Revision of my Guiding Principles for Technology Use

Here were my original principles and my revisions:

It is obvious from reading what wrote 5 weeks ago that I was completely uninformed about web 2.0. What I now would like to include in my guiding principles are:

1) I should not feel that I have to assign a grade to everything that my students produce. I might be surprised that in some cases that the learning for the sake of learning might be motivation enough. For instance if I ask students to comment on a blog and I don't award grades to the comments...that's ok.

2) Give more web 2.0 choices to my students especially for creative projects. For instance, instead of giving students a choice of a PowerPoint, a poster or a trifold, I can also suggest a glogster, screencasting or some other cool new media.

3) Encourage use of Google Docs (and use it myself) to give students constant access to their documents.

Guiding Principles for Using Technology

The physical teachnology (Was that a typo or a flash of brilliance?) that I have in my classroom includes:

1. My laptop computer with heavily filtered connection to the internet

2. An LCD projector

3. A mimio interactive white board tool

4. A laptop cart with 12 student computers for up to 30 students

5. An array of probes that interface with the computers for data collection

After some reading and reflection I will try to live by the following principles of technology use:

1) Using a laptop computer ¹ learning from technology.

2) Since students have to share the computers, assign their groups so that they have experience “adapting to different personalities and communication styles.”

3) The epitome of a computer experience for the students results in the students producing something or participating in something that results in stimulating lifelong learning.

4) Evaluate the merit of using a high tech probe vs. a low teach measuring tool for data collection. Greater precision and accuracy do not outweigh the value of the students “feeling” the data, as with force probes and spring scales.

5) Incorporate the LCD projector and mimio tool for student use vs. instructor use to provide the students the opportunity to share what they have produced.