Incorporating Technology in Classrooms

 Do you need assistance figuring out how to incorporate technology in your classroom? Look no further. I am going to provide you with resources that are convenient to incorporate into your instructional practice. 

Integrating technology provides educators with tools to improve student engagement and achievement. If you ever wondered “what could I do to gain my students’ attention during the lessons?” I have the answer; technology!

Technology can be incorporated into all grade-level lessons, but you have to know what technology resources are appropriate. In my 3rd grade class, I use technology daily, among different subjects. I blend my traditional lessons with technology components. A tech tool that can be used for 3rd-grade math to informally assess your students during a math lesson is called XtraMath. XtraMath is an online math fact fluency program that helps students develop quick recall and automaticity of their basic math facts (Jeschke, 2007). Then you can proceed with a traditional math book lesson. Grades k-6 would benefit from the application at school and home.

Another tech tool that you could use for a math activity within the standard; 3.OA.1 Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 x 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each, would be an app called Brain Pop. You can teach your students the initial concepts relating to math in the app. A pediatric immunologist sees a need for digital resources that help kids understand difficult subjects and developed the website BrainPOP (Kadar, 1999). This app includes animated, educational videos and activities that teach about a topic, then teachers can assign assignments directly through the app. The assignment is also graded immediately after students finish.

The last tech tool to summatively assess students is an app called Quizizz. I would use this tech tool after a lesson has been taught to check for understanding. Quizizz is an app where lessons, assignments, and assessments are created to build student Mastery. The app provides live insights where a teacher can view student progress and needs.

For my direct instruction, I use Powerpoint slides and editable print-outs from teacherspayteachers.com on my Clevertouch board at the front of the class. That way students can see and follow along. Intertwining traditional with technology resources is the best! Here are some resources that teachers can use to research educational technology needs within their classroom: EdSurge, LearnPlatform, and CommonSense Education. Teachers could use EdSurge to locate various tech tools to use as formative assessments. They could use LearnPlatform to modernize their classroom with tech systems to assist with growth monitoring and instruction. Last, CommonSense Education provides teachers with their advocacy on safe, equitable apps and websites to incorporate into the classroom. They also provide professional development on teaching technology to students.

As educators, we have to understand the technical importance of incorporating technology into our classes. The first importance is providing equitable use of the technology, which means 

all students will have access to technology regardless of their background or culture.

Another importance is understanding the ethical use of technology, which means taking proper care of the technology, as well as using safe and appropriate sites.

The last importance is understanding the social responsibility of technology which means understanding that one’s actions affect others. So, it is important to be responsible with the technology and model the proper behavior while using the technology. Knowing that information presented online will forever be viewable, is something to be mindful of.

When incorporating your choice of technology, make sure to decide the moments that you will integrate the technology to facilitate student learning. I would suggest flipped classrooms and stations. For example, you can assign an educational video before the class lesson, and students can listen and complete the lesson with your guidance, but on their own. For stations, I would create 4-5 areas in the class and provide students with different content (within each station) to complete on their iPads. 

Two examples of educational technology tools an educator can use to support goals of self-directedness and independent student learning would be iReady and Khan academy. Both sites provide material that students can complete on their own. They easily log in and complete their work. All instructions can be read to the students to reinforce their understanding before the completion of the work. iReady is a well-rounded site that assists with every student's need. It has text-to-speech, breathing techniques to decrease anxiety, and preferred language selections. Khan academy allows students to learn at their own pace, and teachers can identify gaps among their students. 

Now that you have received information about technology, the importance, and resources, take a look at the websites and get familiar with your favorites. Enjoy!