Week 4 reflection

So this week things are starting to come together a bit more for me. I'm starting to understand how a PLN can be useful to me. I updated my twitter so I could have lists for the ed tech people that I follow and to keep them separate from my friends or other people I follow. I have found some really interesting people who have a lot of information on technology use for special education which is what is the most interesting thing for me. During the school year I found that I have a great interest for assistive technology because a lot of my students used many different devices. I am trying to broaden my knowledge on new ideas to use technology for next year with my new special education classroom. I have been reading more blogs that I follow in my google reader, but since I follow so many it's still a bit overwhelming to read them. One of the most interesting sites that I found this week from someone's "tweet" was a site that had a list of over a 100 apps for the iphone/ipod/ipad for special education. Since I have an Iphone I was exploring what some of the apps were. If I had my dream classroom and I could convince my principal that all the students should have either an Ipod or IPad there are really great apps! A lot of the kids that I work with have trouble communicating and transitioning, and I found many apps that have visual schedules for the students, as well as apps that can speak for the child. It got me really excited to go back to school in the fall! Granted, I don't want to pay for these apps on my iphone but I can keep them in mind for the school year, and see if I can convince the school to get them for our students.

Something that I am still struggling with is the question of can you do the lesson plans with out technology. When I think about the lesson plan that I submitted I could do parts of it without technology. For example I could have my students draw their animal and habitat with paper instead of using an online resource. However, I felt that students would be more willing to draw on the computer rather then using pencil and paper. It's a tough question to answer all the time, but it really gets me thinking. I think technology in the classrooms is a great thing to have, but is it necessary? Teachers can be good teachers with out using technology. I think you need to have a purpose for using it with your students, not just to entertain them. I'm still gathering my thoughts on that one...