Using Technology in the Classroom

            Technology is becoming more and more important to the classroom today. Teachers need to use technology to teach and get students involved. Teachers should not just lecture and expect their students to do well in the 21^st century. Today in the 21^st century classroom teachers should utilize things like: Jing, Wordle, Edmodo, and Twitter. That way students will be better prepared to go into the real world and be able to do well in the 21^st century.

            Jing is a tool that teachers can use to take screenshots of something they want their students to see. They can then edit those screenshots by adding arrows and text. They can even record themselves talking while they are doing these things. The video can be up to five minutes long. This video can even be uploaded or emailed to someone. This is a great way for teachers to use technology to teach students. This is a video that describes how to use Jing.

            Www.wordle.net is a free website that teachers and students can use to create pictures using words that you type in. It then creates a picture with all of the words in different colors, shapes, fonts and size. Wordle selects the words that appear the most frequently to decide which words to use. You can change the Wordle by using different colors, orientations, fonts, and colors. You can then share these Wordles with the class, or the students can share their Wordles with the other students. This would be a great way to get to know students at the beginning of the year. They could tell the class about themselves and what they like to do using a Wordle. Students could also use Wordle to decorate their class notebooks, and jazz up other class projects. This is an example of a Wordle from the US Constitution.

            Www.edmodo.com is a great place for teachers with older students to create a classroom website that all of the students can access and post to. Thisis a video on what Edmodo is, and how to use it. Edmodo is a little bit like Facebook, but it is much more safe and secure. The teacher has to give the students and their parents a code to even access the page. Teachers and students can “connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications.” Edmodo is a great way for students to submit homework, take quizzes, and see the calendar of when everything is due. They just have to upload their homework to a link on the classroom page and then the teacher can see it and grade it. The student will then get a notification that their homework has been graded and then they can see their grades. Edmodo also has an app that teachers, students and parents can download so they can get real time updates with their homework and grade updates.

           Twitter is another great tool that teachers can use to interact with their students outside of the classroom. Twitter is a “real time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting.” Teachers can tweet about interesting things that are happening in their classroom. They can share links to things that they want their students or parents to see in the community. If teachers do want to use Twitter in the classroom, it may be a good idea for them to create a new Twitter account for their students to see, and one for their private life. This way it will be harder to mix business with their personal thought, opinions, and ideas. Twitter works well as an opinion poll for the class; it can also help direct students to good articles and ideas. Here is alink on ways to use Twitter in Elementary schools. I think that if teachers are going to use Twitter, then they should be extra careful with what they tweet about and follow. They can get in a lot of trouble if they make one false move on Twitter. I think that Twitter is a better tool for college students.

            When I start to teach I think that my choice of technology in the classroom would be Edmodo. Edmodo is a great tool for both teachers and students. It is user friendly, collaborative, and it is an online grade book. Parents can also use Edmodo with a special parent code. That way everyone is informed and up to date with that is going on. I also think that Jing is a great tool to use in the classroom. If you are trying to show students how to navigate a webpage it is probably going to be more helpful to create a Jing video to show them so you can walk around and make sure they are on the right step than it would be to show them then and there how to do it. It is important that teachers are very careful with all of the technology they use in the classroom. Technology is an important aspect in the 21^st century classroom so teachers should adapt and use technology to teach their students as many ways as they can.