Innovation and Exploration With Computers

Having a class set of laptops will keep students highly engaged through differentiation and choice and allow me to clarify misconceptions in real time.

This technology will help me to engage my students in a 21st century way, put the world at my students' fingertips, and better prepare my students to flourish in a technology-centered world!

With one-to-one devices, each student will be able to annotate a book, magazine article, poem, play, or excerpt. They can also read and apply strategies to digital texts and books, with interactive features, at their own personal level and interest. Includes click on unknown words for the definition in context. I will model this with a book at fourth grade level and they will apply to a book at their own level - whether below or above.

My students will use the computers to record video responses, which is especially good for English Language Learners and Special Needs students. Oftentimes, my students know the content, but can't generate a written response. This gives students the ability to show what they know.

My students will also be able to participate in interactive games independently, in small groups, or as a class. Many students who weren’t engaged will now be motivated to learn. They will all have a choice block for a digital pathway - a choice in what to learn about with videos added as a knowledge base. And how they wish to show learning, including creating a virtual poster collage, video, mock social media or blog post.

These computers will permit feedback about misconceptions in a timely manner because progress on assignments is in real time, instead of after the fact with traditional grading. Students will gain immediate feedback on math lessons using math apps that adjust to the student’s level and videos in which the student plays a video of the math question, pauses to solve, and plays to hear the solution.

I am excited about using these computers with my students because they will aid reading, writing, science, and social studies standards (examples: around the world global studies, pen pal and Flat Stanley projects, make-your-own-magazine project, school supply invention paper, wax museum). Finally, students will take virtual field trips to local, national, and global locations.