Using technology in the classroom is vital to prepare students to be successful in the 21st century. The following are some guidelines I am currently following and hoping to refine before the school year:
- Will this use of technology promote original thinking or production?
- Will this use of technology help develop higher order thinking skills?
- Will this use of technology promote online collaboration between groups?
- Will this use of technology promote the use of inquiry skills?
- Will this use of technology help develop confidence in trying new means of technology on the web?
I have found a lot of success using voicethread with my students and I became very excited about using glogster. However, when we kept having software issues (glogs not saving, losing usernames, losing images, not saving, etc), the students became quickly disgruntled in using glogs. This was discouraging because students really liked the idea when it worked! I took mental log...students want user-friendly technology!
I can totally relate to your excitement with the technology and shared frustration when the technology doesn't work properly. I was running into the same issue using our mobile lab (portable set of lap top computers) to give assessments using Examview. The students love to see their score as soon as they're completed. I love that I can set up the test/quiz questions to be scrambled for each student, which seems to reduces even the urge to cheat. And the assessment analysis that is produced is AWESOME. For example, I know right away that only 50% of the class chose "A" for #9 and got it right, while 40% of the class chose "B." But I have had the scenario, on several occasions, where the student is finished and clicks "end" and the computer gives them the message that "examview has stopped working." It is a frustrating feeling for them and for us. What are we to do?
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