Tech+Integration

** Technology Integration **
The video clip "Tech-fueled differentiated Instruction Engages Elementary School Students" really demonstrates how one school, Forest Lake Elementary School, has integrated technology into the students' daily learning experience and the teachers' teaching experience. Children are expected to use technology to enhance their studies and they are encouraged to become self-directed learners. Teachers are required to become very familiar with today's technology and they need to know how to integrate the tools available to enhance their students' learning experience. During my student teaching, there was perhaps one or two computers that the teachers shared in the teachers' lounge. Now computer technology is ubiquitous in most classrooms and obviously abundant at Forest Lake. The video clipped really shows how this school has embraced the current and forward ways of teaching and learning.

Technology integration is ever so important in today's environment. It fuels the way people communicate, create, gather information, connect. It has created endless possibilities for students to learn and for teachers to teach. The "digital generation" has access to tools that can maximize their learning potential. They can communicate with other students from across the world, talk to NASA, explore the world via satellite, create digital images. Teachers can collaborate with other teachers and share ideas from all over the world, design visually and intellectually stimulating instruction, and teach students to become self-directed in their learning.

In my children's classroom, the kids all have access to the "smart board" in which the students can interact with the computer as a class. It is amazing to see how learning has changed in the last decade. Now, the students have the opportunity to have access to boundless information and have the ability to communicate in ways that I could not have imagined when I was teaching more than a decade ago. Any humanity courses can be enhanced by actually talking to other students from across the world and sharing photos via on line. What a great way to have the students share the world together and get involved in their learning. In addition, the technological tools really allow the students to express their creativity in unlimited ways with graphics and digital technology that is available to them. Children would be able to navigate and create worlds that were once only limited to their imagination. And now, they are able to share that with the others. Technology integration is also critical for teachers. Teachers can share information with other teachers across the world about curriculum instruction, lesson plans, finding solutions to classroom problems, etc.. And by integrating technology into the classroom, the teachers will be able to lead the students forward into the future where technology will be ever so intertwined with their daily lives.