By Renee Young
Teachers and student alike are returning to school fully charged — pun intended! Technology integration in the classroom means teachers can use tech tools to enhance the teaching and learning process for themselves and students.
This week’s Kids and Tech News Roundup brings you some stories about back to school tech and how educators across North America are integrating technology into the classroom.
- Classroom Gadgets – Using Technology to Enhance Learning by Heidi Gammuac at the Calgary Herald: “It’s back-to-school time, as students change gears from the lazy days of summer and shift back to hitting the books. Today’s classrooms are equipped with the latest technology to enhance instruction. Here are some favourite student and teacher gadgets for use in day-to-day learning…”
- Making Technology Part of your Back-to-School Planning by Dave L. Edyburn at the National Center for Learning Disabilities: “For many families, the back-to-school season means shopping for school supplies and new clothes. As it gets closer to the first day of school, for a young child it means watching the mailbox for a letter from his new teacher, or for older students it means going to school to register and pick up their schedule. With all the excitement of the annual back-to-school rituals, technology is often overlooked. However, thinking about technology tools and supports can facilitate the back-to-school transition for students with learning disabilities. In addition, spending some time learning new technologies before school starts means that more time will be available to focus on using the technology to complete assignments once school begins.”
- Service Helps Teachers Incorporate Technology by Alyssa Skiba at The Sun Prairie Star: “’Common Sense Media’s growing network of educators – more than 100,000 nationwide – are using technology to create more engaging and interactive ways of learning,’ said James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media. ‘Until now, the onus has been on them to spend valuable time searching for and testing platforms that might work. With every product on Graphite evaluated for its learning potential, teachers can successfully find optimal solutions that really satisfy their curricular goals and their individual students’ needs.’”
- Technology Transforming Classroom of the Future by Kristin Rushowy at The Toronto Star: “Gardner’s classroom is a glimpse at what the future holds for education, with technology impacting everything from what kids learn to how they learn, to even where they learn. It means more collaboration, but less formal space — and, in the years to come, not even as much space, because with smartphones and tablets a part of the lesson, learning will happen just as much outside schools walls as inside.”
- Go Ahead, Mess With Texas Instruments by Phil Nichols at The Atlantic: “Though many devices enter our classrooms for different reasons — they are not neutral. Some are used to reinforce the authority of formal teaching; some engage students in the process of imaginative discovery. By balancing conventional and subversive academic possibilities, these latter objects show us the real potential of learning technologies.”
At Computer Explorers, we are committed to helping students prepare for the future while having fun today. Our vision is to help children reach their full potential by using technology as a tool to engage students, enhance the educational process and prepare them for the future. We welcome preschool and elementary administrators to contact us to find out how to bring our TechStars programs into your schools. Parents are invited to use our program locator to find TechStars programs close to home.
The post Kids and Tech News Roundup: Back to School Tech Edition appeared first on computerexplorersblog.com.
