Technology in the classroom is increasing every year. Students are starting to become more accessible to computers and other types of technology. As teachers we need to keep up with the technology times and start to fill our classrooms with it. There are many different types of technology that a teacher could use in his/her classroom but some of the technologies I would find helpful for my classroom would be Edmodo, Twitter, Jing, and Wordle.
Edmodo is a website that is kind of like Facebook but centered around education. It is a place where a teacher could post their homework assignments and have their students turn it in. For teachers it is an easy way to see who has done their work and who has not. Also it is a good way to make sure your students are not doing their work at the last minute cause on Edmodo you can set time that it is due and see what time the students turned it in. I was able to use Edmodo this year for the first time in two of my classes and I really liked it. I thought I was a much easier way to turn in my work and to do my work on cause my teachers would post their homework assignment far in advance then that way I could work on it whenever I wanted and at my own pace. I found it easy to turn assignment in on as well I never had any technology problems when trying to turn in my assignments. The website, itself, was easy to use and I could always find the information I was looking for. I also really liked the website because I always knew what my grade was because once the teacher graded my work there was a tab that I could go to see all my grades. Overall I feel as though every teacher should use Edmodo with their students because I feel as though it may make their student more enthusiastic to do their homework.
Another technology tool teachers could use in the classrooms with their students is Twitter. With Twitter being a huge communication tools for students with their peers, teachers should jump on the bandwagon as well and get a Twitter account. Twitter would be a fast easy way to get in touch with your students in case of an emergency or to just even tell them something about their homework assignment. A lot of times you can get Twitter to send a notification to your phone then that way if a student needs to get in touch with you they can tweet at you and it would almost be like them sending you a text message. I know as a student if one of my teachers used Twitter to post assignments or give us updates I would receive that notification before I would ever think to check a site like Edmodo or some other forms of homework site. I feel as an upcoming teacher this is a technology tool that I would definitely take advantage of because I feel like my students will see me as a "cool" teacher and they will be more enthusiastic to learn and do their work. Twitter should be something all teachers look into because I feel like this is the up and coming social network and can really benefit in the classroom.
Jing is another technology tool that teachers should really take advantage of. It is a program online that allows you to take images off of websites and crop them out and put them into other programs. For example I wanted to use a image off a water cycle website page so I use Jing and crop it to the size that I wanted then I save it and converted to my PowerPoint slides. One of the coolest features of Jing that if I wanted to put a weather radar map on my PowerPoint and I wanted it to move just as it did on the weather website I could Jing it so that it still moved on my slide. Jing is a really neat tool that teachers could use so that they don't always have to go back to the websites and take time out of their lessons trying to find pictures and such, with Jing you can just crop and put it in your lesson then that way you never slow down to look it up.
The last technology tool I feel would be helpful in the classroom in Woordle. It is a interesting tool that allows you to put words into the system and then they create a design out of the word for example this picture show a Woordle of my name and things about me. This could be a neat acivity you could do in class with your students. To help them learn about someone or something you could have them make a Woordle so then that way not only are they learning about the subject material they are also getting to present their information in a fun and exciting way. I made one in one of classes and I had a lot of fun with it. We had to do one about something that we looked up to so not only did I get to learn about the person I also got to present my information in a really cool way and all of my peers really enjoyed it. with this assignment I was excited to do it which made it one of my better assignments therefore I feel as though if other teachers use it in their classroom with their students they too will get the same results.
I think that technology in the classrooms in the best way to get student involved and want to learn. I think that too much technology however can be a distraction, so even though there are a lot of neat ways to get your information across to the students more is not necessarily the better. Each of these tools above can really enhance student learning as long as they are monitored. Technology is the next up and coming thing and I think that schools and teachers need to jump on bored.
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