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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Technology in the Classroom

I'm a junior Spanish Secondary Education major. I am from Des Plaines, IL. I studied abroad in the Dominican Republic last semester but I am excited to be back at IWU. I really enjoy my education classes because I feel they are very applicable to the future and I am looking forward to learning how to use technology in the classroom. I feel pretty comfortable with technology. I work here in the Buck Computer Lab. I do a lot with digital photography, the internet, installing software, virus protection, and scanning.

Teaching with technology means expanding the resources available to the teacher and the students. There are many documents, sound and film clips, worksheets, drills, and other programs to allow student to approach their subject from many different angles.

I think the biggest challenge to teaching with technology is keeping students focused and on task. Whether the challenge be in keeping students on task while they are at computers in class, or keeping students focused when researching/practicing/writing on the computer there are always distractions and a wealth of other things to look at and explore. I think it is also difficult for student to remember all of the intricate steps in some technological processes. They may practice something once but when trying to do it on their own, they may forget exactly how they get to the end result.

There are many benefits to teaching with technology. As technology grows there are more and more ways to teach certain skills and concepts. Using new techniques and technologies keeps the classroom fresh and up to date. It also allows students to practice using new technologies in a formal and supervised way.

I would like to learn how to use software specific to language learning. In addition, I am interested in understanding how to appropriately and efficiently incorporate techology into a language classroom in terms of how much time to devote to such activities and the types of activities that are actually done. I would like to perfect my Power Point, Excel and Word skills to use less traditional features that can add depth to a project.

3 comments:

Tim Boylan said...

I agree with Lauren that a major challenge to teaching with technology is keeping students focused. Technology can be as useful as it can be distracting. I think if a person was going to use technology, they would have to plan a strict lesson that would dictate and guide the students in their use of technology.

Lisa Lig said...

I agree with Lauren's commement about keeping students focused. A lot of the time with technology they like to explore and may venture off task. It is important that the students are able to understand what it is they are to do and are able to complete all the steps with or without instruction.

Kathryn said...

It is awesome that you have had an opportunity to work in Buck and learn about technology. The goals that you have set (about incorperating language learning in the classroom) are good because I do not know of any language classes that I have taken that use technological resources besides researching. I am guessing there is a lot you can do to perfect your skills and do more for your classroom. So good luck and have fun!