Hello Robin,

I am an ESL taacher in Canada.  I am currently studying curriculum design and am creating a workshop on the use of blogs in an educational environment.  I have found many resources, as well as teachers in both Canada and the USA who are integrating blogs into their school curriculum.  If you are interested in these links to the different options for teachers to bring technology into their classes to help improve student success in and outside the classroom, please email me at dluisa62@epals.com  I am interested in doing case studies on blogging and its use to help students write better and collaborate with others.

There are many free courses available online now for learning about the different web 2.0 tools that can be used in classrooms safely.  Let me know and I will send you the links to the different resources.

Have a great day.

My blogs can be found at: 

http://kidblog.org/MrsPennersESLClass/  - log in on this site as Guest1 with the password being catandhat.  I have a resource page their for teachers to some great links to use for teaching.

http://darlene-lifelonglearner.blogspot.ca/

http://writebetterenglish.edublogs.org/

Let me know what  you think.

Darlene Penner

Hi. In our school we use projectors to present powerpoints. Each year, our school is going away from projectors to smart boards. About half the classrooms now have smart boards. Every classroom has computers and students do use them often. In my classroom, I try to integrate technology into most of my lessons. As a pre-service math teacher, I have students go to the smart board to answer problems. The smart board is also beneficial because when there are activities on the computer, I can use the smart board to show an example to the class.

Jerrod and Tyler

Hi. I teach high school in North Carolina. We are saturated with technology. All 9-12 graders are assigned laptops. Most of the teachers have smart boards. We also have a couple of computer labs. The kids use their laptops for research, power points, notes, etc. I use my smart board all the time for many interactive lessons, viewing websites, using my wiki with the kids. The laptops have been a bit of a problem. We teachers have recently begun using synchronize to monitor each laptop in the class from our own laptops. While the students having their own laptops is convenient in some respects, it is a distraction often and abused as well, i.e. being off-task playing games, emailing, surfing - thus the monitoring system. A better plan would be for each class room to have a set of computers that we dole out when needed and keep put up when the students need to focus on me!  Lower grades have mini laptops and palm pilot-like devices. I believe they are often unused or misused. We are focusing too much on the technology and not so much on the content.

I am a pre-service teacher from Ohio.  Throughout elementary and middle school we at least two computers in each room.  The computers were used to research things on the internet, take Accellerated Reader tests (book comprehension tests), create presentations, and with Microsoft's software (Word, Excell, Powerpoint, etc.).  In high school we usually had only one computer in the room for the teacher, but two computer labs were in the school.  One for technology classes such as graphic arts, CAD drawing, and general technology.  The other lab is in the library and teachers are able to send students there or take their entire class there to work on assignments that require the internet or specific software.  The library lab is also available to students who are in study hall at the time.  I've seen Smartboards in action, and those can be excellent tools to help educate our students in any classroom.  I highly encourage teachers to look into them and if they do acquire one, learn how to use it to its full potential.  Take classes or use the internet to search for ways to use it in your classroom.  Here are a few valuable websites:

smarttech.com (good one for getting started); eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard; prometheanworld.com; sharetabs.com/?IWBs; mathtrain.tv

Hello Beatriz I am a Math teacher in India. My class has been provided with a computer in which educational softwares on math, science and social science have been installed. They do Internet research for school projects, as well. I am interested in viewing your online magazine and introducing it my students. Please send me the URL. awaiting your reply Lakshmi Srinivas

Robin, I teach students with special needs in grade 5-8 in Eastern Iowa. I have 5 computers in my room. I applied for a grant 2 years ago and also received 2 i-Sight cameras and a digital camera. This year my special education department also recieved a digital camera for each teacher. We also received a digital camcorder. I have done a lot of collaboration with other schools via live video conference using my digital camcorder and the i-Sight camera. My students have created power points for geography and science to share on video conferencing with other schools. I am constantly looking for other ways to motivate my low motivated students. Anyone out there interested in video conferencing with my class? Dianna

Hi, I am Peruvian, teacher of sciences and I explain to you the work that we realize in the college. In the college there is laboratory of computation (30 machines in each one) where the students learn everything of computation. The classrooms have "intelligent blackboards", are computing that the teachers use to develop your presentations (power point, for example) In what ways are students using computer technologies? In these times there are used the TIC (technologies of the Information and Communication), that is to say to use these resources for the development of better processes of education - learning. The students look for information in Internet (diverse projects of investigation), use the mail to communicate with your teachers and other persons. My English is not very good!!! Janet

I started a magazine online. My students are now a lot more motivated to write, learning how to search and use the information on the internet, and they are also improving their reading skills (this includes learning how to use html codes for the webpage). On the other hand, they are writing for an audience and we are getting feedback and contributions from partner classes all around the world. It really works. Hope this helps. Beatriz PS: Contact me if you want the URL

Hello Robin, I´m a teacher from Colombia. I don´t know whether you´ll actually read my message or not, but anyway, here is my answer. We teach English as a foreign language where I am currently working and we use some webpages to reinforce certain grammar topics we study in class. The results show that students develop learning strategies while doing that. We also encourage them to learn about other fields such as science or technology, etc. so that they know how to use English for a specific purpose. I hope my reply will help you somehow. If you wish to learn more about our methodology, please contact me. Best wishes. Omar Fernando Sánchez.

Hi Robin I am from Mauritius. Here we have specialist room for technology. Students use computers two times weekly. Mike

Hello, I teach 8th grade in Indiana. Yes, we have computers in every room. My students use technology to do powerpoint presentations, digital cameras to make scrapbooks, postermakers to make maps, computers to ePAL, word process, webquest, use inspiration, etc. These things aren't used all of the time and not by everybody, but many of us try to use technology as much as we can. Fawn Cox

Hello Robin, Yes, to simply answer your question, we do use technology. Our middle school students are very engaged in learning while using a computer (or digital camera, scanner, etc.). We do have 1 computer in each classroom, and a lab of 25 computers. These are all networked with Internet access. In middle school, we have done on-line field trips, word processing powerpoint, and a great deal of Internet research. Does that answer your question? -Andy

Hi Robin, I am a computer teacher at an international school in Japan and I am in charge of a computer lab with 25 student computers and a demo computer hooked up to a data projector. I have students from Kindergarten, 4 and 5 year olds, and Grade 1 for 30 minutess a week and they are learning mouse skills while using educational websites. In Grade 2, 3 and 4 the students have a 40 minute lesson and they are learning information literacy skills (we use the Big6 skills) and word processing, multimedia presentations and in Grades 3 and 4 the students also email and have keyboard instruction. I also have a Computer Club where the students make multi media presentations of events at our school. I hope this is helpful. Kindest regards, Wendy

My name is Tracie Jensen. I teach US history in Corpus Christi, Texas. I have 10-12 graders. I have 4 computers in my classroom and we have specifically a social studies computer lab. I use the internet a lot for all different projects. The kids seem to do a better job with things.

Hi, I am a technology teacher at a catholic k-8 school in MA. I have a computer lab that I am in charge of, as well as independant stations in each classroom. In the lab, we are primarily focusing on learning games for 1st and 2nd graders, computer technology for 3rd and 4th grade, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, typing skills and internet skills for the middle school students. Kindergartners do not participate in computers. The teachers primarily rely on the computers for their own personal use, for educational games and for research projects/reports.