Which strategies are most effective for teaching and learning with technology?

Every different strategy that we have been introduced to was effective. They all have there upsides and they really don't have that many downsides if they have anything at all. Pod casts are amazing because they allow students to listen to lectures later and that way they can have it in a hard copy. Students can also create studying tools for themselves by listening to their voices on pod casts. Some students like it when they can hear their own voice because it helps the material sink in better. You can create wiki's because it allows students to access stuff from when they are unable to come to school because they are sick. They can get the notes from that class and see what the homework was. Blogging is another cool strategy for teaching because you can have students read homework and blog about it or you can have them blog about reflection pieces. We do this all of the time for both of my practicum classes and it allows the teacher to see where we are and if we need to review anything that may be misunderstood. The teacher then revisits the stuff and the students get a review that need it. It is really hard to progress if students don't understand it. There are also endless strategies that we have covered, but I chose to only list few of them. The ones that I listed are the ones that I like the most. I am kind of partial to them I guess because they are really helpful ways to express yourself and learn new things!

The only question that I have is, what is the most effective teaching and learning tool that has been statistically tested for? I am really curious and I also want to know, how can it be used if it is something that we haven't already seen yet?

How can you effectively integrate technology into your teaching and learning?

I can integrate technology into my classroom by including it in my lesson plans. We have created wiki's and web quests and they are effective tools in learning. With a wiki you can post homework and examples online for your students to access when they are home and have questions. You can also create a web quest like we have and put up places that students can go to find other resources for the unit that you are working on. These are a couple of ways that technology can be integrated into your class and as a class we came up with the consensus that they are both effective tools. There are an endless number of things out there, but these are the two that I am familiar with the most. I know that we have used others and an example would have to be blogging. It allows use to reflect and it uses technology. It is very effective and environment friendly.

The only question that I can think of is what are other major ways can you use technology to effectively teach students? I am talking mostly about software! There must be other cool software out there that we can use right? If so then what is it and how can we use it?

Why might it be important for students to learn with technology?

I believe that it is very important for students to learn with technology for a few reasons: 1) Technology can help them learn things better that they may have had a time with before. An example would be using a smart board. It allows the students to interactively get involved with the class discussion which allows them to have fun and learn something that is exciting. 2) Technology can help students get out of the traditional rut of just reading books and doing problems. They can do stuff that is more hands on like the Google Earth software. It allows students to not only see their homes, but do other fun things like seeing if a house is below sea level or above sea level. It gives the students power in their hands and it lets them control the flow that they are comfortable with. 3) Everyone knows that when students are given options and a chance to use a variety of resources the product will come out better. I believe that the practicum survivor showed us that technology can be expressed in a few different ways. The first would be the skit that they did. It showed student shaving fun and it led to an awesome performance from them. They had endless possibilities that they could have used and they picked one that worked better for them and they produced a really good project! Those are a few examples of how technology is important for students to have!

I like the fact that we are incorporating technology into the classroom, but I fear that it will consume the classroom and everything will be done on computers. I believe that there are still a few traditional ways that can help a student learn and I feel as if they are being replaced. I think that there should be a balance between the two and everyone shouldn't say that every lesson plan should include technology. My concern is that technology will cut the throat of the traditional experience and keep students from learning different things.

Wiki

I posted a few things on the procrastinating list such as: hunting and fishing, going to wal-mart, playing poker, and watching Chuck Norris TV shows. I think that this wiki will be a good tool for the use of communicating ideas to other people in the block. It will allow us to post organized thoughts about the class (NOTE: this doesn't mean a way to slam the course!) and get our thoughts to other fellow classmates. This is a very effective way to allow students to see/talk about the things that we have learned from both of the practicum teachers. I find it to be helpful and I believe that it will help us all to survive practicum sp07.

I think that I could use wiki's in my class to allow students to further their learning. I could have them do a project on a famous person in math that had to do with the subject topic and I could have them post facts about it to my wiki. I also like it because I could post the class list along with homework and other stuff of that nature! I will make it become an important tool in my classroom for the purpose of benefiting my students. I can't wait to use it when I become a teacher! Having students get involved with researching information and viewing stuff that other students have found will only make them more interested in the subject topic at hand. By getting them involved with a wiki they feel that they can help shape the course and that they feel that they have a say in what can be posted and what is a cool and interesting/useful facts. Having them research and post will only get them more involved when it comes time to do class work!