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As technology becomes more of a day-to-day tool, districts must become more creative in how they train teachers and encourage its use in the classroom. According to Solomon and Schrum, several studies have found that the lack of technology implementation by educators falls on the administration’s lack of requiring accountability (111). If an administrator is committed to implementing new technologies, the staff will begin to follow (128). Administrators need to be aware of not only the initial cost of new technologies, but also the long-term cost of maintaining the equipment, paying for licenses, or other costs that will be incurred. Another area of concern for administrators is Internet safety for students. Pitler (et al.) reminds us that if schools ban online technologies, they also ban valuable teaching tools and an opportunity to teach students about online safety as well as ethical and appropriate use (223).

While the readings in week one covered many areas, I chose to focus on finding new resources that I can utilize in my classes to help my students learn better. I began with Pitler’s (et al.) ideas for creating rubrics (30-33). The learning objectives are already created, so finding a better way to create rubrics that saves time is needed. A second area is student feedback. According to Kulik and Kulik, immediate feedback has a strong impact on student behavior (Pitler, et al., 42). My classroom recently received a set of student response systems or “clickers”. They primary use multiple-choice responses (Limited short answers may also be included.) By correctly designing the questions all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, from recall through evaluation, may be evaluated (45). Seeing example of ways teachers have incorporated this immediate feedback into their classes provides ideas for incorporating this into my own classes. Pitler, H., Hubbell, E.R., Kuhn, M. & Malenoski, K. (2007). // Using technology with classroom instruction that works. //Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007) // Web 2.0: new tools, new schools. //Eugene, OR. International Society for Technology in Education.