Technology in the 6th Grade Classroom

This podcast contains an interview discussing the importance of technology in the 6th Grade classroom. It overviews how the technology will affect teachers and students.http://kendykam.podbean.com/

Using Technology To Facilitate Sixth Grade Instruction

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Using Technology To Facilitate Sixth Grade Instruction

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As teachers, we are encouraged to use technology in the classrooms on a regular basis in our classrooms. The purpose of using all types of technology in the classroom would be to prepare our students to be competent and acquire the skills needed to survive in a saturated technological society. When the students are promoted past the sixth grade, chances are they will be expected to know how to maneuver through most types of machines and other technological gadgets. They use them at home often when they play video games, use their home computers and use their cell phones, so it really comes natural for them to be interested in the realm of the computer world, unlike the generations before.
“Technology can have a reciprocal relationship with teaching. The emergence of new technologies pushes education to understand and leveraging these technologies for classroom use; at the same time, the on-the-ground implementation of these technologies in the classroom can (and does) directly impact how these technologies continue to take shape.” (Groff, Hass, Klopfer, and Osterweil, 2009). Within the sixth grade classroom, teachers must understand that our students are still playing numerous games and handle various viewing systems at home in the evenings and sometimes all weekend. They are accustomed to figuring out how to hook up equipment, how to maneuver through software, how to master the games, also how to program televisions and all without any aid from adults. As a matter of fact, adults usually get assistance from the children. “We advocate for an evolution in educational practices and approaches to instruction, which not only align with the processes and operations of the world outside of school, but also leverage the emerging power and potential of these new processes and technologies. Attending to this end of the technology teaching relationship has the additional benefit of helping to shape emerging technologies that is most effective for cognition and instruction.” (Groff et al. 2009).



TOP TEN TIPS FOR USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM






In sixth grade, students are expected to master numerous competencies in every subject before they proceed to the following grade. Since I teach reading, I focus on reading strategies and how I can service my students by connecting them with activities for comprehension through technology. This year I was on the textbook adoption committee for our campus and we were told to examine the technology component of any textbook company that we consider due to the advances and the benefits for our students. “To promote technology use among their students, Jennifer Wagner recommends that teachers encourage online projects, visit other teachers’ Web sites to see how they are integrating technology, and get together with other teachers on a bi-weekly basis to go through the curriculum and share ways they can use technology in their lessons.” (Starr, 2003)
With advances in technology, students will be much more prepared for the experiences ahead of them. “As real as the digital divide is, the term never was intended to be used as an excuse for doing nothing. Roland Barth suggests that the responsibility to improve schools, from within, ultimately rests on the shoulders of the schoolhouse and the educators who reside there”. (Dyck, 2006). We cannot fail our students. We have to furnish everything they need.


http://www.neirtec.org/reading_report/


References

Dyck, B. (2006). Teaching in a culture of…”they’ll never let us” and “we cannot
do”. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck004.shtml%20.

Groff, J., & Hass, J., & Klopfer, E., & Osterweil, S. (2009). The education arcade:
The instructional power of digital games, social networking simulations and how teachers can leverage them. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck004.shtml%20.

Starr, L., (2003). Technology integration: Ideas that work. Education World.
Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck004.shtml%20