Week 16 Exit Slip

This semester has drastically altered my view on technology's role in teaching and learning. At the beginning of the semester, I knew that technology would make learning more interactive and exciting, but I did not really know about many of the most effective ways to use it. I was unsure as to how to incorporate it into my classroom in ways that would enhance my student's education and also make learning more meaningful and self-directed. Overall, I learned that technology is definitely a resource -- in fact, it is an endless number of resources. First of all, technology can be incorporated into any subject in the classroom, whether being used for concept mapping in science class, playing a math simulation, making a podcast for history, or creating a digital booktalk for language arts. I have also realized the importance of teachers sharing resources with each other, and how technology and social bookmarking makes this possible on a worldly scale. Specifically, delicious has been a wonderful tool that I will use to keep track of the wonderful technologies that I have come across this semester. I have also been amazed at how technology is truly infiltrating education in other aspects besides academics. For example, stop motion animation could be used to teach students classroom rules or safety rules, Skype could be used for virtual field trips, communicating with sick children or parents who can not come into the classroom, or even for students to study together; blog sites could be used for students to post journal entries; etc. Each week I became even more amazed at the endless possibilities for infiltrating my classroom with technology. Being exposed to these has enabled me to consider how I will incorporate them in the future. I have also learned that technology is constantly changing, and some may not be available even in just a few years when I begin teaching. I now believe that as educators, we need to constantly research and share new technologies, as well as inquire about possible advantages and uses of these in order to develop professionally. We also need to be open-minded and willing to try out our new ideas. This will be most beneficial to our students.