1. Discuss educational benefits and hindrances of quick access to technology in and outside of classroom.
2. How do you feel about teaching in the classroom where every student has an access to a digital device (e.g., laptop, iPad, Tablet PC)? Do you want to teach in one-to-one learning environments? Why or why not?
3. Discuss three projects you would like to implement when all your students have an easy access to technology.

Educational benefits associated with quick access to technology includes a wider range of tools at student's fingertips. The Internet creates an endless source of teaching material and activities to supplement student learning. But, with great opportunity comes great risk. With access to the Internet in the classroom, student have a greater means of distraction because while the Internet provides many teaching tools, it also is the only gateway to social media sites and some video games- a great source of distraction. Similarly, if the technology malfunctions outside of class students can be hindered from doing online homework assignments and then fall behind. For instance, Auburn operates using the Canvas system, if Canvas malfunctions or shuts down students are unable to do any of their homework and cannot access information about their classes.

I think teaching in a classroom where every student has access to a digital device would be interesting. Personally, I prefer working directly with physical texts and I think that taking books out of students hands is not a good means of teaching literature. There is a certain quality to physically underlining and highlighting a piece of text which I think helps students to connect to the material. But it would be nice to have digital devices as a supplementary teaching tool, just not as a main teaching tool. I would like to teach on a one-to-one basis. Working one-on-one allows me a greater insight into where the student is in his/her learning. In that vein, I can approach the student where they are and facilitate a discussion that is geared specifically to his/her learning style and knowledge level.

Three projects I would implement if my students had easy access to technology would be:
-Students create review games of various grammar techniques (use of comma, structuring a sentence, etc.) with a program such as SMARTboard
-Have students create a video presentation where they tell the story of one of the books we read in class in their own words - for instance, where students create an abridged, modern telling of Taming of the Shrew
-For a creative writing project, have each student take a picture of five things that they find around the school/their homes and then have them write a story that connects all five things, then make a voice recording of them telling their story

This is a video I created for the EDMD 3300 class that outlines  my goals for Fall of 2012. My primary focus in this is outlining the academic goals that I hope to achieve by the end of the semester. Hopefully, come December, I can go back to this video and will have accomplished all of these goals.

Mobile learning does seem like a useful means of making students interact with the lesson. And, according to educational pedagogy that type of kinesthetic learning does help students to better internalize lessons, therefore I probably would consider doing an activity similar to this in my classroom. Being interested in secondary education I would probably stray from working with texts such as "The Ugly Duckling" but it might be interesting for students to work together and document recreations of other texts such as "Lord of the Flies" then utilize an application like iMovie or Photostory to narrate their creations. An activity like this would engage the students in the text and demonstrate their understanding of plot. 

I would definitely be interested in implementing e-books into my classroom, if the resources were available. E-books would open far greater opportunities for a Language Arts class. With these tools teachers can download a greater number of texts for a smaller cost and the iBooks app allows students to annotate the text without collateral damage to the work like marking up an actual text would create. Another upside to an e-book is that digital editions of books do not suffer the same wear-and-tear that books do from everyday abuse (bent covers, missing pages, etc.). Therefore the school would not have to reorder books as frequently. 

For the Photostory project I used iMovie. I used this program because my computer was already equipped with it. Also, I have created a few iMovie projects in the past and felt like it was best to work with a program that I was comfortable with. 

Thus far the projects from class have been informative. For the most part I have enjoyed them and felt like I've walked away with a greater understanding of the technology that is available to teachers. My only qualm about some of the projects is that much of the material seems geared towards a juvenile level. As a secondary education major, learning about asking plot questions for children's books and things of that nature sometimes is frustrating just because I don't feel as if those skills will apply as much. But I also recognize that the secondary education majors are far outnumbered by elementary and early childhood education majors and therefore see the necessity to gear lessons toward dealing with younger students. 

First Reflection: iPad Use in the Classroom 

The iPad is an interesting piece of technology to focus on for an educational media class. I enjoy using the iPad in class but I question how pertinent knowledge of this technology will prove to be in the future. While having an understanding of how to work all Apple products will probably be helpful in the future, it seems impractical to limit our scope solely to one product and one brand. iPads are incredibly expensive pieces of technology. I am grateful that Auburn University is able to afford them and allow students to use them but given recent budget cuts, it seems unrealistic to assume that most public school systems will be able to do the same. That being said, I would love the opportunity to work with iPads when I become a teacher. They greatly enhance the scope of possible activities. 

If my teaching institution provided iPads for my classroom it would open a full range of possibility. Should I find myself teaching in an area that could afford iPads for the students, I would welcome the opportunity to incorporate them into my curriculum because they could create a greater variety and opportunity for learning. I could have greater access to books that are out of copyright for my students, without having to purchase a large number of books in print. Additionally, we could do interactive grammar practice with certain apps or use the Brain Pop app to watch videos about grammar and/or books. Students could also work on written papers in class on the iPads then easily email their work to me for feedback all during the class period - eliminating paper waste and increasing efficiency. 

Hypothetically, if my school provided my classroom with an iPad cart I think I could utilize them efficiently, I consider myself fairly apt at using Apple products. However, I would like to become more knowledgeable about  the various websites or applications that focus on practicing grammar or reading comprehension that can be used in a high school English classroom.