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**Teaching with Technology**
will delve into a variety of aspects relating to utilizing technology to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. The premise is to impact student achievement on all levels of student learning. Each week, we will learn and gain perspectives about new strategies and best practices.

Let's begin...

Week 1
The discussion for week one enticed me for the mere fact that everything we have come to learn and know validates what we should be implementing in the classroom. As we know the use of technology in the classroom has a positive influence on student learning. As stated, in “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works” we learn when it is applied effectively; technology not only increases student learning, understanding, and achievement but also augments motivation to learn, encourages collaboration learning and supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

The topic of Constructivism in the classroom is actually a new found freedom for me. Why? Well in the article written by Sprague and Dede the classroom environment is allowed to explore and go beyond expectations. I did find myself as one of the instructors identified in the article. I thought it would be frowned upon to expose a high noise level and was worried, looking over my shoulder in fear of an administrator walking in and not approving the activity. So in reading this article, I find that allowing students to collaborate with one another not only engages them but also generates a type of socializing in which they learn to work with one another.

Keeping in the topic of socializing. Social Networking has become the norm with all, but as Shirkey states "shift occurs not with the introduction of new technologies but with their large scale adoption." The next new wave will introduce 3D interactive environments which in my opinion are somewhat freakishly uncomfortable. But of course like everything else, it takes time to master the system.