Chapter 6: Technology, Digital Media, and Curriculum Integration

This chapter, titled "Technology, Digital Media, and Curriculum Integration," explains to us ways in which we can integrate technology and other digital media into our classrooms. As a student growing up in the "age of computers" (as I like to think of it, ha.) I have seen first hand the positive effects that the everyday presence of technology can have on students. Although some people are uncomfortable integrating such things in their classrooms, I feel that the benefits highly outweigh the negative effects this could have. Chapter 6 tells us that the best way for curriculum integration is to put the technology into the hands of trained teachers, make it easily accessible, and let them decide how best to use it at the point of instruction in their classrooms. I couldn't agree with this more. I think that if you have a teacher that is comfortable with integrating a lot of technology into his or her classroom the way that he or she wants to, then they are going to get a lot of positive feedback from their students. The book also tells us that the main goal of teaching strategies is to provide a consistent application of technology tools to support instructional curriculum areas. It is also important to give every student the opportunity to work with computers and related technologies. I believe that the more each student is exposed to these technologies, the greater learning capacity they will have for the greater technology of the future. Something else that I like that the chapter discussed was the ASSURE model. This is an instructional model used by educators to develop technology-enriched lessons. It tells us to 1) analyze teh learner, 2) state objectives, 3) select methods, media, and materials, 4) utilize methods, media, and materials, 5) require learner participation, and 6) evaluate and revise. I think that this would be a very helpful, effective tool when developing instructional lessons in the classroom.

Some new skills that I have acquired since my last posting are in Power Point, for the most part. I think I learned most of my new skills by simply playing around with different buttons and seeing what happened. Although it may not be the most professional and efficient manner, I did in fact learn a lot of new things that I don't think I would have learned had I not had an assignment like the Linear Power Point. I could see myself using this a lot in my classroom, especially since I hope to teach science. I'm hoping to even save presentation that I created for this assignment and use it for a possible chapter on astronomy!

Last Friday I did some of my service learning at the Florida State University Schools (both middle school and high school). During one of the algebra/geometry classes that I observed, the teacher utilized a piece of equipment that I had read about in our of our previous chapters, the Tablet PC. He hooked it up to his laptop and used it like an over head projector. Instead of having to erase the transparencies and get new ones, he simply opened up a new document on the computer while he saved the one he just worked out. I thought this was a very efficient and effective way to integrate technology. At times, he would allow the students to show their work on the Tablet PC, which helped maintain their interest throughout the class. It was really great to see something that I've been reading about used in action!