Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Alicia McEwen's Chapter 1
This first week's reading of Chapter 1 had some very interesting points. First off, I was somewhat surprised by my lack of understanding of terms. For example, I have never heard of a terabyte or electronic tablets. Awareness of new terminology is interesting in its own due to the fact that it brings upon the realization that there is a lot out there that I am unaware of in the technological world. I agree that I should be amongst those considered "digital immigrants." It's amazing to think back to just ten years ago when I was a senior in high school and to compare technology from then to now. Even within the past ten years the advances in technology have been incredible. I also thought the concept of pedagogical content knowledge in relation to the integration of technology was very interesting to think about. I agree that our current students need to be educated in ways that foster and strengthen their technological abilities and understandings. It's obvious that they will be living in a time that their future jobs will be centered around technological devices. I think it's really important to stress the fact that in order to successfully teach and integrate technology into our classrooms, we need to understand what's out there, how it works, and how to best integrate it into our curriculum.Thirdly, I found the example of Brian and his teaching experience to be interesting. I agree that we need to be that when integrating technology into our curriculum we are doing it in ways that maximize students' time. Time constraints within classrooms are already major issues when it comes to trying to fit everything in. Adding this crucial piece of technology integration needs to be done in ways that will add to students' learning and not take away from valuable time. Again, I feel we are all more likely in accomplishing this when we are educated as to what is out there, how it works, and how it would best benefit our teaching of the subject areas.After reading Chapter 1, I was really excited about the use of electronic notebooks in classrooms. As I mentioned above, I have never seen these in use, but feel they would be great to have to promote time on task and overall student learning. I teach 1st grade. I feel that even at this age it would be great to have tools that involve every student the opportunity to be involved with answering questions through a tool like an electronic notebook. Even having a simplified version with yes/no options and such would be wonderful. After reading about Brian's experience I was inspired to have my students view more information about their pen pals' hometown on the computer. I like the idea of allowing the students to see things as they are in real life. If they are unable to travel to that experience, letting them explore it through internet sites and other computer experiences would be beneficial to their understanding.My one main concern about integrating technology into my curriculum is my own lack of understanding and awareness.