Online Exercise 15- Communication Tools

How could you use these technologies to help yourself create better learning opportunities for your students?

I could create and use a blog to provide information about classroom assignments to my students on a daily basis. I could use a wiki for class discussions on various topics. A classroom response system could be used to make my classroom more interactive.

How could you use them to help yourself continue to develop as a teacher throughout your career?

I could use the multitude of blogs that are available to stay abreast of current trends in education and technology that is available to enhance the classroom. I think using technology can help a teacher motivate and engage students which in turn may lead to higher student achievement.

What are the benefits of using the communications tools?

I think using communication tools provides a variety of options for teachers and students. The instant and continuous access to students and teachers around the nation and world opens up numerous opportunities for exchanging ideas and information.

What are the dangers?

Some dangers of using communication tools might be that comments could be misinterpreted or taken out of context. Also, people are not afraid of posting things that might be damaging personally or professionally that they might not say directly to another person face to face.

How can technology help you better reach out to all of your students regardless of their race, gender or economic status?

Using technology can help equalize your students regardless of race, gender, or economic status. Unless they identify themselves, one cannot tell gender or race when reading a blog or wiki. Using computers can help us avoid stereotypes that we might have based on seeing people.