Integration of Technology!

I really related to the Kajder article, “Unleashing Potential with Emerging Technologies”. The past six weeks, while observing at Northeast, I have been thinking of ways to engage students (thereby “unleashing potential”) while using the laptops I have available for every student. Unfortunately, there are many additional, new problems that emerge with the incorporation of technology. I really like how the article admitted the many negative issues incorporated with integrating technology into curriculum and classroom instruction by saying technology “reveals holes in planning, misreading of content, instability in resources, and, most critically, those moments where we have allowed the technology to supersede our instructional goals and students’ needs” (Kajder, 14). I think it is really key to notice the rhetoric used, saying technology doesn’t cause holes, it reveals them. Clearly, technology can successfully and efficiently find it’s way into curriculum instruction, it just requires the knowledge on the part of the instructor as to how to integrate it appropriately. I am constantly brainstorming, critiquing, and designing reading and writing activities and lessons in which we use the laptops, because the students are significantly quieter, listening more intently, and more deeply engaged.
After one of the reading courses we took earlier this fall, I have really opened my mind and expanded on my idea of what “reading” counts as and what literacy really means. I really enjoyed the introduction of the “writing spaces” that engage students and reading outside of school. Even though these are untraditional uses of literacy in the classroom, and, even harder to admit, fun (ah!), are they inappropriate to include in the classroom? I argue that if we are to reform the poor state of education, we have to adopt new ideas of what is “appropriate” or “literate” texts for our students. Personally, in my class, I am planning on using blogs, wikis, a moodle, and voicethread. I feel quite strongly that if I increase my students motivation and reduce their resistance to reading and writing, by whoing that those things can be fun, i am willing to use integrated technological tools.
In the Jenkins article, there was one specific section that really interested me. The discussion of a “participation gap”, much like an achievement gap, references the inability to have access to technology due to socioeconomic status and housing location (among many factors). I feel that, in these specific instances, the integration of technology intothe classroom and curriculum instruction is even more crucial. I am a huge proponent of incorporating rigorous college preparatory into my classroom and I feel like for any student to be successful in college, they need to have a technological and media literacy. If they do not have these resources at home, school may be the only place for them to become more knowledgeable and ready for college.
I love using laptops in the classroom, but one of my biggest challenges is getting the students to not be surfing the web or distracted with other applications. This link has 23 tips and tools for having laptops in the classroom! I will have to integrate this into my instruction!