Week 4- Technology in the Classroom

This week's Google alerts brought me to one interesting article, entitled "Technology in the Classroom." According to its author Kathy Turner, the Amazon company donated Kindle Fire Tablets to a Classroom within a summer program in Illinois. The "Project for Success Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center" is now able to provide over 60 of their students with access to technology in the form of tablets (Turner, 2017). In doing so, they intend to increase their student's knowledge and skills in the science, technology, engineering, and math also known as STEM. Implementing the use of coding apps for children, teachers will be able to not only expose their students to technology but they will be able to encourage their interest in creating forms of technological programs and such.
While this article has no mention of the donated technology having any impact on any English language learners enrolled in the program (if any) it does, however, discuss the use of technology in the classroom environment. As a future ESL educator, I found this article to be interesting in the sense that it provided some ways in which to implement the use of tablets in the classroom to enhance students learning experiences academically and in terms of technology. These ideas can easily be adapted into the ESL classroom setting as well and used to promote use and knowledge of technology along with their English language acquisition. I would specifically use the applications and programs mentioned in the article such as "scratchjr" to promote students knowledge of coding and programming as I expand their use of technology in the classroom environment (Turner, 2017).

References

Turner, K. (2017, June 21). Technology in the classroom. Retrieved August 21, 2017, from http://advantagenews.com/news/technology-in-the-classroom/

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