Technology The students and teachers in our Lower Elementary School will need to use technology to be successful. Our school will be a technology school. There will not be any paper or pencil used in our building. One reason our school will be paper free is that it will help to save money. Going paperless will also help the environment (Aronin, 2013). In order to be a paperless school we will use iPads, activtables, interactive white boards, and the student response systems that go with interactive white boards. We plan to use this technology in every single subject in every grade level. Since our school will be paperless it will be mandatory to use all of the technology available for every subject by all students and teachers. Since our school will be paperless, every student will have access to an iPad while at school. Students will have iPads instead of lap top computers because “they allow for flexibility in the location of where the teaching and learning may occur due to the portability and plethora of educational early childhood apps available at no or low cost” (Aronin, 2013). Students will use iPads for all subject areas. Students will be able to use access quizzes on their iPad that their teacher has already created. Students can take the quiz and turn it into the online drop box. In addition, students will be able to access educational apps such as How Rocket Learned to Read, Shakespeare in Bits, Grammar Up, Math Bingo, etc. Students will also use the iPad as their textbook for all subject areas. Using an iPad as an e reader is much more cost effective than buying textbooks for each individual subject (Miller, 2012). Each classroom will be equipped with an activtable as well. An activtable is “a touchscreen interactive table with 25 activities that have been mapped to standards” (ActivTable, 2012). An activetable will allow up to 6 students to work on it at once. This table will encourage collaboration between students. One of the things we plan to focus on is building student’s social skills. An activtable will do just that. It will allow the students to work together on a large screen rather than all on their own individual iPads. The last piece of technology equipment our school will use in an interactive white board. The interactive white board will be used in every classroom for every subject. It will take the place of traditional chalk boards. The interactive white boards will be used to explain concepts to the students. The board will help make the learning more interactive and hands on (Preston, 2008). The interactive white boards also come with student response systems which will be used in classrooms in the place of paper and pencil tests. The student response system will allow students to answer an instructors question on a remote control type device (Füvesi, 2009). This will give the instructor immediate feedback.
References ActivTable. (2012). Children's Technology Review, 20(4), 24. Aronin, S., & Floyd, K. K. (2013). Using an iPad in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms to Introduce STEM Concepts. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45(4), 34-39. Artunian, J. (2010). A Pathway to Paperless. T H E Journal, 37(9), 16-18 Preston, C., & Mowbray, L. (2008). Use of SMART Boards for teaching, learning and assessment in kindergarten science. Teaching Science: The Journal Of The Australian Science Teachers Association, 54(2), 50-53. Miller, W. (2012). iTeaching and Learning. Library Technology Reports, 48(8), 54-59.
The students and teachers in our Lower Elementary School will need to use technology to be successful. Our school will be a technology school. There will not be any paper or pencil used in our building. One reason our school will be paper free is that it will help to save money. Going paperless will also help the environment (Aronin, 2013). In order to be a paperless school we will use iPads, activtables, interactive white boards, and the student response systems that go with interactive white boards. We plan to use this technology in every single subject in every grade level. Since our school will be paperless it will be mandatory to use all of the technology available for every subject by all students and teachers.
Since our school will be paperless, every student will have access to an iPad while at school. Students will have iPads instead of lap top computers because “they allow for flexibility in the location of where the teaching and learning may occur due to the portability and plethora of educational early childhood apps available at no or low cost” (Aronin, 2013). Students will use iPads for all subject areas. Students will be able to use access quizzes on their iPad that their teacher has already created. Students can take the quiz and turn it into the online drop box. In addition, students will be able to access educational apps such as How Rocket Learned to Read, Shakespeare in Bits, Grammar Up, Math Bingo, etc. Students will also use the iPad as their textbook for all subject areas. Using an iPad as an e reader is much more cost effective than buying textbooks for each individual subject (Miller, 2012).
Each classroom will be equipped with an activtable as well. An activtable is “a touchscreen interactive table with 25 activities that have been mapped to standards” (ActivTable, 2012). An activetable will allow up to 6 students to work on it at once. This table will encourage collaboration between students. One of the things we plan to focus on is building student’s social skills. An activtable will do just that. It will allow the students to work together on a large screen rather than all on their own individual iPads.
The last piece of technology equipment our school will use in an interactive white board. The interactive white board will be used in every classroom for every subject. It will take the place of traditional chalk boards. The interactive white boards will be used to explain concepts to the students. The board will help make the learning more interactive and hands on (Preston, 2008). The interactive white boards also come with student response systems which will be used in classrooms in the place of paper and pencil tests. The student response system will allow students to answer an instructors question on a remote control type device (Füvesi, 2009). This will give the instructor immediate feedback.
References
ActivTable. (2012). Children's Technology Review, 20(4), 24.
Aronin, S., & Floyd, K. K. (2013). Using an iPad in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms to Introduce STEM Concepts. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45(4), 34-39.
Artunian, J. (2010). A Pathway to Paperless. T H E Journal, 37(9), 16-18
Preston, C., & Mowbray, L. (2008). Use of SMART Boards for teaching, learning and assessment in kindergarten science. Teaching Science: The Journal Of The Australian Science Teachers Association, 54(2), 50-53.
Miller, W. (2012). iTeaching and Learning. Library Technology Reports, 48(8), 54-59.