Successful Integration of Technology
Wow! I cannot believe the successful engagement and heightened motivation of my 7th grade Literature and Composition students have when I mention using technology during lessons! It changes the entire environment of the room! For my Educational Technology course, we were required to create a Google Trek. I have done my best to turn around every assignment in this particular class to apply to the classroom I am placed in to teach this semester. During the time this assignment came up, my students were beginning their Anne Frank unit. I decided that creating a Google Trek to follow Anne Frank's journey would be a fantastic idea. Not only did the Trek follow the location of Anne and her family from where she was born to where they went into hiding, but I also had the Trek follow her and her family members to where they ended up - whether it be labor camps, extermination camps, or who survived and where they went next.
Once the students saw the laptop carts in the room, the environment changed. I had hands raised asking if/when they could use the laptops and what we were using them for. It was so motivating for me to see students getting motivated just for using the technology. After introducing and going through the directions for the activity surrounding the Google Trek, the students began exploring and interacting with the resources I had them linked within the Trek. Let me tell you, it is the most invigorating feeling hearing a student say "this is so cool!" when interacting with something you worked so hard creating for them. Not only did the students love working with the technology, they learned and achieved the objectives I had set for them to achieve with the activity! Talk about an all around success!
I have seen the light with using technology within classrooms to promote a healthy and beneficial learning environment. I have always been skeptical, and I still am of the classrooms that base their direction on technology, but I can definitely see the benefits of integrating technology in specific places in units and lessons. It's a tough road to follow, but gosh is it an amazing ride seeing students interacting with it in such a beneficial and learning-centered way within your specific content!
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