I think this standard wants me to recognize the importance behind incorporating

technology into the classroom to help enhance instruction as well as extend communication

outside of the classroom to students’ home environment. However, when implementing

technology into the classroom, it is crucial to effectively utilize the technology in the classroom

in order to help daily tasks become more productive. There are many teachers who use

technology in the classroom to simply appeal to the students’ interest in technology, yet this does

not always mean that the technology is benefitting their learning. When technology is

inappropriately used in a lesson, it simply distracts the students from the major concepts of the

lesson. Therefore, this standard primarily wants me to recognize that competent teachers will use

advanced features of technology to strictly improve the classroom community.

For this standard, I chose a website that I created for students to use as an extra resource

outside of the classroom. If students miss a day of class or would simply like to learn more about

oil spills and their effect on the environment and its wildlife, the students can access this website

after school at the library or at home to extend their learning. On this website, I included a

variety of resources appealing to students multiple intelligences. There is a link to an MSNBC

article discussing the BP oil spill and its effect on the Louisiana coastline for students to read and

consider possible ways to prevent an oil spill in the future. However, if some students struggle

with reading, then there is also a video provided for them to watch. By including these multiple

representations into the website, I have clearly “identified, selected, and integrated video and

digital images in varying formats for use in presentations, publications, and/or other products.”

Overall, this websites demonstrates my knowledge of “advanced features of technology-based

productivity tools.”
 Through my research on web resources to include in the website for students to use at

home for further learning, I was exposed to a variety of possible resources to provide students

with multiple learning sources, including reading an article and watching a video. This website

and the knowledge of how to effectively implement technology into the classroom will impact

my instruction in the future. By creating this website, it has helped me realize how to actively

engage students better in each lesson by appealing to their interest in technology. Furthermore, it

will be crucial to remain up-to-date with technology advances in order to continue to use it

effectively when presenting material.

By exploring technology resources to create this website, I feel more prepared to teach

and learn in a diverse society. While many people may interpret ‘diverse’ as an ethnically and

racially diverse environment, I have interpreted “Diverse Society” in terms of varying learning

types for students, such as auditory versus visual learners. The wide variety of computer and

technology resources offer multisensory applications, reaching out to all students. It is important

for me to understand that students learn in different manners in order to prepare myself in the

best way for a diverse group of students. I look forward to using this knowledge in my future and

am confident that my future experiences will furthermore build upon these understandings as

well.