Academic Software

Based on the academic software evaluation criteria list on page 218, the five evaluation criteria that I would personally consider to be the most important are, in no particular order, active learning, cost, grade level, hardware compatibility and helpful features.
Active learning would be extremely important when choosing programs to use in your classroom.  These products are going to require that the student is more hands on and involved, which will increase the comprehension for that student of the materials they are going over.  Many programs are set up so that there is a lot of 'watch and listen' rather than hands on, which does not challenge the students learning.
Cost is important for obvious reasons.  Our economy is in a recession, schools do not get as much funding as they deserve, and teachers have to work around this obstacle.  What is important to remember, however, is that more expensive does not always equal better.  Teachers have to be aware of budget issues and become the best bargain shoppers they can be.
Grade level.  This again is pretty obvious why it is an extremely important criteria to take into consideration when evaluating software for a classroom.  Children's minds are constantly absorbing information, growing, but you if you present them with information that is too complex or too simple for what they already know then even the best programs will be useless.  Example: if you present a group of high school students with a program that uses language that is more suited for a third grade classroom the high school students will become bored with this and not pay attention.  In contrast, if you present a third grade class with information more suitable for a high school class the vast majority of the students will not be able to comprehend the language and ideas being presented, become confused, and then stop paying attention to the material.  Grade level is also important because it gives the instructor a quick and easy comprehension of where his or her students should be academically and can help them to create lesson plans and focus on subjects better than before.
Hardware compatibility is an easily overlooked but very important aspect to the technology that you bring into your classroom.  If you buy the most amazing programs but they cannot run on the software that your school uses, then you cannot use it, and everyone loses.  Most programs are available for all software systems, its just as simple as reading the box before you make the purchase.  You would not want to buy a blue-ray dvd if your dvd player cannot play blue-ray would you?
Lastly, helpful features that the academic software offers is an important aspect to take into consideration.  This feature in your software can help you not only fix problems that may come up while using the program, but also teach you how to use it so that you get the full range of what the program offers.  Helpful features can also be used by the students so that they can use programs however they deem necessary.
The three academic software choices that I used in my mindmap were Rosetta Stone, Encyclopedia Brittanica, and Google Docs.  Rosetta Stone can do many things for the classrooms of tomorrow, such as teach English speaking students a new language, teach students whose primary language may be something other than English to speak fluently the English language, and it would allow teachers to learn other languages to that they can better communicate with their students.  Encyclopedia Brittanica is an excellent resource for research, that, unlike wikipedia, cannot be edited by the community, which ensures accurate information is what the person using it receives.  Lastly Google Docs is excellent for students who begin projects in the classroom and need to take them home, or if time is alloted in the classroom they can work on something in class that they have been doing from home.  It also is an excellent back up for documents in case, for example, a students portable storage devises were to not work.

Digital Technologies in the Classroom

Incorporating technology into your classroom is almost essential if you want a successful classroom where your students can get the most out of their education.  After reading chapter six, I would have a few types of technologies on hand to make sure that my classroom offered the most to my students.  First I would be sure to have a webcam available, that way if a student is not present for class or does not fully understand a lesson after the class they can watch or re-watch that days lesson.  This would help keep all students up to date on my lesson plan and being able to re-watch what had been taught would help students with homework and the learning process.  Secondly I would want to have headphones and notebook computers readily available for my students.  This really came to mind after last weeks discussions on students being able to listen to textbooks read aloud, which I firmly agree with.  The notebooks would also allow me to incorporate different visual aids, for example youtube videos or other online resources, into the classroom and further my students comprehension of materials.  I would also use digital cameras in the classroom, which would allow me to take better pictures of different visuals than what my webcam would allow.  These pictures can be used for powerpoint presentations as well as different classroom experiments and lessons.  Lastly I would want a smartboard for my classroom.  This final tool would allow me to just really enhance the visual aspect of my students learning experience, as well as make it easier for me to save lessons and post things online, possibly on a blog such as this, for my students to access later on.  Also the smartboards would allow my students to get hands on learning, and if they are not understanding a lesson we can work through things together, which benefits not only the student going through the problem but also other classmates who may be struggling but too afraid to speak up.
To use too many digital technologies in my classroom I feel would just distract the students.  While the possibilities for enhancement are almost limitless, you have to keep in mind the grade level and attention span of your students.  You also have to be careful that you are not making your classroom into something where there is more 'oohs and aahs' than actual learning taking place.