Blog Post 1: Technology Strengths and Weaknesses

As an early childhood educator, most of the technology experiences in my classroom thus far have consisted of me using the Smartboard to introduce my students to information.  I will visit educational websites to find images to share, I will search YouTube to find relevant videos, or I will use sites such as abcmouse.com and havefunlearning.com to reinforce math and language arts concepts. 

At our district’s most recent professional development seminar, one of our keynote speakers was Todd Nesloney, principal of Webb Elementary School.  His nickname is the Tech Ninja and he travels all over the country speaking to schools encouraging teachers and administrators to reflect on how they are using technology on their campus.  His speech was inspirational and overwhelming at the same time.  The main idea of Mr. Nesloney’s message was that students should be using technology to create something; that using it for any other reason is a waste of time. 

According to the ISTE® Standards for Teachers, the first standard reads “Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity”, including engaging “students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.”  Mr. Nesloney’s message is right on target for fulfilling this standard.  However, I am not sure how to create opportunities in my current pre-k classroom to meet this goal.  I would love to learn some developmentally appropriate, concrete ways to teach my students how to utilize technology for this end.  

  

On the other hand, under standard three “Model digital age work and learning", item c reads "communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats.” Communication is one of my natural strengths and I have utilized the popular e-newsletter platform Constant Contact® in the past to share information with families.  This year I hope to add blogging to my classroom.  By creating a class blog, I hope to not only use technology to engage the students, but encourage the parents to have more involvement with their child’s learning.  I hope to create a back-and-forth format where different children have the weekly opportunity to post about our day and parents will have the ability to respond. 

Standard number four reads “Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility" Item d within this standard provides the following indicator: "Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools.”  With my passion for promoting multiculturalism, I am most excited about incorporating the available technology to meet this standard. I have already signed my class up to be a part of the Postcrossing postcard exchange project.  Using a map I created for the Smartboard in my classroom, we will locate and pin all of the places that we receive postcards from.  We will then use the internet to research information about locations we are curious about and try and connect via Skype with people in those areas. 

In summary, I am looking forward to learning more about how to integrate technology into my teaching and plan to research webinars and other professional development opportunities to fulfill that need.  

Source:
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2015). ISTE Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-teachers