students.  Although, this would not have all of the information that the website would have, it would update the parents with limited access to the internet on any important information that needed to be relayed to them.

Finally, I really enjoyed the technology explorations.  Both the Tumblebooks and the Tikatok are resources that I am excited to use as an elementary school teacher.  The Tumblebooks is a great addition to a reading program and can be used to improve the students reading comprehension.  It is a resource that can easily be incorporated into a teacher’s lesson plan.  The Tikatok was another great resource that could be used as an exciting project for the students.  Tikatok was a website that allowed students to create their own storybook and add their corresponding illustrations.  It could be a project that reinforced the elements of a story.