I've been teaching for three years at a small (~100 students grades 6-12) private school that caters to students with mild to moderate learning disabilities. It's a school that possesses and utilizes (or attempts to utilize) a lot of various technologies. We have Smartboards in each room and a strong emphasis is placed on incorporating technology into the classroom.
Because of that, early on, my approach was to haphazardly incorporate any and all technology that I could fit into my lessons. What I usually got in the end was a lot of frustrated students, confused parents, and an exasperated me. I thought I was enhancing the lessons by incorporating a million things but have discovered that I need to more closely examine and evaluate the effectiveness of the things I'm using.
While I'm still formulating eloquent guiding principles, my main focus with this course and with the broader notion of technology in the classroom is to answer the question: To add or not to add; What are effective additions and what am I incorporating (or trying to incorporate) for the sake of "being technological"? How can I use this wide of array of resources to truly enhance the experience of my students?
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"To add or not to add"
ReplyDeleteThis is a great quote. It is too easy to get distracted by the shiny objects -- to try to keep up with the newest web tool. We all need to learn to make sure that the tool enhances student learning...easier said than done!
Using technology and dealing with "confused parents" as a result has been one of my biggest challenges.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more so we could troubleshoot this situation.
Not sure what kind of parent/teacher interaction you have at my school we have lots of parent contact. With my technology ventures, a few things happened.
ReplyDelete1) The student didn't understand the technology and tried to get help from the parent and the parent didn't understand either equaling an e-mail to me wanting help or explaining why their child couldn't do the work.
My Solution: Very clear, detailed instructions that I posted on my class webpage for both the students and the parents for the technology we were using
2) The student DID understand how to use the technology but didn't do the assignment. Then to justify (to their parent) why they didn't do the assignment they told their parent they didn't understand the technology equaling an e-mail to me wanting help or explaining why their child couldn't do the work.
My Solution: Again, very, clear detailed instructions for both the student and the parent to utilize at home that are either put in their notebook, posted on a webpage, or stapled to their forehead ;)
3) The student DID understand how to use the technology but their parent did not equaling an e-mail to me wanting help or explaining what their child was doing.
My Solution: Explaining to the parent the basics of what we were doing and what educational value it served but making them understand that their child knew how to use the application and was doing fine with it.
Ultimately, (for me) it was about very clear directions and explanations. This also forced me to flesh out what we were doing. In my opinion the parent not understanding doesn't always need to be addressed. It may be helpful to explain the educational value to them but they don't really need to be able to understand the intricacies of the using the software.