Technology Integration

This post is about technology integration. Bringing technology into the classroom to make learning fun and exciting and effective.

This video on edutopia.com (Edutopia) is mainly about a little boy named Rhys who creates his own video games. He talks about how he feels challenged in the process and how it makes him think. His mom talks about how it has really helped him to develop strong problem solving skills. They are talking about learning from technology that is really "disguised" as play. He is making a video game that to him is fun and also challenging but he is developing skills that will help him in the classroom and also in his day to day life experiences. Also in the video Kurt Squire talks about how with this website there is a "vibrant community". He says that with this you get real feedback that we aren't really giving in our schools. I don't necessarily agree with using technology to get your students work onto the internet but having peer criticism, to me, is very important. Research shows that students learn more hearing from their peers than they do from a teacher lecturing. What kid wouldn't want to play a video game his friend made and tell him what he thinks about it?! Or an animated video made by a student to teach their classmates a simple lesson like addition or conjugation? It's fun! It's exciting and it's ever changing and evolving so it brings them in interested and KEEPS them interested.

When I was in elementary school and even in high school the furthest we got with technology was a fancy and very expensive calculator and I hated it. We used computers at the library only ever so often. Maybe 4 times a year and that was only in high school. I don't remember using it at all in elementary school. Of course I was elementary school in the early 90's sooo....yeah. So much has changed since then and I really feel like if we don't embrace it in the classroom we will really be cheating ourselves and most importantly our students; our future leaders and educators. I am amazed everyday by what my two children, who are just six and seven years old, learn daily and how they apply it. Every child has this ability and technology is an amazing tool. Embrace it.