This class has been a real roller-coaster ride, but I'd like to think that at the end, we've all learned a lot from it. We've talked about the fairness of using technology to better teach to students who, much like ourselves, have grown up with it, and the ways to best use these methods to ours and our students' advantages. We've talked about using blogs in class and read about the benefits to using class websites and learning software, as well as the dangers of making education too much about the game. We've even studied the thing that I hope most that I don't mess up: copyright. And conveniently for those interested, some thoughts and notes on all of this can be found on my blog for the course.
Derek Areson
Patrick
Claudia
Classmates' Blog Entries
Final Thoughts on Class
Considering that many of our classmates are likely of that generation that grew up when both computers and their educational applications were just being introduced to schools, many of us likely never grew up with as much technology in the classroom as we would have liked. It's now our job as a new generation of upcoming teachers to make sure that the new students of the future don't grow up feeling that same way that we did. No matter how little technology our classrooms require, we can still enhance the learning experience by implementing at least some technology to make things easier and more engaging for our students.