Technology is hard to understand and times for me because everything feels hard to manage and incorporate fully into the classroom when technology is limited and administration does not want to support anything.  I can honestly say that this class has opened my eyes to different technological advances that I can use in my classroom even the free stuff which I plan on using.  Technology can allow children to open up doors to avenues that will allow them to discover and understand software better than the teacher. 

This class has allowed me to see Powerpoint from a different pair of lenses.  I can now see that Powerpoint can be used in many different ways.  Learning about Skype and experiencing it and being able to communicate with someone using it was amazing and I hope to someday use it with my students.

This class has expanded my horizons in the area of technology and I hope that one day I will be able to use the technology with my students.

While I was talking to Mrs. Santiago she addresses the day-to-day issues that come up in the world of ESL and how as teachers we need to overcome those obstacles and do what we have to do for the children.  She expressed that at many times she lacks the technology resources in her classroom to allow the students to have that experience but she has also learned to be able to write grants and have these things accessible to ELL students.

Mrs. Santiago also expressed that integrating technology into your curriculum is something that needs to be done so that students are exposed to different types of technology.  She also expressed that students love the opportunity to be able to see what is out there to use.  She shared a story with me that brought tears to my eyes.  She said that while teaching an adult ESL class she was using Skype and one of her students in particular who hadn’t communictaed  with family in a really long time(don’t remember where the student was from) was  able to use it. She  set it up so that the student in the classroom was able to talk to family members that she really hadn’t talked to in a while.  She said that using Skype in the classroom made her students aware of what they could use to communicate and allowed them to understand why she liked using it.

In conclusion, this experience using Skype has allowed me to really change my view on how technology can change the classroom environment and make the students more engaged!

Once I expanded my search and used the tools that we learned about in class to search articles I came across numerous ways that technology is used in the ESOL classroom.  One way that I thought was totally cool was podcasting.  The articles I read about using podcasting in an ESOL classroom show that when an ESOL teacher uses podcasting it allows the students to continue learning at home from a computer ,ipods etc.  Digital literacy projects using podcast allow students to become more aware about the language they use and make sure that it makes sense being that other podcasters can be looking at their work. 

Blogging is another type of technology that is used in ESOL classrooms.  It allows students to respond critically topics addressed in class and allows for collaborative learning among students from diverse backgrounds.  I also learned that blogs have to be well-organized so that the students get the most out of it.

Wiki is something that has been recently used amongst ESOL teachers within the classroom.  Wiki  is wonderful way for children to work collaboratively and allows students tp share their writing with their peers.  ESOL teacher who have used this have been able track and monitor students revisions and peer editing activity.  I feel that this is awesome because it allows the children especially ESOL children to become more critical when revising work and more responsible for what they are producing.  It also allows them to receive feedback from classmates rather than the teacher who at many times ESL students do not feel comfortable doing.

In conclusion, I feel that I learned a lot from researching how technology is being used  ESOL classroom.  I have become aware of the different techniques and glitches that teachers have come across but at the same time these things have not stopped them from pursuing  technology in the classroom.  Being able to research this topic has in my eyes made me more comfortable incoporating technology into the classroom and when I become an ESOL teacher I will be more willing to use the different types of technology.  I feel that this paper has broadened my thinking about technology and has guided me to understand its purpose and power in the classroom!

Listening to the lecture made be aware of what makes a presentation tasteful.  I agree that the presentation of the slides has to be concrete and to the point.  The slides have to have important information but not jammed packed into paragraphs of information which led the audience to disconnect with the topic that you are discussing.  I can’t wait to see what new information about Powerpoint is presented in class!

                  Well …well… as I was reading some news the other day I came across an article that stated “How young is too young?”…The article addressed the issue of allowing your children to have social networking accounts and the dangers of having them at a young age.  When I first read the article I automatically understood why the mother in the articel allowed her child to social network on Facebook. Yes! I said Facebook!  We all know that there are age limitations on Facebook but this mother stated that her child does not put his real name, address and he does not have any pictures on his page.  Yes, the child lied about his age but the mother has a purpose for allowing her ten year old to have a social networking account.  She stated that one she doesn’t want her child to do it behind her back and also many children today have exposure to social networks.  Also within the article there was a comment from a FBI agent who stated that allowing your child to have a Facebook account is fine as long as you control the privacy actions on the account. 

                 In my opinion I think that allowing your child to have a social networking account if fine as long as the parent sets certain guidelines about tech account and the child understand that once those guidelines are broken that social network will have to take a break from being visited.  Many of my parents have mentioned that they would never allow their child to set up social networking account and I had the opportunity to talk to a parent who stated that social networks are “very very dangerous”.  I understood where the parent was coming from but I also gave her a little of the knowledge that I have learned and class and said that as a parent one has to set guidelines and that many of these social networking sites have setting that can be private.  I also explained to the parent that social networking should not be seen as something negative especially today where many children are always on the internet and exploring new things.  I i also told teh parent that as parents we need to become more comfortable with today’s technology because our children definitely are!  What do you all think about this? Do you agree or disagree why?

It is very frustrating at the same time to hear about all of these cool thing but not be able to incoporate them..  Like I have stated before my children go to the computer lab every week for 45 minutes but that alone isn’t enough time.  There is a smart board that I use with them while I am there nut I always say to myself “all the things that I could do if I could get a smartboard in my classroom”.  I know that there are other things that I could do with my students but I honestly would love to be able to show my children what I am learning in class.  How can I do this?  Any suggestions?