Today was a great start to getting me in the mode of thinking and expanding my knowledge on literacy and technology in the classroom. I have had experience with incorporating technology into lessons, but I think it will be fun to focus on mainly on literacy because reading is my favorite subject to teach. I am ready to get more experience with the different types of technology that I can incorporate into my future classroom.
After using the technologies in class I began to reflect on how technology was used in the classrooms that I student taught in. In the fifth grade classroom it was not used very much at all. The only time the students even used computers was if they had completed all of their assignments and didn't have anything else to do during study time. The websites that the students worked on if they did get to use the computers were beneficial and meaningful, but only half the class actually got around to working with them. The students that had a more difficult time completing their work on time never were able to work on the computers. My cooperating teacher kept track of what the students did on them by having the students write down the date and activities that they they completed. She didn't check their work though or observe them while they were using them. When I observed them I noticed that some students wouldn't spend their time trying to complete the activities correctly, they just did it quickly to get it done.When it was my time to teach I used the computers during a social studies lesson and I observed them while they were using them. It was a successful lesson, but I realized that doing a large group lesson with a website can be really difficult if things go wrong with the site or with a computer.
I was able to observe the students during their computer lab time as well. This was a great for me to see because I was able to see the students working on their Comic Life projects. The students were very excited about their projects and put a lot of time and effort into them. It was positive to see that some teachers are using the new technology that is available to them.
In my kindergarten classroom I didn't see very much technology use either, but there was an attempt. For example, during guided reading the students are assigned to a different learning station each day and one of them is the computers. The students worked either with a reading software or one of the reading websites. My teacher had had a reading specialist help her find reading websites and they were really good websites, but my teacher didn't use them to their full potential. The students just played around on them, which gave them experience with the reading skills and computer skills, but I feel that they could have been richer experiences. I would have had the students work on an activity that specifically addressed their own needs in reading. For example, the students could have worked on initial consonant sounds on a website and then type words into a program such as Wordle. Unfortunately, the computers were down during my full time teaching so I wasn't able to try this out.
One of the most difficult thing with kindergarteners and technology was that they messed up the computers often. If things weren't working for them they started pushing buttons and then the computers had problems. It was hard for the teacher to address the problems during this time because she was teaching guided reading with a small group.What are some ways that this problem could be addressed? What are some activities that are appropriate for younger children? How does a teacher manage the time that it takes to complete projects like these? I am looking forward to finding these answers and learning more ideas for how to incorporate technology into literacy activities.
I really enjoyed reading of all your experiences with technology in te classroom. I also encountered the problem of teaching a large group while using technology. You will never know what problems will occur and I think too often that is why teacher don't incorporate it, because they are scared of what might happen. I haven't worked in a kindergarten classroom, but while observing a 5/6 classroom in NZ I was amazed that students were working independently on computers during centers time. I didn't ask the teacher about any problems that had come up, I would be willing to e-mail her if you'd like.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading about your experiences with technology. Your story about the kindergarten students reminded me of my last student teaching placement. The kindergarten students always found a way to push the wrong button during center time. I found myself walking over there frequently to help the students get back on to the Starfall website. I wished that the computers were used more frequently in my classroom rather than just at center time.
ReplyDeleteI saw all of this during student teaching as well! I also have this problem at work with one kiddo's assistive technology. In the kindergarten classroom I was in, the teacher had a policy that if the computer was acting funny or it wasn't working, your hands came off of the computer and no one touched it until a teacher looked at it. During my lead teaching, when this happened, I just closed the computer center, because I wasn't good enough at guided reading to make enough time to do all of it in the allotted amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI also think that teachers should have better experiences set up for students, as it's too hard for all students to find time outside of school to use the computers, or to have time that focuses on both academics and technology. My teacher also just used technology during centers in kindergarten. In preschool, however, she used iPods to record books and they listened to stories that way (a Target grant! And you could record books yourself so you weren't limited to whatever the library had on tape.) and the students had a little plastic durable camera that they could use to take pictures. One of us would upload the pictures and print them in an album and we would print off the good ones bigger and put them on a bulletin board. I agree that most teachers don't use technology to its full potential, which is really disappointing.
Whew! What a great conversation! Really interesting experiences and the reality of it all - the need for troubleshooting, etc. One quick response that I have for the "push the wrong button" and wait for the teacher. Most of the time every classroom has that "one" student who can troubleshoot, even in kindergarten. Let that one student, if available, help solve the problems or be in charge. Also, students teach students very well, so hopefully they will learn from each other. Also, some schools have set up "student techs" (from older grades) who can be called to fix and troubleshoot. That also works pretty well. Then, students don't have to wait for teachers and teachers can concentrate on what they are doing.
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