One technology tool that seems pretty useful is the Elmo. I first saw it two years ago in my TE 348 classroom. We had to present on a children’s book and we were required to use the Elmo. I really liked it because I think many times students in the back of the room can’t see things, but are too afraid to speak up. The Elmo is a nice way for the students to get a better view on a book or any kind of material that may be hard to see.

In high school there was this site that we would use for geometry. It allowed us to draw shapes and work with numbers all on the computer. Most students are intimidated by geometry and by drawing the shapes, so I thought this was a very useful tool. Sometimes it’s hard to visual things and this site allowed students to see shapes and dimensions they might not otherwise. I don’t know a whole lot about it because our class was only used it a few times, but if we would have learned all the tools and used it regularly I think that would have made geometry much easier!

I also remember when we were in fourth grade, every week we would get to work on these mini-computers that were brought into our classroom. I don’t remember what they were called, but we would work on our typing skills. I thought this was a good way to introduce younger students to computers. As we got older, the school would set time aside for computer time every week. We would learn to type, play Oregon Trail, and work on other activities on the computer. Even though we didn’t get into searching the internet until junior high, it was still an affective method to get students used to working with different technologies within the computer.