Focus Question: How does technology promote educational change?
Technology promotes educational
change on an array of levels. First off, technology, for mostly every person,
is a daily thing, whether a child is playing a game on their parent’s Smart
phone, Tablet or computer, everyone is engulfed in technology. With children
being fully submerged in technology from the time they are born makes for a new
way children are and must learn. Since technology is everywhere around us and
most children can operate technology better than most adults, should not we
incorporate technology into the classroom, more than used for A.R. testing?
With
the technology today a simple PowerPoint presentation that I grew up with in
high school can now be transformed into something that is more than words on a
screen. Students could go up to the board and physically write on it and
interact through smart boards. There are pens that can record lectures/ voices,
along with recording every word that is written with the ability to plug it
into your computer and transform those notes into a word document. Although it
may be financially “impossible” for a school to buy a classroom set of tablets,
it may be something tax payers and county/state officials may want to
reconsider, because this is the generation we are in, one that students learn
through this technology, because humans have made things so advanced that a
paperback textbook just will not and cannot hold the interest of a fifth grader.
Without a change soon within the schools, by providing students with the
technology they NEED, we will soon find
a decline in school interest and a decline in passing students, because we are
not providing students with the materials, technology that they need.
Tech Tool: Online Technology Integration Resources
Edutopia:
I found this tech tool to be very
interesting and helpful. Edutopia.org is a website that provides articles and
blogs about how to integrate technology within your classroom to make it a fun
and interactive way for your students to learn, and also for you as a teacher.
It also provides grade levels, of what will and would not work technology wise
in that specific grade level. There are many interesting articles and responses
to explore.
Summary and Connection:
I found this chapter to be very
interesting and rather helpful. This chapter just showed me how important it is
for technology to be welcomed and used within the schools and the classroom. It
also made me think about how if change doesn't happen soon, where technology is
not being used to its fullest potential how it could possible hurt or future
students. Our world and definitely this country is turning, if not already, a
technology based world/country, and if are students are being left behind in
the schools by not having access to that technology; it can really push them
back when they get into real life and real job situations. I just know I do not
want to be a teacher that is holding my students back in any way possible, I
want them to use technology to their fullest advantage!
Resources:
Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010).Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
Roberge, M. (2013, January 23). Kids and Thier Computers.
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I sense your feeling about the need for increased use of technology in the schools...and its immediacy! There are still critics out there, and then there is the expense and abuse, but I think that the more teachers get creative and the more parents understand that students often are taught with 20th century tools in the current classrooms, we will see change. More importantly, the technology needs to be used in the right way for the right reasons, which means it really does transform the process of learning! :)
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