Vision-+Kelly+Lovejoy

Kelly Lovejoy~ 2nd Grade Teacher My Vision of a Technology Infused Elementary Classroom:

I would hope that in the future, we as teachers could do more than just integrate technology into our classrooms. It should be our goal to develop and design technology-based learning experiences and solutions that can impact the learning process. We, as educators, need to think about how we will use technology to boost learning in this rapidly changing world.

Technology only continues to grow. While we have made many leaps at Bedminster School, I envision many more steps forward in this technology enhanced environment that children are growing up in. It amazes me to see where technology in the classroom has gone. My 2nd graders are able to log in with their own user name and passwords, save documents, explore the internet, use the ActiveBoard in everyday learning activities, and complete interactive lessons with virtual manipulatives. But, we always say…what’s next?

For starters, when bringing my students up to the lab weekly, I am noticing that many assignments take a while for students to get through. This is due to them not knowing the proper placement of their hands on the keyboard and not having the practice to identify and memorize where the letters and punctuation keys are. It would be great to see some kind of typing program implemented early on in the lower elementary years.

Next, I would love to see more laptops accessible to the students within the classroom. There are times throughout the day where students are sent to complete center work. For example: Each day I am working with a group of students during Guided Reading. Those students not meeting with me are sent to centers to continue individual learning. One of my Centers is the Computer Center, but I only have one laptop accessible to the students. This would be a great opportunity to have many students exploring interactive, learning websites to continue enhanced learning.

Also, I would love to have several classroom sets of word processors such as AlphaSmarts which could be used for word processing, typing instruction, and students being able to publish their work. These could be used throughout curricular instruction to allow students to publish their final drafts in writing and to provide students with more opportunities of being able to practice their typing.

Combining these different technology opportunities will allow for a center based classroom. There could be a group of students working collaboratively at the ActiveBoard, a group of students working individually at laptops, a group of students working on the AlphaSmarts to publish work, and the last group working with the teacher to continue with curricular instruction.

Lastly, in order for our ideas/plans to be successful we must promote meaningful learning and collaboration, provide for the needed professional development and support, and as a staff we must respond flexibly to change. Let’s see where technology can really take learning!