Blog Post #7

After thinking about how technology is being used in the classroom as a universal tool I decided that it was a good thing, but maybe not the best thing for my future career. I think there are only a few students in this class that are pursuing Physical Ed. and I am one of them. The reason I say technology would'nt be best is because I want children to stray away from sitting in front of a computer or their phone screen for long periods of time and actually get their hands "dirty" with other activities. I do not totally disagree with the use of technology in the classroom because I do think it is beneficial, but I also think teachers need to maintain boundaries and a balance of technology. This will be one of my weaknesses when I become a teacher: knowing that they are receiving technology based instruction in their other classes will be hard for me to incorporate it in my instruction as well. I guess I could say that my goal with my students would be to clarify the appropriate times to use technology and the times when technology should be put down and entertainment/education be sought after in another fashion. On the other hand, I do have a great deal of experience with technology and I would certainly be able to use it in instruction. For example, music counts as technology and music could be used many times in a P.E. curriculum to teach content standards. Another example would be showing demonstration videos, methods like these would be beneficial to those students known as "visual learners." I found these two You Tube videos as examples. 1. Demonstrations 2. Instructions

With all of that being said, I want my readers to know that I am a very open-minded person and I can learn something and understand it's meaning from anything I can wrap my head around. For example, Bennett's video on audio recordings and QR codes-that was really interesting! I've always wondered how companies make those codes and why they are important. Bennett expressed that a code can hold anything you want it to and that the use of QR codes is very beneficial for sharing the child's work/progress with the parent. What a neat way to communicate information! Tuck's Kindergarten class also learned something very useful: iPad Reading in a Center. With the iPad, the student was able to hear his self while simultaneously evaluating his self. This reading technique, along with her Poplet app tutorial, seemed to be great tool for self evaluation. The next topic, Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) is something that I am familiar with. I am so glad students are learning basic research skills at such a young age. These skills will allow them to be so much more dependent and not to rely on somebody else finding the answer. AVL is also a great way to teach children to identify specific concepts/subjects and learn new facts. The Build a Board project was also a very interesting app to use in the classroom. Using a board builder in Discovery Ed. teaches students great techniques for organization, sorting information, note taking, and creativity. It also seems like a super fun way for them to share their work with the class! Lastly, I wanted to make a comment on the video "We All Become Learners." Dr. Strange is right every time he says it, "Teachers will never know everything there is to know about everything!" Teachers will teach the students and the students will sometimes have the opportunity to teach the teacher, and I believe this will always be accurate.