Blog #10: ERIC Project Reflection

After watching a few of the presentations, I am now more knowledgeable about how technology can be used in the curriculum. I really liked hearing about how to use it in science and found the Quest Atlantis program to be interesting and it sounds like it would be a fun simulation. I think it would have been nice to learn about how to incorporate other subjects as well, but science is a subject that is often difficult for children to have hands on experience with because it is dangerous to mix chemicals or take children to the ocean when learning about the oceans and the sea animals. Providing such simulations allows the students to have the experience. I look forward to being able to use simulations and other programs in my classroom.
I also found the statistics found for the use of technology between men and women to be interesting. When I heard that men tended to use the computer more for programming and data analysis I began to think. My mom is an engineer and her primary job is to analyze data; I have never thought of her being in a male dominated field, but when I began to think about it, she really is! The statistics also say that women tend to use the computer for word processing, finances and communication. I will agree that my primary use for the computer is for communication through e-mails and instant messaging as well as preparing word documents for school. As a teacher, I will not use these statistics as a driving force for my teaching. I will expect all of the students to be able to look at data and see a correlation and to use a program to create a word document.
Even though this topic has not yet been discussed in our presentations, while doing my research, I found the positive and negative uses for technology in the classroom to be interesting. Teachers must really be careful as to not allow the computer and programs to do the teaching; they have to use the computer to aide in the teaching. This will be one of my primary concerns for using computers in my classroom. I have to be careful to not say “They will understand it better after they use the computer to play the math game.” I should be able to teach and clarify the information and then use the computer to help the children practice what they have learned.