Blog Post 5

Driving Questions Answered

Technology should be integrated into the classroom to help communicate with students, parents, and peers at a higher level. First of all, technology can improve communication between the teacher and students. Not only will technology improve communication, but there are many projects and assignments that can be done on the computer. These assignments can not only help students learn basic skills in subjects such as math, reading, and science, but also help them gain more advanced skills in technology. Second of all, technology can help improve the communication between teachers and parents. Technology can aid teachers in producing newsletters or flyers to send home to parents. When teachers are able to communicate with parents, they often become more involved in their student's education. Lastly, technology can aid teachers in communication with other peers and colleagues. Technology can be used as a great tool in sharing lesson plans with colleagues. It also can aid in communication between colleagues when dealing with behavioral problems with specific students.

The best technological tool I believe to have the greatest potential to improve communication between teachers and students, parents, and peers is the Microsoft Office Suite. Microsoft Office provides teachers opportunities to create many different types of documents to present to others. The Suite comes with programs to make documents, PowerPoint's, spreadsheets, worksheets, flyers, and much more. Slideshows in PowerPoint can be used to present information to students, community members and/or parents, and colleagues. In Microsoft Excel, spreadsheets can be made to perform many different uses. They can be used as a gradebook to keep track of grades, or Excel can be taught to students so they can create or fill out spreadsheets on their own. Within the program, teachers or students can create graphs to present the data displayed. Microsoft Publisher can be used to create newsletters, worksheets, and flyers to help communicate between teachers and others. Lastly, Microsoft Word can be used to send letters home to parents or for students to type up various writing assignments. Overall, i think the Microsoft Office Suite is the best program to improve communication between teachers and students, parents, and peers.