I’m currently in a Technology Integration class at the University of Findlay. We have learned how to incorporate many Microsoft software applications into our own classrooms. We’re using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.
For one project, we made a Word document containing all the pictures and names of the students in our class. You can see this document by clicking on the following link: Picture Project. This is a great way to learn the names of your students at the beginning of a school year. And, we learned to manipulate the pictures in order to fit all the information on one page.
Another project we were given was to create a book using Word. We were given text from The Legend of King Arthur and we were asked to format the text a certain way and place relevant pictures in certain places in the text. You can see this document by clicking on the following link: King Arthur Book Project
Another useful technology we learned to manipulate and use was Excel. For a project we had to look up information on Ohio School Districts. These were excel documents that listed school districts along with their rating, student attendance, teacher attendance, etc. We were asked a series of questions that required us to use several functions of excel. It was a great way to learn Excel and about the many school districts in Ohio. You can find all this information plus the questions that were presented to our class (along with my answers) at the following link: Ohio School District Data
Our Technology Integration class also learned a lot about PowerPoint. We learned how to create a non-linear presentation. In a linear presentation the present slide automatically progresses on to the next slide. Creating a non-linear presentation allows you to go back to a previous slide with one click. To view the non-linear presentation created by myself during class, you can click the following link: Non-linear PowerPoint Presentation. The following picture is a diagram of such a presentation:
This is a logo for one of the many free tutorials offered. 
Tolisano described several creative ways to incorporate mp3 players into the everyday classroom. She separates these ideas into three categories: teacher created, student created, and created elsewhere. The teacher can use an iPod to show videos to their class on a TV. They can also create pod-casts for their students to listen to or lectures needed by the students if they miss class. Also, depending on the lesson, the teacher can have students create their own videos or pod-casts to help them become more engaged in their learning. Also, anything that students create can be shared with other students in the class to increase learning and sharing ideas. Besides things created by the teacher and students, there are an uncountable amount of pod-casts and videos available for download on the internet. Tolisano would place such things in her “created elsewhere” category. She uses pod-casts often in class that she finds on the internet. One example is she is able to get Spanish notes on a pod-cast. This helps students learn the language tremendously because they are able to hear what an actual Spanish conversation sounds like rather than learning from a book that may not be completely accurate. This keeps class more interesting and makes the learning process more real.
First, one must be prepared before entering their supervisors office. If they do decide to support your idea, you need to have an idea of what needs to happen next. You need to “strike while the iron’s hot,” as Hall said. Be prepared. In Hall’s example, he sat down with another teacher and discussed every possible opposition they could think of that management might have and thought of ways to answer them and address any problems.
