Overall Experience With The Class

In this course I learned a lot about the practical utilization of technology in the classroom. In the modern era technology is an important part of life and students are both familiar with and accustomed to it. I enjoyed learning how to use different programs to create lessons and other resources for classroom use. It really caused me to think outside the box about how I could use various technologies in my elementary classroom one day. One of the things I am most passionate about as a future educator is making learning fun for my students. Technology,when utilized correctly, can create a classroom environment that is,informative, exciting, and interactive.

My biggest concern from this class is that I will not have the time or freedom to reproduce some of these activities. Several of the projects took me upwards of six hours including class time. I hope that now that I am more familiar with the programs this won't be an issue but it still worries me. Technology is constantly changing and developing so I am concerned that I won’t be able to keep up.

My favorite activity was probably the digital story. I feel like these are more attention grabbing than power points and can be used before or after teaching a lesson. Mine was on volcanoes for a science lesson for 5^th graders but I think that digital stories could be used for virtually every subject and grade. I’m really interested to try and make a book walk for emergent readers in the earlier grades or ELL students I may have. Overall I am really glad I learned this technology and I am excited to use it in my work with students.
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Chapter 1

I learned from this chapter is that whiteboard strength's is really its interactivity and it's the teacher's responsibility to utilize it correctly and the learning environment. They're different type of white board companies from what we learned in class they are fairly similar but there's Promethean board's, Smart Boards and Mimos.Teacher's are responsible for combining whiteboard use with good instructional practices. I really liked the bullet pointed list of features that help in the classroom such as: highlighting, coloring, updating importing pictures, shared reading. The research told us about how they could help with teaching lessons but also increase motivation and participation in collaboration (Glover Et al). I thought it was interesting that it said that there was a little success using IWB's in the classroom on lower performing students. If I was having issues with the student I would definitely try to modify my plans to make it work for them as well. 

I like the listed the features of the board that are linked to achievement such as student response systems, graphics, videos, and reinforcing properties. I have used response systems in my classes before and I think that they work really well and kids really like them and it keeps them more involved and more alert when working. In the gallery pictures it pointed out that the student responses give students a voice who might not normally speak out. I believe it's really important to meet students where they are sometimes and develop them through building their confidence so this is a great resource. It's interesting because they're also studies that say the IWB's are ineffective but I would be curious to see how those teachers are utilizing them versus the teachers when it was found effective.

 I really like that it pointed out some of the instructional challenges and made the point that just because you're technologically proficient doesn't mean that you're using the board correctly in the class. Dr. O'Bannon made the point in class in the book reinforced it.using your interactive whiteboard as a projector is a great disservice to the features and the potential uses. It's important that teachers practice and are trying to thoroughly understand these so they have confidence when they take them into the classroom. The last section of the chapter talks about how effective teacher training can conquer most of the challenges associated with whiteboards. And active whiteboards are a now widely used resource and it's important that people know how to use them and use them effectively so they get the most out of the experience.