Technology in my lesson plan....

Figuring out how to incorporate technology into my lesson plan and future classroom is something I have been thinking about since day one of wanting to become a teacher. Being in the integrated business program, I will be certified to teach 4-12 and vocational. I will be able to teach many different business courses such as word processing, accounting, personal finance etc. When I first started my lesson plan planning, I came to realize there were no standards for business for K-12 by the state of Ohio, therefore I turned to national standards and Ohio standards for technology. These have been my guide thus far in prepping my lesson. To me being in the business world goes hand in hand with technology. When students take my courses, they will learn how technology comes to play in the business environment. They will learn more than just how to connect to the internet and make a power point, but rather other technological skills to assist and understand how business and technology play together.
My lesson plan is to introduce the marketing mix to 11th and 12th graders in a high school marketing course. The rest of the unit would be to dive deeper into each mix element. The marketing mix is made up of four components (price, product, place and promotion) on how a company launches a marketing plan for a product and/ or service. I could incorporate technology into this introduction lesson by having students pick their favorite brand name and product of that brand and conduct research on the internet through observing blogs, the company's website, consumer reviews etc. I could have the students identify the four components through their research on the internet. Another way to integrate technology into this lesson would be to have the ultimate goal at the end of the unit (after diving into each mix element) to be for the students to be in groups of 4 in which they will create their own product and a marketing plan for it. Each of the members of the group will have a responsibiity similiar to that of a real person in a marketing job function in which they will work hand in hand in creating this product and its launch plan. They will be paired up with a business member from the community who will be their mentor on the project. They will communicate with this mentor through email, web cams and blogs in which any meetings will be done this way and feedback given this way as well. My hopes would be to even have students particpate in teleconferencing with their mentor as well to see how their mentor uses technology on a day to day basis to get their job done!
You can see, I could go on and on about ways to incoporate technology in my classroom setting because the truth is, I have to incorporate it. The more I do, the better and more rounded my students will become with the way today's business world is. I will feel the pressure to incorporate at any and all times. To me the medium is the message in the sense that my concepts that I will be teaching will be easier and more effective with technology added in. Since children aren't in the business world to experience things for themselves, I need to utilize technology to make it as possible for them to experience and witness this world as possible for them to better understand the concepts and build vital skills to function in our business world today!