There really is so much technology available out there for teaching reading and writing. It was hard to narrow it down to my top ten, but there are a few that I feel have either had an enormous impact on English education or have enormous potential to do the same. There are tons of possibilities for creating interesting instruction while incorporating technology into the classroom. That was probably the greatest insight I gained from this activity, and I feel that there is no excuse for English teachers not to be using technology in the classroom! Even if you don’t have every resource available to you or are reluctant about incorporating technology into the classroom, there is so much out there for us that’s truly innovative, inspiring, and exciting – I don’t understand why any educator wouldn’t want to at least try some of it!
It’s always interesting doing group work – you never know who you’re going to have to share the work with. Luckily, almost everyone in my group was able to meet in person to figure things out first. Google Docs is also an amazing tool and we were especially excited about the chat feature which, had we known about it sooner, would have allowed for us to get the work done without having to meet in person! I’m glad that I have this great inventory to add to my list of teaching resources now – my group members found some awesome stuff and I already have begun thinking about how to incorporate some of it in the future.
I agree that is was a bit difficult to narrow all of the technologies available to only ten, but it made me reflect on how many options we have as future educators. I agree that there are no excuses for teachers to not use technology in the classroom, especially in English where there are limitless possibilities that connect media to a text. It seems as if technology is so attached to the way in which we think, it is hard to imagine the possibility of not being able to use computers or even a pen and paper in a lesson.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy Google Docs, it was a really simple to navigate and provides a very comprehensive learning experience. It was much more advanced than I anticipated while not being overwhelming at the same time. I thought that making a list as a group was a really interesting project and it helped expand my knowledge of resources. It seems as if there are multiple programs that could apply to any lesson and it was very helpful to see how my classmates viewed different ways to use technology. It certainly expanded my comprehension.
I had no idea about the chat feature! I wish I had known that because all week I was constantly checking my email for updates/answers/suggestions, etc... from my group members. Google Docs is extremely cool. I was especially amazed by how changes were just automatically saved. I was so worried that new work would not be shown, but it turned out to be okay!
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