A:I went through a MAT program several years ago that emphasized technology. The area school districts were hesitant, and so most of our field experiences were varied when it came to applying technology in the classroom. The districts
were extremely interested in literacy and reading comprehension, though, so I tuned into that for my grad thesis. Working with district literacy coaches during my cohort year, I found ways to use interactive technology (like SmartBoards) to increase reading comprehension. I'd use a SmartBoard to start out lessons with visual representations of the text, and proceed with vocabulary building exercises. The kids had fun, and - thanks to help from the district lit coaches in developing lesson plans - reading comp scores went up, especially among ELL. That was three years ago. Now I use technology all the time, particularly for reading comp and to help students understand difficult ideas. I think they're great tools and they can make a difference in the classroom. BTW, you can find quite a bit of research using SmartBoards out there - check ERIC, of course, and search engines like Google Scholar.
