Blogs on Technology Integration

Unless your students are living on a desert island, they're getting bombarded daily with headlines from around the globe. As a teacher, should you try to tune out the world -- whether it's abuzz with news about natural disasters, social upheaval, or politicians behaving badly -- and stick to your lesson plan? Or can you use headlines to focus student attention on relevant, real-world projects that meet your instructional goals?

Meredith Stewart teaches middle school English and upper school history at Cary Academy in Cary, NC. She blogs about the work of her classroom and reflects upon it in this blog.

When sixth graders enter middle school, they are masters of some aspects of digital technology and lost when it comes to others. Despite their familiarity with some digital technology, they often lack specific skills needed for interacting with particular digital tools and interfaces. Many of them also lack the perseverance necessary for troubleshooting tech issues.

Trey Martindale knows teaching technologies that help create inspirational learning environments. A professor of instructional design and technology at the University of Memphis, Dr. Martindale tracks and describes e-learning advancements on his blog, Teachable.org. His non-profit Instructional Design and Technology Studio provides graduate students an opportunity to develop online curriculum for real world clients. I interviewed him about the latest developments in online learning.

INTERVIEW WITH LAUREN MOYER

For this week's STEM theme, I wanted to share an email interview I conducted with one of my 6th grade teachers who used some tech to enhance her Science instruction. Our school has little access to technology and this teacher did not have extensive PD or training before the lesson described, but simply expressed a desire to 'give it a shot.' Hopefully her story shows how even a small change in instructional approach through the use of technology can have a large impact for both the students and the teacher.