Implementing the Seven Principles:
Technology as Lever
by Chickering, Arthur
and Stephen C. Ehrmann

This article focuses on how technology can be used to implement certain teaching principles.

It focuses on how teachers can better interact with students, but I believe it left out parental involvement which can be sometimes very essential. Using newsletters, on-line grade books, teacher web pages, can keep parents more in touch, which has been proven to help students be more successful in the classroom. It talked mainly about, though, e-mail being a great communication tool in which students can respond quickly to students' homework, the speed of the response helping aid the learning process.

Technology can also help create a more active learning atmosphere. This article is dated, so it only stated one example: the word processor. However, in this day and age, there is so much more out there! These include SmartBoards, AlphaSmarts, Web quests, Reading Pens, Etc.

Technology can also be used to communicate high expectations of students and keep them more on tasks. An example in the article is the use of web publishing of student projects helps keep pupils "honest" since their work will be displayed for all to see on the World Wide Web. Other uses come to mind, like "spy ware," used by administrators, teachers, or librarians to monitor student activity on a computer.

Finally, technology helps us teach a diverse class, everyone with individualized needs. Technology has allowed more effective inclusion of special education students better than ever before. There are devices now so that all hearing- and/or visually-impaired students can participate in the classroom like everyone else.

Although this article is dated (1996) like the previous article posted, it has good points/principles that can be applied to teaching and technology available today.

Seriously Considering Play by Lloyd P. Rieber

This article's main purpose is to emphasize the importance of play in the learning process and integrating technology in order create a more "playful" atmosphere.

After reading it, I first thought of this book, Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Popular Culture Is Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson. I then thought about my daughter Sophia.

I read education articles differently now that I am not just a teacher but also a mother. I can't help but relate everything to my daughter. The above article reminds me of a different article from one of the myriad of parenting magazines that I have read in the past three years.

It talked about the lack of free time for children to play, to explore their world, because parents fill up kid's days with different programs from sports, karate, piano lessons... you name it. "Seriously Considering Play" also addresses this in that "play" has a bad reputation as being frivolous and useless. It says this is perhaps due to lack of a universal definition of play.

However, I believe as both articles discussed that "play," can be defined as using one's imagination and is important because a child needs to be creativite and essentially create. One point from the parenting magazine that really stuck in my head was that inventors and inventions would not exsist if "play" or using one's imagination ceased.

After reading both or these articles, I ask myself how can I help my daughter as well as my students learn through games?

I know that at home I try to have elements availble for her to play with, such as foam alpabet and numbers that she rearranges. And sometimes educational toys are atypical. For instance, she is learning the difference between left and right when she puts on her play shoes.

Also, I try to give her space when she is pouring milk into another cup. Yes, it will make a mess, and it is necessary for her to drink milk out of a different cup. However, she is learning to refine her motor skills and about pouring. Also, I try to be patient when she wants to put on the lid of every sippie cup she owns or when she wants to buckle and unbuckle her doll over and over again in her high chair.

As for my students, I try to be open to discussions that come up in the classroom. I have many props that we use when discussing/acting out literature. I love to allow them to illustrate vocabulary words with their own idea of what they should look like. Nontheless, I know that I should be always looking how I can do more!

Oh, the places we will go.... Dr. Suess is my inspiration; the world is my playground. Let's explore and learn something new!