Chapter 2 Productivity Tools and Application Software

Productivity Tools and Application Software

     Through the use of advanced computing and telecommunications technology, learning can also be qualitatively different. The process of learning in the classroom can become significantly richer as students have access to new and different types of information, which the computer provides through graphic displays or controlled experiments in ways never before possible, and can communicate their results and conclusions in a variety of media to their teacher, students in the next classroom, or students around the world. For example, using technology, students can collect and graph real-time weather, environmental, and populations data from their community, use that data to create color maps and graphs, and then compare these maps to others created by students in other communities. Similarly, instead of reading about the human circulatory system and seeing textbook pictures, students can use technology to see blood moving through veins and arteries, watch the process of oxygen entering the bloodstream, and experiment to understand the effects of increased pulse or cholesterol-filled arteries on blood flow.

Everyday experiences for both educators, students, and their families on the computer can effectively enhance the ability in which information is obtained and properly used, technology can enhance the achievement of all students, increase families’ involvement in their children’s schooling, improve teachers’ skills and knowledge, and improve school administration with the use of productivity tools and application software. 

Chapter 3 Getting to Know the World Wide Web

Getting to Know the World Wide Web

     Most can challenge classroom teachers or future teachers to analyze the net input and output of information going into and out of their classrooms.  For most teachers, a great deal of information is brought into their classroom, much of it thanks to the Internet’s World-Wide Web. The web is inherently an interactive medium, and although outside of class time many teachers and students utilize its interactive potential via email and instant messaging programs, during school it is much more common for them to use this tremendous tool like an advanced television: tuning in to channels (websites) of desired information and then bringing those broadcast streams into the instructional environment for largely passive consumption.

     Weblogs are Internet-based informational resources with the potential to change this common, limited use of the World-Wide Web in education. There are many ways to overview blogs as well as make suggestions for ways that students can be effectively and safely used in educational contexts.  Like many technological tools, blogs have potential for exciting instructional uses, but also potential for abuse and even dangerous uses which educators should acknowledge and proactively address to protect their students as well as themselves.  As long as teachers and students have a mutual understanding of the internet, this tool can only serve as a positive environment for both students and teachers. 

Chapter 4 Emerging and Assistive Technologies and the Future

Emerging and Assistive Technologies and the Future

In order to select appropriate technology tools to support writing needs, teachers need to consider the following: the individual student’s abilities and needs; the goals of the curriculum based on standards of performance; the growing body of effective instructional practices (e.g., defining a purpose for writing, providing authentic opportunities for self-expression, drafting, peer review, etc.); and ways to assess or monitor student progress.

     Within this context, general and specific technology tools can serve an important role in offering many students much-needed support. In this context, general technology can be considered as tools that can serve a particular and important purpose in writing for students with disabilities, primarily those with mild disabilities. Students with minor language production problems, difficulties transferring thoughts to paper, poor spelling, illegible handwriting, struggles in organizing their thoughts, and the like, can use standard text production tools.

Chapter 5 Social, Ethical, Legal and Human Issues

Social, Ethical, Legal and Human Issues

     We as future educators have to give rise to a host of social, legal and ethical and human issues that is surrounding advanced technology when our students are involve. Future educators and teachers need to know a reasonable amount about these issues. Because of their positions as teachers or potential teachers, we need to be above reproach and address issues as they arise and not take a laid back approach about these issues that would affect our students. 

     Teachers and future educators need to carefully examine their own role modeling in areas such as:

• Stealing software. (This includes all aspects of making and/or using illegal copies of software).
• Plagiarizing. It is exceedingly easy to do "cut and paste" without referencing the source and without paying attention to copyright laws.
• Making illegal or unethical use of ICT facilities.
• Damaging, destroying, stealing, and illegally using files that belong to others.

Because of their positions as teachers or potential teachers, need to be above reproach in the bulleted items listed above.

Chapter 6

     Learning and Teaching with Technology

     Classrooms are rapidly adapting around the advancements in technology that allow educators to enlighten their students in new ways. For future educators who are currently obtaining a degree in education may wish to utilize these tools in their future classrooms. Not only can teachers present their students with new and modern information on the internet, they may also use apps for smart phones and websites to help organize their curricula and keep their information organized. The possibilities are seemingly endless when educators choose to assimilate technological advancements into their teaching methodologies.

     Technological advantages for teachers and students, experts in technology and education have researched the benefits of using various types of technology programs in the classroom and often conclude that the learning process is improved with these tools. Teachers can educate themselves on what works and what does not work for their own students, depending on their age and learning levels, by looking into what is new in the industry and what other educators are doing with their pupils.