Jessies Post

Technology can be a great and advantageous way to deliver information to students if used properly and accordingly. Although my major is education, I have my heart set on teaching pre-school to first grade. I really connect with the younger kids, as I worked in a preschool room at a daycare all summer. With that being said, I know that technology will only work in a classroom setting with these age children if it involves visuals, and the students can interact with it. Smart boards are a great example of this, and I very much hope a school I work at will have these. If not, I would deliver information to students with Gloggster, or Prezzi (rather than powerpoint) because the setting is more fitting. With these two sites or apps, the visuals are easier to follow but engaging and the children can move along to each new picture or fact in a fun way. However, the one thing I worry about is them losing attention with these presentations if they're too lengthy, as children that age do best with hands-on activities. If my school is as fortunate enough as some Professor Dreier has mentioned, I think Ipads would be great for each student to hold and follow along a lesson plan. It does concern me that technology tends to be more for the older children or teenagers though, and I really want to find a way 3-6 year olds can benefit, without the standard technology class but in my own classroom!

Samanthas post

Samanthas post: 

There are many different ways in which content can be delivered to students, but as a teacher it is your job to make sure it is effective and beneficial to all students. Being an early childhood major, I think is it extremely important to have visual aids to go along with everything you do. So, for example in my classroom when I am teaching my students science and the different weather that comes along with each season I will provide visuals to go along with that hanging up around the classroom. For example on the winter sign I would have pictures of snowmen, hot chocolate, gloves, and things that will help them relate to the idea of winter. Also John made a good point of using technology and blackboard in his classroom and I think that these websites can be very beneficial to students. However, I think for my students blackboard is too advanced but something like schoology would be extremely visual and it would also help my students become familiar with current technology.

John's Post about delivery

For delivering different content to students, I have read about and come up with a plethora of ways that I can get information to students. From a technological standpoint, some of the easier ways of giving kids the knowledge is through school websites like blackboard. This is very simple though. One of the key principles of delivery is by relating new information kids have to their old information. This idea gave me many different methods. For instance, as a middle education social studies teacher, I will have kids look up on youtube certain videos of our president and let the kids find out what he is trying to do as president. Then through that info, compare and contrast to a president that they may be studying, like FDR or Lincoln.