I have so many favorites on my computer at school that I will probably not get to all of them in one school year! Not everything can be done through technology, but we definitely need to integrate technology with almost every lesson we teach. I have noticed that every time I integrate technology with my lessons my students are more engaged. We have to use what works and not get overwhelmed by all that is out there. Most of us are having to find our teaching materials online as we wean from using textbooks. In my school the only textbooks we have are for reading, and we will soon do away with those too.
On the positive side, we can basically look anything up and find information on it. The downside is not all sources are trustworthy and we have to know how to tell the difference between a reliable and unreliable source. I was teaching 5th grade a few years ago and I had found what I thought was a great website for social studies. When I was pulling it up on my computer to show the class I saw the pictures in the middle were changing and suddenly a picture of an indigenous tribe in barely there outfits came up. Needless to say I did not show the website. Thank goodness I caught it before I put it up on the big screen. I would have been mortified! I had already checked the website before but had not waited to see all the pictures in the middle of the page as they faded in and out into different pictures, and that is how I missed seeing it the first time. I learned my lesson after that time and I make sure I check well before showing something.
Like I said, there is so much information out there if something is not good you will surely find a better one if you keep searching. So don't settle! Sometimes I find something really cool and I forget to show it or don't have the time...when this happens I think, "well, there is always tomorrow!" I think that even if we taught until we were 100 we would still not have time to show everything we wanted to, so we just have to learn have to pick and choose!
Black Toban, “Technology has exceeded our humanity” March 14, 2007 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.
Larisa,
ReplyDeleteI totally know what you mean. There is so much information and just not enough time to get through all of it. I do like the possibilities that this provides. It makes it easier to pick and choose what will work for each class you have as we know some things might work for one group of kids while not working for another.
I do think that is isn't a recent problem, if it really is a problem, either. I remember when I started teaching, right before the technology boom we are seeing, teachers would share stuff with me all of the time. I remember certain worksheets being popular back then. You had to do the same thing, choose what would work for you and your class, as there was just so much being tossed around.
Technology has made it so much easier to share though. Though we don't have enough time to get through everything, the internet can save us time in the end.
Thanks for sharing your reflections,
Lydia
I agree. There are so many websites I add to my bookmarks and favorites that I don't get through most of them. I rarely use the textbooks provided us. I find the online sources to be much more effective and useful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that students are more engaged when using technology. With my SMARTboard, my students are so excited to answer by going up to the board and writing or hitting the right spot. I use a Kagan Name Selector Tool that they love! Every student's name goes into the selector and all I hit is "GO." It chooses the students for me so that I am not always calling on them. I find the students watching closely to who it's going to be and they all say the name that pops up.
Thank you for sharing your experiences! It definitely reminds us to check the whole sight before pulling it up on our computers.