EDHD 5007

Finished my site, right in the nick of time! Particularily proud of my mind meister in all its sleep deprived craziness.

http://mswindfeldtsclass.weebly.com

Our group, (Stephanie, Jessica, Ted), thinks that the pros and cons of technology are far reaching. A positive about integrating technology in the classroom plays well off the idea that students are already familiar with technology and are using it often at home. Facilitating the ease of doing homework and connecting to the class is a great thing.

A con we could see happening is that many of these websites are too focused on the social aspect of school as opposed to the learning aspect. Although modeling school websites after Facebook helps student’s navigate them better, it could potentially have negative side effects.

Other pros and cons:
fun factor
resource management
Technology is unreliable; can waste time and distract from lesson
Spark creativity
Lack of interaction
hate being on the computer all the time, unreliable, hurts eyes

I believe that using technology in the classroom is a great way to gain students interest through the use of multimedia. Tools such as turnitin.com and Smartboards are a great resource for teachers. I am thankful that I am entering into an age where technology, for the most part, will support my teaching.

However, technology is not always dependable, and I sometimes see teachers using technology as a crutch. I think the main focus in a class should be on the lesson and the student teacher interaction. Personally, I fear the misuse of the online presence juxtaposing real life interaction and the effect it may have on us socially. Perhaps I am a bit old fashioned in that regard.

Also, technology is not dependable. To this day, in my college courses, I am often sitting and waiting while the professor fumbles around with the technology and tries to get it to work, or get the video to play. Maybe something to learn from that is to practice before hand and come prepared since technology is not dependable.

Not much interweb.