Helping students to learn better!

Article 1:Using Technology to Enhance the Classroom Environment

Article 2:Learning Designs: An Analysis of Youth-Initiated Technology Use

Article 3:The Changing Classroom: Challenges for Teachers

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This article basically discusses the following:Classroom setupTeacher

involvement and readiness

Student participation

Classroom setup The most basic classroom setup, which allows instructors to use technology as

part of their teaching, is one in which there is a computer, a network connection (either wired or wireless) and a projection system. This allows instructors to perform demonstrations, present material, illustrate how to use software, show Web sites, etc.

Teacher involvement and readiness Instructors should spend an efficient amount of time to prepare themselves for

whatever is going to be taught. They should familiarize themselves with their presentation, that way they can interact with students while teaching so that the information can be learned better.

Student participation To have real participation and interaction, students need to have computers with

network and power connections they can use in the classroom. For college level students, the best interaction in a classroom setting where the class is taught primarily using some form of technology is to bring their laptop to class. That is if the professor allows them.

I think that it is a great idea for students to interact with their professors using technology.

Some students tend to learn better being hands on rather than through lecture. This is a form of hands on learning that could help students learn better. In

a elementary classroom setting, students would learn better when you use different forms of

teaching. Just the everyday chalkboard lecture will not work for some students. This is a way teachers

could vary their techniques for better learning experience.

This article discusses how youth are learning differently than any other generation, and technology is the cause.

The article gives a very good example on how the youth are using different forms of technology with learning. Instant messaging in an after school tutoring lab was

one helpful way. The students would choose to IM a problem or

something else that they needed help with, and the teacher would instant message them back explaining in detail how to solve the problem and/or answer the question.

That made the students want to interact more and ask more questions.

PowerPoint's were used in the classroom setting when the teacher wanted to present new information.

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The article says that the teachers saw how the youth were leading the world of technology and the only way to interact with “their world” and to get them to learn better, would be to use what interests them and use it as a source in teaching material.

I do agree when the author stated that the youth are leading the world of technology. It is steadily advancing in their era. Therefore, they are the ones that are most interested in learning all about it. Most of their parents grew up without using computers and other forms of technology. The youth are most of the time more experienced when it comes to technology than their parents. Also, in a classroom setting, students would pay more attention when you use things like PowerPoint, podcasts, digital scrapbooking, slideshows, and even video’s.

With the explosive development of the Internet in the '90s and the enthusiastic embrace of the "information superhighway" by the Clinton administration, many educators noticed that computers could play a critical role in teaching.

Technology delivered an ever-accelerating learning curve which everyone must keep up with, teachers have begun to see that they must learn to work differently with their students in order for education to remain relevant and effective.

Teachers have to develop the ability to demonstrate how these technologies can be used for academic purposes and convey the educational advantages of computers and the Internet to their students.

The article also discusses how teachers now have to get comfortable with the new technology that is emerging so that they can use it efficiently in their classrooms.

Some teachers often take classes on how to use certain features and devices in their own classroom.

To meet the challenges of an always-evolving high-tech society, teachers today need to develop multiple forms of computer and information literacy to help improve education. This means using technology in the classroom to illustrate lesson topics; teaching students how to use the Internet and information technology to research topics; and using technology to enhance education outside the classroom, ideally in ways that involve students in the learning process. According to the article, technology is used more by new and younger teachers. The ones who have taught for many years and are accustomed to the olden ways, tend to not use them.

Students are living in a world now days where technology is what runs it. If you use techniques and things that they are familiar with, they will learn better. I do understand when it said that the pace in technology is very fast, that some teachers have to take classes to learn the different ways to use the technology in their classroom setting. The number one thing that a teacher wants is for their students to learn the material that they are trying to teach them. Therefore, you have to use ways that interest them.

Technology in education is a very important factor, especially in the elementary setting. These

three articles have discussed how important it actually is. Statistics show that students who interact

in an useful technology classroom setting versus those who do not tend to learn better. I will use

technology in my classroom setting. I know that I was always a hands on learner, and I would learn better

when the teacher would use different techniques and forms of teaching. It also made learning fun! You

always want the students to be interested in what you are teaching them because if they aren’t then most of

the time they will not remember the lesson.

DeGennaro, D. (2008, Fall2008). Learning Designs: An Analysis of Youth-Initiated

Technology Use. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41(1), 1-20. Retrieved

November 19, 2008, from Teacher Reference Center database.

Douglas Kellner, Ph.D., "The Changing Classroom: Challenges for Teachers," T.H.E. Journal,

3/1/2005, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17203

Levine, L. (2008, Fall2008). Using Technology to Enhance the Classroom Environment.

T.H.E. Journal, 1-4. January 2002.