Blog 6 Prompt

I chose to read Chapter 11, which is on Technology Integration in the subjects of Mathematics and Science. The reason I wanted to type my blog post on science, is because I am a 7th and 8th grade Science teacher at Moody Junior High School. I love my job and I love working with my kids, and that is why I believe technology is so important in the classroom. I think Technology is the best way possible to gain kids attention and to keep them engaged inside your classrooms.
 Advantages:
 I think the pros outweigh the cons for Technology in our classrooms. Like I said above I think Technology is something that keeps kids interested in our classrooms. I think children need hands on activities inside the classrooms. One topic the text hits on is authentic science, and it talks about using technology to help make science relevant to students lives (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p. 319). One program like this is Globe Project, this is a project that has students investigate the weather, land cover, soil, and hydrology (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p. 319). I also enjoy interactive games or simulations for my classroom. This strategy goes along with supporting science skills and concept learning, and through this you can use lessons and games to provide motivational ways to supplement your students instruction (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p. 322). A good website example of this would be the Neo K-12 website, which I use for my students to provide games and interactive lessons.
www.neok12.com
http://www.aaas.org
 Disadvantages:
 One disadvantage to technology is always going to be the amount of money it could possibly cost your school. For example in BYOB schools, you may not always be able to provide all of your students with the same amount of technology. One example our book was talking about was the use of Virtual Science Labs, the text talks about how we have done studies that support hands on activities in science classrooms. Now we are trying to get our classrooms to go to more virtual labs, and this kind of contradicts itself (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, p. 319). Another problem is that not all of your teachers are properly trained in the uses of these different technologies. To implement these technologies Teachers must undergo specific training with each of them (Roblyer and Doering, and 2013, p. 326).
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Disadvantages-Of-Using-Technology-In-The-1380583.html

M6 What are the benefits of Technology in the classroom, this article discusses that:http://t.co/hxZ76qObYa #ED527UM
— Jared Meads (@JaredMeads1) November 17, 2013

Interactive Wiki

coachmeads.wikispaces.com

This is the Url for my wiki, after I made some slight adjustments to it.  For the most part the comments on my wikipage were very good, so I didn't have too many changes to make.  The one thing I did change up was my Interactive Activity.  One of the comments about my wiki was to make the activity less of a discussion board.  So I took one of their suggestions and made it to where each of the students will be assigned a different possible field trip location to research.  They will research their location, and then post the information they found as well as a picture.  This will cut down on some of the possible posts you might have during the activity.