Monday

Here is the first entry in the Technology Workshop blog. It is the summer of 2008 and I swore to myself and everyone that I was going to be lazy this summer and not take any workshops. However....here I am! If it was not worth my time, I would not be here.

The workshop is about teaching with technology. Yesterday, we learned how to make movies and then download them on to an iPod. Yes, I will now have an iPod! I made a mini movie about Turtle-roo for the class assignment. I am including it here on my blog!

What did you think? Feel free to post some comments.

We also learned about the world of podcasting and made a podcast in class. Our podcast was about the difficulties of teaching with technology. Ohhhh...there is so much I could say about the subject. I really like using technology. This past year I used only my projector and computer to show notes, videos, etc. I did not use my overhead projector at all! Hard to believe in some respects. I feel like I am above the average bear in ability to use technology on a day to day basis, but when you compare me to my students, I have a ways to go.

Teaching with technology, while exciting, can be very frustrating. The hardest part for me is finding the time to prepare the technology for the classroom and to learn the technology. My husband already thinks I sit at the computer too much as it is, but to keep up with my students, I have to do a lot of work learning the new games, how to download music, etc. Technology updates that are administered at school seem to be only two hours one morning before the school year starts and that may be the only one we do all year long. How can teachers keep up and keep students interested when we don't have the time to prepare? Of course the big elephant in the room is the money issue. Getting the actual technology in the classroom where it can be used. It is such a challenge to get the technology in the first place, then once we do get it, we hope and pray that we can get more than one so that the students can actually use it. Too often, I have received technology and I have to be limited on allowing my students to use it for fear it will be broken before we get to really make use of it.

I do know that we have to do something to get caught up and speaking the same language as our students these days. They are being raised in a completely different world than I was raised. Check out this video on Youtube about how the world has changed called Shift Happens. It will open your eyes about what the world is like today!