Digital Learning and Teaching Contract and Letter

Letter to Parents About Integration of Technology

Technology Contract for Students and Parents

When writing the letter to the families of students instead of splitting up the work and having each person in the group write a separate part we decided to write it together and have one person type. This worked because it helped the letter have a certain flow that may have been lost if we had written each part separately. It also helped because we could bounce ideas off of each other. When writing the contract we based it off of one we found online. The wording of the contract has a positive tone instead of negative which we thought was very important. We also attached a poem to the contract which we thought would be a good read for the students and their families about technology. The poem also gave the contract a personal touch.

Performance Criterion 4.1: Candidates accurately communicate central concepts of the discipline.
Performance Criterion 2.2: Candidates use an understanding of diverse cultures and communities to design inclusive learning experiences. 

In the letter to the families of students it was important to communicate to the families how technology would be a useful integration into the classroom. It was important to be aware that some families may not be in favor of integrating technology for many reasons. Maybe they do not have wifi at home, they don't have the knowledge to help their students with questions at home, or because it is simply not what they're used to. In order to accommodate all the students with different backgrounds and home lives each iPad given to students would come with 5gb of data in order to be able to do work at home without wifi. There would also be workshops on how to use the technology for teachers, students, and parents. 

When I have my own classroom I hope to integrate technology into my lessons as much as possible. My fear of having technology in the classroom like many teachers would be the distractions it could cause. I think that as long as I come up with a system for when I would like the students attention and make sure they are not looking at the technology. In my placement my teacher has her students put their iPads face down when she is talking, this makes it very easy to tell if a student is on their iPad. In class I feel as though the technology we are using is different, more engaging ways of presenting rather than clicking through a powerpoint. In my placement I am learning how to integrate technology into the work students are doing such as iMovie trailers. Technology is constantly changing and in order to usefully use it in my teaching it will be important to continue to educate myself on the new technology.