Chapter 8 Reflection

Technology is so integrated with everything we do and every aspect of life, it’s hard to imagine teaching without it. Yet for generations, teachers and students managed to survive and thrive. Today, the computer is a useful tool and helps students become more involved. Children grow up so reliant on digital images and video that it’s really like a language that you have to speak to be able to communicate with young people. It is critical that children have exposure to as much technology as possible and it is certainly an advantage in the real world.

There seems though to be a great disparity in the technology available from one classroom to the next. Well-funded suburban schools have incredible equipment and resources. Even some of the CPS schools have sophisticated equipment I have heard. Unfortunately, my clinical classroom has one computer, for the teacher’s use only, although the kids have a 40-minute session once a week in the computer lab. It’s helpful that our text mentions that there are ideas and suggestions for the one computer classroom, p. 223. (It’s funny that the resources are over ten years old!)

I appreciate what the authors say about “Acceptable Use Policies for the Internet” p. 227. It’s important to have Internet Standards in place and a good idea to have students sign off on what is acceptable use. Last year, we had to deal with a student who used someone’s password and was going to play a childish prank. It was innocent enough but something like that can get out of hand very easily. It’s good to make kids aware that the information on the computer needs to be taken seriously.

Things that I will definitely use (and already use) are Excel spreadsheets, pie charts and bar graphs, and digital cameras. In my plants unit, I am going to use daily digital photos to document and measure a plant’s growth. If I was actually doing it in my own classroom, I could use my own camera, equipment, and laptop, which wouldn’t cost the school or me any additional money. I also like the website BrainPop and look forward to trying Kid Pix and Kidspiration. The authors’ guide to evaluating software provided in the text will certainly be handy in the future. Finally, I think it would be important to stay up to date with technology as much as possible, to seek out classes and seminars to keep current with on-going innovations. Technological advances can help all areas of the curriculum, not just science.