Digital Blog Post # J- Chapter 11

     In the 21st century, technology has been developed like crazy. For us teachers, it's important to use technology inside our classroom for a new way to engage our students into the lesson being taught by us teachers. You want to be one of those teachers that are updated with the newest form of teaching with using technology. There are many different ways you can do so. The following are just a few out of the thousands that are out there.
    The first one is creating a digital portfolio. Just like everything else out there, there are advantages and disadvantages, but we are going to be focusing on the advantages of a digital portfolio. They are accessible wherever you are and whenever it's convenient for you to access it. Digital portfolios are portable thanks to technology. These digital portfolios allows students to express their creativity any way they would like to. This gives them a way to express their ideas and accomplishments in ways that fit their personality. With us being in the 21st century and allowing students to use digital portfolios, this allows students to get a technological self-confidence while using technology.
   Not all teachers in the 21st century will agree to use technology inside of their classroom, but the teachers that do, it allows students to give feedback to the teacher on a certain lesson they taught. They can do this by creating a teacher survey that allows students to take after a lesson to show their thoughts and opinions on the lesson. By students taking this survey, it allows teachers to get feedback on things they could add in or improve for the next year for new students. Surveys also allow students to tell what they already know and what they would like to know more about. It's a great way for students and teachers to see what can be learned and what could be improved later down the road.
   This next form of technology that is becoming more and more popular in this century is using clickers to take tests. Clickers are a remote control looking device that allows students to take tests and gives the teachers their response. At the end of the test, teachers can post the results so students can see how well they did. I remember in 8th grade in my history class, we took our test using similar devices. I loved using these as a student because I was able to use technology inside the classroom while taking a test. It makes test taking more fun for not only students, but as well as teachers. Student engagement are increased while using these clickers because it gives them a way to express their opinions using electronics.

    The following is my comic I made to show clickers being used inside the classroom to take a test. As you can see, the teacher and students love using the clickers to take test.






    The video below is a teacher from Idaho who tells why using technology inside her classroom has improved students learning. This video is a great example to show that students are more engaged in learning with technology, but as well as the teacher. Using technology gets the students and teacher involved with the lesson being taught. Using technology increases student scores and decreases students missing out on lessons in class by sleeping.






Sources:

• Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
•  Improving Classroom Management Using Digital Tools. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2015.