Technology Literate Students

By forcing students to use technology in a meaningful way within the classroom, students are learning how to be, in my eyes, “Tech Literate”. To me, this means that the students are able to investigate the technology through their own means (whether this means using the help guide or “fooling around with different buttons”) and then find a good use for the technology or to pass on to the next technology. My basis for this goal is to help the students realize what works for them, and what doesn’t, and to be able to identify what is and isn’t going to work. 

A good example is this is the use of PowerPoint. Many students do not like PowerPoint, though they know how to create them. However, there are other ways to build a presentation either through a video, or through online applications like ZOHO or Prezi. Students are able to identify what is the best piece of technology for their situation and use it to their advantage to be successful within the classroom. View the PowerPoint below to see the information the student conveys to their audience.

The students were very excited, as 5th graders, to use PowerPoint in their final work for Spanish class. They created excellent PowerPoint presentations and really got involved in the process. By using the technology that we did, there were many students who don't typically participate that really liked this assignment and exceled at it. It piqued their interest and their final projects were a great example of their potential. See the presentations below for a further look into their work they did for Spanish class. 

I should note the 34 students in each 5th grade could only work on the presentation for a short while during class due to the limitations of our technology. The majority of the students created this assignment outside of class.