Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times

Technology in the classroom...in order for our students to be successful, we all need to master the ways of effectively implementing it right? For weeks, we've all posted about how we can do this but we need to keep in mind who we are dealing with in our classrooms. The fact that we have different learning styles, different genders, students with special needs, enriched students, etc.. requires to learn different ways of using technology for the different types of students we have. The book Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times presents ways we can do this along with problems we may encounter along the way.

The book states that when boys and girls are paired together on a computer, the boys tend to dominate the navigation of web sites while the girls typically dominate any form of communication, whether it be writing, emailing, or blogging. Designing lesson plans that require both of these tasks is effective to engage both genders.

Working with those students that have learning disabilities may require other forms of technology either replacing or in addition to the computer. Online text readers, text to speech software, and word processors such as an Alpha Smart can assist students with special needs. Altering our lesson plans to allow for differentiation of instruction will benefit these students.

For visually impaired students, most of the web browsers allow you to enlarge the print size. This gives the visually challenged students the same opportunities to succeed that all the kids in our classrooms have. The book cites many different websites for visually impaired, as well as hearing impaired children.

Since I use laptops in my classroom almost on a daily basis, I face these issues every day. I have my classroom desks set up in groups and I change the seating arrangement every week so students of different gender, learning styles, and learning abilities have to work together. I do notice the different ways that boys and girls dominate the computer and I make sure that my webquests, projects, or performance assessments have different opportunities for both genders to succeed. About half of my co-taught class requires some form of differentiated instruction. With the help of my special education teacher, we encourage the use of an Alpha Smart, or the use of note sheets, or give our students with special needs extra time and support. We also make sure to push our enriched students a little more and present them with appropriate levels of instruction.

We cannot forget about the different "types" of students that we have in our classroom when we are trying to implement technology in our curriculum.

Another example of the emphasis of technology with the Common Core can be found with CC.7.G.2 -  Draw (freehand, with ruler and protractor, and with technology) geometric shapes with given conditions. Focus on constructing triangles from three measures of angles or sides, noticing when the conditions determine a unique triangle, more than one triangle, or no triangle. With my math classes, we are going to experiment with different web sites and other technology based tools to approach geometry in different avenues, where in the past in was done with paper and pencil.