Educational Technology: Beneficial to Students

I think it is very important to use technology in the classroom. Students can interact with eachother and share their thoughts using Wikis. Wikis are a perfect way to allow children to work in groups on a homework assignment, each child can add their thoughts or change the groups thoughts as a whole.

Blogs, like this one, are also useful in everyday lessons. A blog can be used for educational recordings or as a simple online journal for children to share what is on their mind. I remember using blogs in high school. The teacher would post a question on a class blog and everyone responded to that question. This question was usually opinion based and seemed to work very well. This was helpful because not only was I sharing my thoughts (and getting a grade!) but I was able to read everyone else's response and see other ideas or views on the topic.

As a student, I find it helpful when a teacher puts the lesson in the form of notes or bullets on a powerpoint slideshow. This makes it easy to see the main ideas versus what is not so important. It also makes it easy for a teacher to save that powerpoint slideshow onto a website or blog so the students can retrieve it later. This allows students to focus on the lesson and what is being said rather than frantically trying to write everything down.

I think the integration of technology is very helpful and in the world we live in today, it is almost necessary!