Teaching with Technology Week 1

WEEK 1
     The third course in my program focuses on Teaching with Technology.  I really expected to get a few hand on activities completed using the technology I learned about in my first course.  In this course we are going to work in groups to create ways to effectively teach with technology with a scenario provided by the instructors.
     In the first week we had a lot of interesting articles to read and I must say that they were all beneficial. The quote I found significant is "Technology can help to create an active environment in which students not only solve problems, but also find their own problems." This quote was found in "How People Learn, Brain, Mind, Experiences, and School" page 207. The reason I thought this was a powerful statement is because often people look at technology as 'just another gadget' or just a place to find answers quickly. Technology has so many different uses and problem solving is one of them. If a child is actively engaged in learning and can use technology to help find some of their answers; that can spark an interest to want to find out about other things. The more knowledge a students gains, the more likely they are to explore things that are not familiar to them thus creating questions. This helps the student gain more knowledge and leads to lifelong learning.
       The articles for this weeks reading have taught me that you do not need to be an expert in order to teach technology but you will want to know what you are looking for.  Research shows that  using technology in teaching can help children grow.  I look forward to learning more about how technology can be used in classroom to positively teach students.