Sarah+Lytle



Hi, I'm Sarah Lytle and I live in Cincinnati with my husband and three boys ages eight, six and two. I have a B.A. from Yale University and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University. Prior to stepping away from classroom teaching nine years ago to raise my three sons, I taught social studies and language arts for four years in public and private middle schools in Boston and Washington, DC. I plan to return to teaching in the fall and feel it is vital that I update my ideas about how to use technology in my classroom. As a parent I have chosen to have an extremely low-tech house, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

My hopes for this class are threefold: 1) That the class will help me build a mental framework for categorizing educational technology. (For example the way Janet organized the syllabus to differentiate between productivity tools for teachers and technology one uses with students was a new distinction for me.) 2) That through readings, discussions, and observations in classrooms I will learn about creative ways real teachers and real students are using technology today. 3) That I will get my hands dirty. A Chinese proverb states, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." Figuring out how to navigate Blackboard and the class Wiki to make this post is a beginning on my journey of practicing with technologies that are new to me.

My fear is that the rate of change in technology has become so accelerated that by the time I learn how to operate a given hardware or software, it will become obsolete.



This photo is of my parents and children reading together on vacation. (The book is //I Love You Stinky Face// by Lisa McCourt, illustrated by Syd Moore., which appealed to all age groups.) What is better than a good book? What is more educational than reading together and discussing what you've read? My current feeling is that books are the cake of a classroom, and everything else is the icing. I am both curious about newer forms of educational technology and deeply skeptical about whether and how much I want to incorporate them into my classroom. I'm sure I will find a way to forge a balance between old and new, but I chose this picture because I am a firm believer in the power of a good story, read in-person by one person who cares about another.

[]
 * Interesting blog: **

[]
 * My blog:**