Post #2 Classroom Technology Use

One of my favorite memories I have that involves using technology in the classroom was my 6th grade pen-pal project. We were each assigned a student from a different state and had to e-mail back and forth with him or her. The student who was my pen-pal was a girl who was in 5th grade and lived in New Mexico. We had to e-mail each other at least once a week and had to find out information about each others culture, hometown, and any other facts that we found interesting. We also had to do research on our pen-pals home state on our own. I had to use the internet to find New Mexico’s main exports, religions, famous people who were born in that state, and any current events happening in New Mexico that I found interesting. We then had to give a presentation to the class informing them on our pen-pal, the state he or she was from, and all the other information we found out about the state. This was a social studies, English (we had to write a report also), and computer technology project. I think this was a great way to integrate technology into the classroom. It taught us how to communicate with others and how to research a subject using the internet. Instead of doing our research through the library or textbooks, which we already knew how to use, we got to use internet. Since we were all in 6th grade at the time our knowledge about computers and the internet was limited, this project really taught me how to use the internet.

Kathlyn Kaiser