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=**Teaching with Technology in the 21st Century**=


 * Week One **

Constructivism includes a variety of concepts and ideas. One main concept pertains to prior knowledge and experience of a learner. Many of my students can think back of stories that I have told them throughout the school year; with these stories students can relate a similar experience or parts of the story to themselves. Learning involves active and reflective processes. A learner must put the learning into play and actually think about the learned material. Technologies in the learning realm can enhance a student’s performance and improve learning in any particular learner. A few months ago, while talking to my students, they asked me if I would add them as a friend in my Facebook account. I answer with a swift NO! I did complement to my no, a wanting to open a Facebook account that would only involve education, assignment, questions on homework, class communication and collaboration. I brought this idea to my principal’s attention; he did say it is a two-edge sword. He would have to ask his superiors and then maybe get a response; thus providing me with an almost swift NO as well.


 * Week Two **

"Fortunately, technological advances have equipped educators with tremendous new instructional resources in the form of computers and digital media . New technologies offer us the opportunity to respond to the multifaceted individual differences in our student population by providing more varied media, tools, and methods ."

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Chapter 1. Retrieved on March 1, 2011, from [] We use technology to entertain us, to pay our bills, and we cannot forget; to stay in contact with the rest of the world. We should use if for teaching as well! Our students are also surrounded by technology; it is part of their world. Around 15 of my 21 students have a Facebook account (they are 5th graders). This strongly tells us “students know technology”!

I have around 90 percent of my students are at par with fifth grade, what should I do with the other ten percent? I must use something different, these students have the potential, they are very capable learners; they just need to be taught in a different manner. This is where technology comes into play. Websites, interactive activities such as interactive board, or classroom response systems (clickers) are great tools that can be used in the classroom for interaction, engagement and above all, learning. Sometimes as teachers we must cut the slack left by other teachers. Some students have fallen behind during their academic career and we must be that teacher that will get the student ready for the following year, not just to pass a test. Learners are different, teachers are different. We learn and we teach differently. This is why we must change our style for some students and provide different instruction to those students.


 * Week Three **

// “Much of the art of teaching patterns lies in selecting and presenting numerous, effective examples. Digital media and tools can facilitate finding and presenting these examples in the form of text, image, sound, or video.” //

Technology in general can perform much of our work for us. Today I was using CPS and a class set of “clickers”, my students completed a test unsatisfactory so with one click of a button the entire problem was modified with different values and different answer choices. This gave me an opportunity to review and re-teach that particular concept, and to reassess the concept in a matter of minutes. Thanks to these great tools, I do not have to make copies, change values on my own, white out any other old numbers; with 10 instructional days left on our calendar before our Math TAKS, we must take advantage of any free time we have to review, re-teach and reassess a concept. One problem, not everyone had that same fluency in technology and its tools to take advantage of them.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Chapter 6. Retrieved on March 10, 2011, from []

UDL Lesson builder was very simple to complete, it does incorporate some factors. What really stands out to me is the structure that it has within it. It completes and organizes a lesson from beginning to end. This makes each step more visible for teachers producing the lesson along with giving structure to students that are being taught through the lesson. The list of materials at the end of the lesson builder is helpful to other teachers when the lesson wants to be shared with other within the same grade level and subject level. Many times lessons online are not as mapped and are missing items. With this template we do not forget to add anything. UDL Lesson Builder

Ebook Builder has been a great experience for me. I have taught first graders, second graders and I am currently teaching fifth grades and I am sure any of these kids can enjoy a simple but with a strong content ebook. My ebook consisted of the butterfly life cycle, and I will use this as a review for my students once we get back from spring break. I will employ this ebook with my students and have them build one of their own. [|Ebook]

Teachers do wonders many times to get a student to learn a new concept. We jump off walls, use rhyming schemes, play games, use technology and prizes students for their success. One thing many teachers do not do is modify or change their assessing style. Many students are learn differently, but we think that we must be fair to all students. “Students' ability or inability to work with particular media and methods may confound evaluation of their knowledge and skills.” David H. Rose & Anne Meyer state this supporting the fact that as instruction must be different for one student, assessment must be different for them as well. I am not sure if I believe this statement at its entirety. If a student has mastered a particular concept, than the student should be able to express in idea in any way, shape or form, this includes assessing the concept through standard means. I can understand if a student has a physical disability and might need a certain modification, but if a student does not have any physical disadvantage, then there should be no excuse for the student to perform at par with the rest of the class. Rose, D. and Meyer, A. (2002). //Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning, Chapter 7.// Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology website. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from []
 * Week Four**


 * Week Five **

“This new type of assessment model is perfect for a group activity, in which teams are free to consider all possibilities”. Many times as educators we do not want to move away from our “old school” habits specially if they are habits that have been working for a few years now. We don’t like change, we don’t want to adapt to something new. But many of our students today need for us to adapt and provide something new for them. Web 2.0 tools do form a great opportunity for us as educators to enhance student learning with new assessment models. Within the classroom, group activities can take place, thus avoiding the “old school” ways. Not only new possibilities can take place but new goals and objectives can be created and reached!

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, 170

Throughout this course, I have encountered brightness in technology as well as the dark side of technology. A great example of the bright side to technology is the building and producing of an ebook with the CAST website. The experience will help me as a teacher implement an ebook with technically any concept, from the butterfly life cycle to how forces affect our daily lives into everyday instruction. The dark side to technology is losing years of hard work because of a virus infecting your USB drive. This does hurt and make you hate technology but it should also teach us a lesson. //“Digital media and tools can facilitate finding and presenting these examples in the form of text, image, sound, or video.” // Technology has paved the way to all these examples, many educators care to keep taking the old dirt roads of education and do not want to take the new and spacious roads of technology. We must use digital media in the classroom to get a concept across to that student that has been struggling throughout the entire school year. Working with other people in this class has given me great insight on how certain people take on a challenge and steps they do to resolve a problem. I have learned how to adapt and how to express ideas in a way that they are not offensive and looks can be shared and view in a professional manner. With that same note, I have learned how to take an opinion, analyze it and respond to it in a professional manner as well. Sharing point of views, and expressions through a wiki is helpful for me and others who are interested in the same topics. We can share ideas with each other and finding through research and personal experience. We cannot go about with just wanting to have our own opinion and not taking others research and opinions into consideration. Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Chapter 6. Retrieved on March 10, 2011, from []