As a teacher in a relatively poor school district, I have not yet had the opportunity to integrate educational software into my classroom. This is due to a lack of access to the necessary resources including computers and software. However, I have been informed that in the next school year a computer resource center will be placed in my classroom. This will make it possible for a limited number of students at any given time to take advantage of this learning tool. The PCs to be installed will have advanced graphics and sound capabilities, both of which are commonly used in educational programs. At this point, it is unclear whether the computers will have Internet access primarily because of concerns about student access to potentially inappropriate Internet content.
How this computer lab will be used depends in part on the number of educational software programs that are licensed to my classroom. I look forward to access to this resource. I believe that it will be of great benefit to students, many of whom are already computer literate. I am especially excited about education software that links its content to the classroom curricula.
I know that education software programs are intended to be both fun for the students and educational. As a teacher, I believe it is important for me to evaluate the software before it is made available to my students to determine which software programs should not be used because the "fun" aspect of the software exceeds its potential educational value. For my ESL students, I hope to include software that provides English language tutorials.
The integration process will be simplified by the fact that the computer lab will be set up by the time the new school year begins. It will be one of the resource center areas within my classroom. I envision the integration process will begin by making certain that each student knows how to access the software. I will p...