We're constantly trying to think of meaningful ways to integrate technology into our classroom. We're doing some of these things in one form or another (i.e. class blogs and student wikis), but we're always trying to improve our practice.

Here are some ways you could integrate technology into your curriculum:

1. Students use blogs to work through the writing process. They write their drafts online within a protected environment, peers leave comments to help them revise and edit, and when they are ready, they take the natural step of publishing content online to the real world. By publishing online, we can network with classrooms around the world.

2. Webcast and telecommunicate with a class on a different continent. Imagine the thrill of getting feedback on your story from a student half-way around the world or seeing a class from a different continent. We're also exploring moderated marking in our literacy PLC at school. A group of teachers get together, create a common assessment tool, implement it in the classroom, and then we mark it together. Blogging provides a platform for teachers in different classrooms in different schools that are working on the same unit at the same time to allow their students to interact with each other through peer feedback in the form of comments.

3. Students apply comprehension strategies when reading texts online. Resources are always a limiting factor in the classroom. On-demand access to the internet in the classroom would open up a library of expository articles (i.e. wikipedia), graphic novels, sports facts, as well as other high-interest material. The internet offers a great hook and resource to help us close the gender gap.

4. Student collaboration through wikis or google docs. Students create KWL charts on math, science, history/geography concepts on wikipages and as their understanding evolves, so does their wiki page. Group work allows for a truly digital collaboration environment. The history feature allows a level of accountability because we can track who is contributing ideas.

5. Better communication with parents at home. Parents can have a guest account so they can log in and see what their students have been doing / learning. Both students and parents can see other examples of what excellence looks like.
Using laptops in class allows us to hook students with meaningful digital interactivity. Instead of using clickers to have students vote an answer, students could use twitter to tweet a text message which is displayed live on the class data projector.