Tech+Integration

Of the several videos that I watched, the one I found to be the most interesting was //Big Thinkers: Salman Khan on Liberating the Classroom for Creativity.// I had heard about the Khan Academy last year, when a teacher friend of mine was featured in the Denver Post for implementing these videos ([]). This video appealed to me because Salman’s idea is just what is needed in the classroom today. The idea of using technology to have the lecture take place out of the classroom, therefore removing some of the distractions and allowing more collaborative student work and teacher creativity and freedom, is a great idea. It helps the students learn at their pace, work with each other to improve comprehension and allow the teacher to cover what they feel is really necessary. The Khan Academy seems to take technology integration to the next level with what they are doing, especially because their videos are actually freeing up time in the classroom so teachers can actually teach. Technology integration is of an ever growing importance in the classroom in today’s society. Students are growing up with technological devices from early ages and by the time they reach the middle school grade, many have a better grasp on technology than the teacher. In order to gain the attention of young people of today in the classroom, the teacher needs to be aware of how important technology integration is today. Some ideas that I have for technology integration would be implementing the Khan Academy if appropriate. A Web Quest to get students familiar with using the internet for more than just social networking. One more idea would be to possibly have a URL on the board that takes the students to a biography page about the next author to be covered. Then have the students provide a URL they found on the author.
 * Technology Integration Assignment**