Technology in the Classroom - Ways to Integrate Educational Technology Into Your Teaching Practice

Here are some technology things that you could do with your students. Not everything may be feasible (i.e. cost factors) or appropriate (i.e. security or privacy issues):

• some of the things we're WII Video Games doing,
• some of the things we're thinking of doing, and,
• some of the things are simply wishful thinking, but great ideas have X-Box Adapters & Cables start somewhere...

How do you integrate technology into the curriculum? Do you have any ideas to add to the list?

Class Set of Laptops

• Get Cheap Video Games company to donate a class set of laptops when they upgrade their equipment. (The company can receive a charitable donation tax-credit.)
• Set up a wi-fi hotspot in your classroom so that students can blog online during independent reading and writing workshops.
• Purchase digital copies of textbooks to have a paperless classroom. Use text-reading software (i.e. Kurzweil) to highlight and take notes in the textbook.

Non-Traditional Reading and Writing

• Teach students the differences between formal, informal, and colloquial language and explore text messaging, chat rooms, and msn-speak as forms of colloquial language.
• Evaluate the evolving nature of language and develop word-attack skills by examining how words get accepted into everyday language (or the dictionary). For example, Google is now a commonly used noun and verb.
• Use text-reading software (i.e. Kurzweil) to allow students to access difficult texts.

Blogging

• Have students set up personal blogs as a medium to publish their writing portfolios.
• Explore how Google is a popularity contest. Publish work in an e-zine article directory to understand how to build inbound links. Post comments on other blogs to build inbound links.
• Explore copyright issues. Publish work in a blog or an e-zine article directory will inevitably end up with your work scraped onto another blog without proper attribution. Explore how that feels and the ethics of using other people's content without consent.

Computer Safety

• Discuss cyber-bullying: ways to protect yourself, how to respond when it happens, and how to avoid accidentally cyber-bullying when blogging.
• Explore computer safety: password strength, viruses, trojans, phishing, etc.
• Learn about online dangers and ways to protect yourself.

Classroom Website

• Make hand-outs and homework assignments accessible on a classroom website.
• Use a secure website as a communication tool for marks for both parents and students.
• Introduce your students to HTML and web design.

Making Money Online

• Introduce students to the business of making money online.
• Explore advertising online - how it works.
• Fund raise by selling stuff on e-bay.

GPS and Mapping Technology

• Geo-cache with your students.
• Use GPS technology or mapping software (i.e. Google Earth) in math class to construct larger geometric shapes. (i.e. construct a circle that has a radius of 5 city blocks.)
• Apply GPS technology or mapping software in Geography.

The Internet as a Global Village / Community

• Find a class to pen-pal with and correspond using blogs, email, or IRC chat rooms.
• Use a wiki for students to synthesize and evaluate knowledge gained in a content-subject like History or Geography. They can track how their understanding of concepts grow. Demonstrate how our understanding of a subject-specific topic evolves over time (i.e. a dynamic and digital KWL chart)
• Publish student work in English and in their first language online so that relatives overseas can celebrate in their success.

Technology as a Teaching Tool

• Use a data-projector in class to do modeled and shared readings.
• Use a data-projector in class to do shared writing: the modern equivalent of flip-chart paper
• Use dynamic geometry software (i.e. Geometer's Sketchpad) to explore math concepts.

Music and Technology

• Buy songs (i.e. itunes) and allow students to DJ their own school dances.
• Critically examine popular music to determine whether mainstream music is appropriate at a school dance (i.e. Soulja Boy - Crank that)
• Create your own pod-casts. Students can use free sound-editing software (i.e. audacity) to mix in free sound effects (i.e. ljudo.com) with their digital recordings of their voices.

Class Projects

• Send an object around the world and invite people who find the object to leave a message online in the classroom blog.
• Explore the video making process: scripts, recording, editing, post-production
• Explore youtube as a medium to publish content.

If you're ready to start a classroom blog, we're here to help at http://blog.classroomteacher.ca where you'll find this information and more detailed information about how to use technology in the classroom.

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Captain Falcon - F-Zero and Nintendo Star

Captain Falcon is one of the stars of the Nintendo Franchise. He has appeared in games for nearly every Nintendo system and has been a key Nintendo Top Games in the Super Smash Bros series. Captain Falcon is a bounty hunter who frequently Sony Playstation 2 Other in many F-Zero races.

He races in many of the races to capture rogue villains such as Black Shadow who break laws and terrorize people. His first title was for the SNES. Captain Falcon starred in F-Zero: a futuristic racing game among many racers. The game WII Video Games many Latest Video Games and race tracks. It features many more racers than the Mario Kart series. His next game was F-Zero X. It was set for Nintendo 64 and allowed 30 possible racers to choose from and place with simultaneously.

This game featured Captain Falcon as one of the main characters. Captain Falcon drives the Blue Falcon and defeats the evil racers. He had some Game Boy Advanced Games that he starred in as well. Namely, F-Zero Maximum Velocity for the Game Boy Advanced and F-Zero GP Legend for Game Boy Advanced. One of his most recent titles was on the Nintendo Gamecube called F-Zero GX. F-Zero GX added onto what F-Zero left off of. It had a similar format and more racers to choose from. It also had a store and story mode. Throughout these games, Captain Falcon has remained as the prominent figure despite there being multiple characters. His most important recongnition comes from his appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series. His famous Falcon Punch has been one of the most famous and important moves in all of Super Smash Bros.

To learn more about the Captain Falcon (Videos, Pictures, Biography and Downloads) click here: Captain Falcon.

To get more information about the Falcon Punch, click here: Falcon Punch.

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