Tool #9: Incorporating Classroom-Based Devices as Tools for Learning

Technology is a prevalent part in today's society. From cell phones, gaming devices, computer systems in cars, to multitudes of various computer systems, technology is here to stay and changing its face daily. It has become a consuming and engaging facet of everyday life and it's up to our future, our students, to continue this trend.

As educators, our responsibilities need to expand to include the growing use of technology in the real world. Managing the implementation and use of technology is key to the success of technology integration into the curriculum. Part of this means holding students accountable for the stations. This includes following the instructions set forth for station responsibilities and for the assigned task.

LearningGames for Kids is a great site where you can learn anything from typing to math and even making music - All by playing fun games of course. With each category neatly labeled, it is easy to find what you want and spend hours having fun learning. Thinkfinity is also a desirable site for use with students. Not only does it have activities in all subject areas, sorted by grade level, it also provides detailed lesson plans for implementing the activities. This is useful more for interactive whiteboard lessons, but can be modified for student stations.

I found Grammar Prep and MathBoard are useful apps for the iPod Touch/iPad that can be used in the classroom. Grammar Prep includes apps for subject and verb agreement, practicing sentence fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, and the use of commas, pronouns, and modifiers. MathBoard includes square roots, cubes, and squares as well as more basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Multiple-choice problems make the game a good way to study for standardized tests, and many of the wrong answer choices are answers that are common mistakes.

To hold students accountable for their station work, an end-product should be given to the teacher. An easy end-product would be to write the math problems a student had to solve, write the words they had to define, or the subject-verb agreement words they had to decide upon. Turning in this abbreviated portion of the activity will show that the student spent time looking at the activity.