week 6 blog

     Personal Digital Assistant is basically a small computer that can fit in your hand and can be used as an assistant for you. They can store events coming up in your life, store telephone numbers, email addresses, and you can also access the internet from the device. A PDA would be good to use in the classroom to hold all your students contact information in. Another feature is that you could use the calendar to make due dates for assignment so that you can easily keep up with what you have assigned and when it will be due. If students had PDA’s they could use them to record data, and mark when their assignments are due, they could use it as a journal, and there are many more uses of PDA’s for the students and teachers.

     Online surveys are a good way to give your students a way to express their opinion of your class and let you know how to improve your class to better serve your students. This could help us in our classrooms because we can reach more students better by knowing what they need, want, and expect out of the class. If they tell us where they are struggling then we have a better chance of helping them succeed. A good rule for writing a survey is ask the students opinions and how it makes them feel and also give them a place to give you ideas. A second rule would be to ask the students specific questions not vague questions that won’t help you find out what you need to know.

     Having technology like a PDA would be very beneficial not only for the teacher but also for the students. Student’s lives are very involved in technology and adding something like this to the classroom will only help better connect the teacher to her students. Having this type of technology in the classroom is only going to help teacher keep the students involved in their education.

Jonassen, David H., and David H. Jonassen. Meaningful Learning with Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.