Technology Integration: What I've Learned

Technology integration and the digital word have been present in my classroom for the past few years.  This course has confirmed my philosophy regarding technology integration.  I am ending my course work with a better understanding of the value of technology in teaching today’s student.  I think of the digital immigrant, the teacher and the digital native, the student frequently when planning each week.  I feel confident that if I can incorporate technology into my lessons, I am increasing student engagement and hopefully their achievement.

Technology has helped me to facilitate lessons that reach the common core standards.  I found that the SMART board can assist multiple learning styles as they practice their skills to become proficient in a specific area such as counting and cardinality.  The use of a counting activity that relate to the student  day-to-day activities gives them an opportunity to relate their skills to their lives.  These activities are accompanied by integration of various digital tools.

The digital tools that we have shared in discussions and worked on in our course work have been beneficial.  I feel that Animoto, voice threads and podcasts to name a few are easily accessible tools that I can use with my students.  They have practical uses in the classroom in instruction and in assessment.

One area where my thinking has changed is the use of social media in my own classroom.  I found that social media can be a wonderful resource for communicating with parents.  This can be done by the teacher or by the students facilitated by the teacher.  I was able to use Twitter in my WebQuest to communicate to parents the exciting moments during our study of pumpkins.  In the future, I would like to use Twitter or an Edmodo page to inform parents of the day-to-day happenings and the learning that happens in our classroom.