Tech Jawa > To Integrate Technology in the Classroom, or not?

A few of you may know that I am pursuing a career in Secondary Education-History.  As I have been assigned multiple field placements (Harper Woods High, Madison High and Algonquin Middle School) I have noticed that if students aren’t engaged in the lesson, they are prone to falling asleep (how many of us actually kept our eyes open during history while we were in school?).  So as a new teacher entering the field, I think that a great way to really make history relevant to the students is through TECHNOLOGY.  What a concept, right?

Here are a few links that I thought would be great to place into my lessons.  Let me know what you think.

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/amflash2.htm

http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/

http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/

Believe it or not many of the people in my education courses don’t want to integrate technology in their classroom.  For instance, I brought up the idea of creating a classroom blog, where I would post homework on a daily basis.  Students would be welcome to post questions on the blog, and parents could have easy access to what their students were doing in class.  Half of the people in my class thought it was a horrible idea, because the students would “probably type in ‘text’ talk” and that such a blog would promote poor writing skills.  Yet shouldn’t students be exposed to blogging?  Wouldn’t that be a great tool to have after graduation?

I understand that everything has it’s pro’s and con’s, but I really think that our youth needs as much exposure to technology in order to compete globally.

Tags:Education