Scenario

     Technology in the classroom is something fairly new to me. Growing up, I had overhead projectors and tvs in the classroom, whereas today students are accustomed to clickers, laptops, and advanced projectors. As a result, one thing that I will be challenged with is capturing and maintaining student learning through the use of technology. That being said, one way that I know I will have success is by utilizing the many tools that Google has created. These allow students to be interactive with homework, tests, or even videos, while allowing teachers to control things like attendance and test styles. More than that, though, I am glad that I have been taught how to properly use Mac and accessories that come with Mac. It is extremely student friendly and contrary to popular belief, working on a Mac is very fun and easy.  

     With the thought that I do not know a lot about how much students know about how to use tech stuff, I have to say that I am comfortable with finding ways of how to learn how to use and integrate new software. The teaching community is very friendly; it is all about helping each other out. As a result of new software, I would simply go to some certified teacher's blogs who discuss the latest and greatest in educational technology. Cyndi Danner-Kuhn has a great website that links to many different blogs, so I know that there is a wealth of information that will help me learn how to use something. In addition, I realized that one of the best resources for learning how to use a new program is simply by going to YouTube and looking up "how-to" videos or podcasts.

     The technology that I have learned and utilized this semester has tremendously helped my school work. Tools like Google Docs and Prezi have allowed me to communicate with peers in a new way while also utilizing the latest technology and making presentations a lot more fun (and easier to collaborate on). These tools have not only effected my learning here at K-State, but these are now things that I am anxious to implement into my classroom in the near future.
      In my opinion, the best way to get teachers up to date on what is good for their classroom is to simply encourage them to take professional development classes that focus specificically on technology in the classroom. It is at these meetings or whatnot that teachers listen to experts as well as other teachers who have used the class. In addition, teachers need to experiment. Learning is an educational process and so teachers will not learn how to use these things if they do not play around with them first and get the hang of them before they implement them into the classroom. At the same time, it is up to the teacher to decide how much stuff they implement; for example, if a teacher is not comfortable with having his or her students utilize iPhones in the classroom, then he or she needs to make sure that they come up with some other way to reach out to the tech savvy students.