Engaging Our Students By Teaching With Technology

        Technology is most commonly used by students in today's society and they are the children of the 21st Century.  We as future educators must find every possible way to engage our students and immerse them in technology within the classroom everyday.  There is a wide array of ways that a teacher can utilize technology in the classroom.  It is important for teachers to listen to their students and take the time to implement technology use in the classroom and incorporate content areas with the use of blogs, wikis, web quests, online quizzes, class polls, and homework assignments on the computer.  I have viewed a couple of great videos that discuss great ways in which an educator can teach their students with the use of technology, because these students already use technology in their everyday life with the use of computers, cell phones, iPods, and other digital devices.

       

      One video, Pay Attention has caught my attention because it discusses the various ways that teachers can use technology with their students in the classroom.  It begins its statement by including a list of all the different learners and emphasizes the "digital learners" as a main focus throughout the video.  It includes the percentages of how much technology is used by students today.  I really liked how this video included Bloom's Taxonomy terminology with the examples of: create, evaluate, analyze, and more.  It is also important to understand that the students we teach are ones who were born into a digital world where technology is consumed on a daily basis and that is why we must incorporate it in our teaching.  With the use of technology, students will become better engaged and more interested in what he or she is learning.  Teachers are highly recommended to using the following in their lessons: blogs, wikis, web quests, reflection, and the use of cellphones.  I was thinking to myself, "why cellphones" but then the video answered my question.  Students use cellphones on a daily basis and it is important to incorporate cellphone usage in the classroom but in an educational and safe way.  It is our job as educators to keep our students engaged and listen to them in every possible way.  We must help our students succeed in school and want to succeed in every way.    

      Another video, A Vision of K-12 Students Today also caught my attention based on the use of technology in the classroom.  This video was slightly similar to the previous video I chose to discuss because it also stressed the importance of teaching with the use of technology in the classroom, in order to keep students fully engaged and use tools that they already know how to use outside of school.  The video discusses how students already use technology such as: video games, computers, watching TV, blogs, and iPods for entertainment at home because they are 21st century learners.  We as future educators must emphasize this use of technology and incorporate it into our teaching methods and various lessons.  Not enough teachers use technology in the classroom, and this video helps them realize why we must use it everyday, in order to keep the students engaged and successful in their learning.  This video also includes information from Bloom's Taxonomy, which helps educators realize why it is important to make these terms as goals for successful teaching.  It must be the most important goal as a teacher to fully get students engaged and actively participating electronically and using the technological advances they use on a daily basis outside of school and bringing them into the classroom.  

     Overall, I think technology should be used in the classroom with students today and I will most likely incorporate the use of technology in my classroom and engage my students to the best of my ability!  I hope continue to learn more about technology and how I can use it in my lessons in my own classroom someday.