Winship's big ideas from TTF

It has been a great seminar and I have learned a lot about the powerful tools that exist on the internet that can help present information and engage students in a new way in class. I think more than anything else, the tools I have seen on the internet creating an engaging way for students to collaborate together in the classroom, and perhaps even more importantly, at home. There isn't a lot of class time in our after school program and by creating school google accounts that students can access from home, they are able to continue working on projects that interest them together without the need for photocopying the work they have done at school to send home or asking them to find time to meet together outside of school hours.

When we first started this fellowship and I started using technology in my classroom I felt that it could only benefit all of the students in my class. Throughout this past semester I have run into several issues using technology with students with different disabilities, especially those with processing issues. It is not enough to put technology in front of the students, it is about finding the right tools to support different learning abilities and styles. 

Often in the beginning of this fellowship I used google docs as a mode for my students to work during class, and found that for those kids with dyslexia this was a frustrating class that created problems with their group dynamics. This was solved with a personal computer for these specific students, or by starting to use other tools, such as comic strip creators and movies to allow these students to respond to our class discussions in alternate ways.

In the future I would like to utilize the ease technology hands to moving projects between the classroom and home to deepen the homework assignments I ask my students to do and help them continue their learning throughout the week. I also hope to find more efficient tools so that less time can be used in class to accomplish more with technology.