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=Welcome to "Technology Rules"!=
 * This wiki was initially created to help facilitate my graduate studies. I am currently pursuing a Master's degree in Educational Technology Leadership. I look forward to first hand experience with an online learning community! Thanks in advance for helping me with this journey.**

I named this wiki "Technology Rules", because it does! I currently teach at Schiff Elementary in Fort Bend ISD. The school is located in Missouri City, TX, and is starting its second year of existence with the 2009-2010 school year.

Members:
Emily - 4th Grade Math\Science Teacher Mary - Principal MonicaZone - 5th Grade Math\Science and 6th Grade Math Teacher in Waco, TX (Lamar University Graduate Student) Jaylynn - 4th Grade Self-Contained Teacher Carol - Instructional Designer John - World Geography\World History Teacher Jennifer - 4th Grade Math\Science Teacher Belsa Cantu- 3rd Grade Teacher, Lamar Student

Purpose:
Technology has become so widespread and user-friendly that it is much less intimidating to the "digital immigrants" these days. Hopefully these characteristics will encourage more teachers to experiment with technology and feel more comfortable using it. As a by-product, they just might want to learn how they can integrate technology into more activities within their classrooms. The purpose of this wiki is for educators to encourage one another by sharing ideas that have worked well in the classroom, or give each other advice on projects that didn't go so well. Through collaboration, we can work together to improve technology use and integration at our campus.

Discussion Questions:

 * Regardless of how much technology you currently use, what do you feel are the 2 biggest factors that might hold you back from using as much technology as you would like with your students?**

Monica- The two biggest factors that have held me back in the past has been discipline of students and acceptance of the administration. As a Science and Math teacher, I often have lots of tools in the hands of my students. Disciplined use of the tools is tricky. They want to play even after the short "play with tools" time is over. I find that initially my kids need lots of free time exposure to experiment with the tools and technology before we can do and of my style learning. It is important for me to remember that their most of them do not have these things at home and that exploration of the tools (if done appropriately) is LEARNING. Once they get over their "starvation style play" it is amazing how far thinking they can be. The second hurdle for me is administration. There is huge pressure on the inner city school teacher to bring the kids up to where they must be academically. My lesson must clearly show that I am covering relevant material and making good use of my time. I understand the reason they are strick and that I must cover a certain amount of material every week. But, this leaves very little free time for exploration learning with the kids.  John- The two biggest factors that hold me back from using technology are resources and access. As a high school social studies teacher I usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to access. For example currently the math and science teachers (as well as many elective teachers) have smart boards and projectors and Elmos in their rooms, along with multiple computers. I currently have an overhead projector and a single computer. Additionally I have an issue with access in terms of using the computer labs or laptop carts. English teachers usually have both reserved so that I cannot use them in my room.

Mary 1. Not feeling comfortable, myself, with all the new technology out there.

2. Not KNOWING all the new technology available due to the fast pace at which it comes out.

However, I would like to stay technologically current with my students. Thanks EWisbrock for inviting me to your "Wikispace." This is my first time using it and this is a good start!

As an instructional designer, I need to be able to design curriculum using multiple modalies, and to do this, I must stay current with the latest learning technology tools. This can be time consuming in that not only do I have to seek out this information at a theoretical level, but I must apply it in order to successfully transfer the knowledge to others.
 * [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/user/pic/1252790321/caeubanks-lg.jpg width="48" height="48" caption="caeubanks" link="http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/caeubanks"]] || [|caeubanks]

Another obstacle is resistance to change, especially with adults. ||

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