Final Thoughts

Well, the Technology for Teachers course was great. This course opened my mind to new things and how to really be innovative in the classroom with students. What I will take away with is most definitely the use of the Smartboard when creating lesson plans throughout. I myself was engaged to think outside the box when teaching students and know that we need to reach students where they are now and that is with technology. Now, I will not depend solely on technology to teach but will make sure to implement into lesson plans. Outside of the Smartboard there are so many other tools such as Garage Band and IMovie just to name a few that engage, are innovative and will allow students to utilize critical thinking skills.
I walk away with a greater appreciation in the advances of technology.

Smartboard

Well, according to research done using the Smartboard increases a student's achievement. One would wonder what all the buzz is about and in actuality the Smartboard seems to be revolutionizing classrooms as well as students minds. But, the Smartboard is not the answer to everything because there were 23% of teachers who did not use the Smartboard in lessons. Even though there were problems encountered they were due in part to not organizing material well, not giving clear directions or not engaging students. So, I conclude that we can still teach with a Smartboard as well as without but we need to ensure that the material given is clearly understood, well organized, carried out at a decent pace and we cannot forget we must engage students.

Digital Immigrants & Natives

 To integrate technology into today's schools one must be creative to reach students where they are today in their knowledge of technology. A digital immigrant are those teachers who continue to teach how they were taught many moons ago while a digital native are those students who if they are taught with some form of technology such as ipods or computers their attention span is not going to go very far in today's classrooms. When I was in school the only technology I can remember seeing in the classroom was the overhead projector where the teacher (digital immigrant) would place a slide and write in what being taught with a marker. (LOL) That seems so long ago. X's & O's digital immigrants must explore are video games, ipods, using blogs such as we are currently using to empower students to think for themselves. Teachers must allow a child to become creative by their own thought processes versus the teachers former way of thinking.

21st Century Learning

Very interesting, very interesting. The following themes I found apparent across three videos regarding 21st Century Learners were:
Using technology
Promoting students to become creative innovators not only for today's society but tomorrow's as well.
Moving away from the traditional way of teaching students with ever-changing technology being constant
Challenging students
Teaching students how to be critical thinkers.
What is awesome to me is that 21st Century Learners are taught to think, create, analyze, and apply what they learn. We currently live in a society where the media's influence is ever-present in students lives and instead of looking at technology as the enemy, let us look at technology as the tool that will challenge tomorrow's leaders.
So much emphasis is placed on what could go wrong with allowing children to surf the web. But, why not use technology to instill a new approach to doing things. Let's face it technology is here to stay and always improving. What is neat is that we can move away from the mundane ways of teaching on a blackboard to creating lesson plans geared around smartboards, phones, or ipods and capture the attention of students in innovative ways.