Technology Literacy

1) Technology should be used in education because technology, in our world, is only going to continue to grow. By not having technology or teaching technology in our classrooms we are handicapping our students. Technology can be a very useful tool in our classrooms, and can help the students want to learn due to the fact that they are getting the information while working with a tool they understand. I also think that the same technology can get in the way of learning, because students could just sit there and check their e-mails instead of following along with the class.
2) Some of the technology that today's students use are iPods, DS, cell phones, digital cameras, laptops, Wii, xBox and many more. I think that laptops would be the most useful out of all the things on the list. You could use laptops in the classroom to quiz the kids, or to have them play a review game online.
3) There isn't that much technology in the third grade classroom that I am teaching in. The most high tech item in the classroom is an Elmo, but the schools computer lab did just get new computers. The classroom that I am a part of is at the required conditions amount of technology, according to Technology Use in Classroom Rubric. There isn't much technology in the classroom and there aren't that many ways for the students to make connections to technology. Some of the things that could be added to the classroom in order to make the classroom more technologically friendly are a smartboard, and computers. A smartboard would be a great addition to the classroom, because them the teacher could lead an entire lesson from his computer. They could also get a couple of computers in the classroom so that the students can have more access to the Internet, and they could also take their reading level tests in the classroom during individual reading time.
4) One of the lessons or activities that I would do in my classroom is to pair each child up with a e-mailing buddy so that they could have their own pen pal. Which would help meet the standards of the NETS in b1 and 4 where it says that students need to learn how to e-mail attachments and communicate with other students via e-mail. In this project the students would be required to send at least one attachment to their pen pal, whether it be a letter or a picture of their dog. Another project that I would love to do is have the students make time lines of individuals who have impacted history, but instead of having then do it on a poster I would have them make a slide show; which would meet NETS standard 5c. The last project that I would like to do to meet NETS standard 3b is to assign each student a different math problem that they have to do on paper, bring in a manipulative, and make a chart or picture for on a Word document.