"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."

-John Dewey

Although it was only less than a decade ago when I was a student in elementary school staring at my teacher solving math on a chalk board (that never seemed to be fully clean), one would think this was a century ago.  Let's face it, today’s children are growing up in an information driven world. It would be easy to teach the same way our teachers did 10 years ago, but why would we? With endless technology tools being introduced to the education field, it is our job as teachers to welcome these advances with open arms.

As a future teacher, it is crucial to become aware of the impact technology has on student learning. However in order to receive its full benefits, it’s essential to understand how it works. Throughout this semester, I have explored many areas of technology between iPad apps, SMART technologies and modern presentation tools to foster student learning. Below you will find examples of powerful technology tools and ways to incorporate them into the classroom.

Prezi is an online tool that allows users to create modern presentations. Prezi makes sharing and showcasing your ideas fun, engaging and allows for interactive learning. Students are captivated by the creative templates and layouts Prezi provides. The user is also able to change who can view the presentation by setting the privacy setting. I experimented with Prezi and created my own presentation. This presentation is of my top educational apps for the iPad that I found to be the most useful.

You can view my Prezi presentation here.

Credit: Google Images

VoiceThread is a web-based application that allows the user to place collections of media such as images, documents, videos and presentations into a slide show presentation. VoiceThreads make it possible for people to make comments on these presentations in a variety of ways: text, microphone, a web cam, a telephone or an uploaded video file. This is great for teachers to make differentiation in a class of diverse learners. VoiceThread is convenient in that there is no software to download, install or update; it just runs inside your internet browser.

I used VoiceThread to create a story reading of the book Curious George Visits the Library by Margret & H.A. Rey's. I completed it all on my iPad by taking a photo of each page in the book and uploading it.  I then recorded my voice reading each page so the students would be able to follow along as they went through the slide show.

You can view my VoiceThread by clicking here.

Credit: Google Images

As a future teacher, it is highly beneficial to be knowledgeable in SMART technology and all of the tools it has to offer. A SMART Board is an interactive and engaging white board designed for teacher and student use. It supports all learners (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) and promotes accessibility for all. 

In class, we explored the many features of SMART Board and learned from our classmates and our teacher. I worked with my classmate, Lindsy Geery, to create our own SMART Board math lesson on addition and subtraction called Missing Math. The students are able to use the SMART Board as a virtual white board to fill in the missing parts to the number sentence from the word bank provided. This lesson is appropriate for 1st grade and the attachment and standards are stated below.

In addition to creating my own lesson, I explored sample lessons from SMART Exchange. This website offers useful, pre-made lessons that are available for public viewing. SMART Exchange is great for beginner users of SMART Board to get inspired making their own lessons. I found a Pre-K to 1st grade lesson on SMART Exchange called Gumball Math. This lesson is on addition, subtraction and graphing and is attached with standards below.