Using Technology to Enhance Conceptual Understanding of Elementary Students

In 2004, when I temporarily left teaching to stay at home with my new daughter, I hadn't yet heard of wikis, blogs, digital storybooks, or podcasts.  I'm sure that they were around but they weren't yet widely used in my neck of the woods, certainly not in elementary school.  I have had the most exciting school year introducing my third graders to many of these web 2.0 publishing tools.  Talk about motivation, it is almost effortless on my part to stir up the motivation and stamina needed for students to successfully complete the learning required to complete such projects.  I'm not even sure that my students are always aware of the learning that is taking place, they are much more focused on the products that they are developing.  As is the case in many schools, ours is a bit technologically limited.  The tools that we do have access to are not always able to be used to their full potential (we could use a lot more bandwidth, for example, as it takes about 15 minutes to log into the get started with our class blog).  Even so, my students find within them the patience needed to get through each task that I've assigned them when they get to create products using these technological tools.  The following posts in this thread will focus on specific uses of different web 2.0 tools and how these have enhanced conceptual understanding of young learners.  Please share your experiences as well so that we may take away ideas and strategies for use in our own classrooms.  Happy blogging!

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