Student+Engagement

Student Engagement Through Instructional Technology
__**Description of Assignment:**__ This assignment made us evaluate how we use or can use instructional technology to engage our students in our classroom. This caused me to think about just what instructional technology is. Instructional technology is when I, the teacher, uses technology in order to teach the students. They students aren't using the technology directly in this case but they are learning from having myself use it. I had to think when was a time where a technology lesson stuck out to me. I use instructional technology all the time with PowerPoints, educational videos, class websites, etc but there were two times specifically that I felt stood out, above and beyond the others. The first example I chose was involving an assignment from my EDT6000 class. This lesson with a teacher-made instructional video was the first time I tried anything like this and was more successful than I could have imagined. Using technology to prerecord the lesson gave the ability to teach, help, and give example and extra commentary all at the same time. I felt that this tool could be used to increase learning opportunities in many different situations. The second example I chose was a PowerPoint review game. The game was set up so I could evaluate the students' understanding simultaneously in order to better prepare the students for their upcoming test. The student enjoyed the game aspect of the review and I enjoyed the quality of the evaluation.

__**My Best Examples of Instructional Technology:**__ Below you will find the document in which I discuss my two best examples of instructional activities with student engagement through technology. Example number one is Subtraction Strategies, a math lesson driven by an instructional video created by myself to teach multiple ways to solve a subtraction problem. The use of the video allowed me to double teach, via the video and via personal input through the viewing of the video. My second example is a Review PowerPoint that I used as a review game to help the students prepare for the upcoming test. The students worked on problem in the PowerPoint, shared their answers on mini whiteboards and then reviewed the correct answers and explanations on the next PowerPoint slide. [|Phillips_StudentEngagementTechnology.doc]

Here is a audio explanation of the Subtraction Strategy lesson in the form of an mp3. media type="file" key="Phillips_student_engagement.mp3" width="240" height="20"

__**Reflection:**__ After completing this assignment, I realized just how much technology I already use in my classroom. PowerPoints were easy to use because I could use them for each of my three classes without rewriting and erasing information on the board. Our class website was the easiest way for me to keep the parents up to date on homework assignments without writing in every single student's agenda book. The students enjoyed educational videos. I did all of this because it was helpful and time efficient; it came as the natural way to do it. This program has shown me even more ways to engage my students through technology. I never realized the technology is truly infused in my classroom. I always thought I had to try to make it fit but when I was assigned this classroom I was able to say, "Oh, I did this and I did that too, and I forgot about this one time..." I feel that Instructional technology benefits everyone and is simply applicable to most lessons. I am very proud of the two I discussed in this assignment because I felt that they were on purpose to engage the students and did so successfully. I will continue to try to find and create more ways to use instructional technology in order to engage my students.