The Ever Changing World of Technology and Education

Entry written by: Brianne Van Vleet Topic: The Ever Changing World of Technology and Education

I think one of the biggest problems we, as teachers, will face in the upcoming years is the constantly changing atmosphere of education. Even though changes in education are slow in their implication in the classroom the education world is still changing constantly. There are always new techniques for teaching, new learning styles that must be addressed, and most importantly the increasing usage of technology. Instead of being stuck in the cycle of not wanting to change, just like our teachers and our teacher’s teachers did. I believe it is time for teaching in the everyday classroom to change, we must stay updated on the newest research and ways of doing things.

This Educational Technology class has already opened my eyes to the ever changing world of technology for the classroom. To my knowledge I did not have a single teacher who utilized technology effectively in the classroom. I had some teachers use powerpoint or the smart board but never anything more than that. I now realize that this has hurt my potential of being “technologically savvy.” I do not know near as much as I should about even the simple things like Powerpoint because I was never taught about those things. So, now imagine how much further behind our students will be if we don’t integrate technology lessons into our classroom.

This integration will be most effective when integrated into all subject areas. There are an unlimited number of tools available for students and teachers to utilize in the classroom. Besides being an effective and up-to-date way to teach the curriculum, new “web-based tools” contribute to the “eight Cs” of education and can enhance learning. The “eight Cs” are: communication (allowing the students to express what they think to a large audience), collaboration (the ability of students to expand on their own knowledge with the help of their peers), connectedness (being able to expand the classroom outside the four walls), community of learners (learning becomes more personal and students take more responsibility), convergence (higher thinking), contextualization (using technology to combine subjects), cloud computing (efficiency), and cost-free. All of these elements help teachers not only be effective in the classroom but it can also help us meet our students where they are at, and right now that is a very visual and technological world. (Solomon, Gwen)

Solomon, Gwen. Web 2.0 how-to for educators. Washinton, DC: International Society for Technology in Education, 2010. Book

The Good and the Bad of Technology

So I am from the "technology immigrant" era. To me, it seems that right when humans came out of your caves with hairy arms, faces and knees, the Internet era came along. Just when I was getting familiar with my wooden club this magic machine appears and let's me know not only how to use my wooden beat-stick better, but how to use other beat-sticks that are better than mine! On the other side of the spectrum are our modern day student-oids who appear to drop from the sky by the white-feathered stork with the blue bandana yielding a computer and a cell phone with unlimited minutes "twitting" about their sky-diving experience before they tuck the cell phone into the pocket of their onesies and land on my neighbor's doorstep!

How do we bridge that gap between the chest thumping technology Neanderthals, and the technology whiz kids of the future?

Immersion is the way I learned and I think that may be the best way for students to learn this...if they haven't already. I experienced graphs, figures and charts that depicted that technology is ever changing, and that we need to train students for success in the field where tools, jobs are not even in existence yet.

The good: 1) the students can interact more in and out of the classroom. And in this post-stone age times, it's proven harder and harder to get students involved and interested. 2) technology can bring in outside sources like teachers, other classes from around the nation, or the world even! 3) technology can be used to teach time-management, creativity, and critical thinking.

The bad: 1) technology requires an electrical outlet, a magical world traveling machine, and the big kicker....money. 2) not every student-oid has access to technology at home, or even in their community and has to strictly rely on the availability of technology solely from the school.

The bads can be counter however, and that is a case-by-case issues that the teacher needs to address and feel comfortable addressing. Teachers should allow enough flex in their curriculum to allow students more time, or further help. Cause remember, you once came out of your cave yielding an out-dated, wooden club once too.

Matt McLean

Entry written by: Emily Lauder
Topic: Using Technology In Classrooms

With our recent review of using tools in class, we have reviewed different ways these tools could be incorporated into our everyday class schedule. Along with that, what the pros and cons would be with having electronics and technology in our classrooms. I am going to address the topic of using these tools in the classroom and in our everyday life and how they can affect students learning in a good or bad way.

First off, when we use technology in classrooms, no matter what it is being used for, it is commonly agreed upon that it makes things a lot less of a hassle and is extremely helpful in the production of class assignments. One of the tools we covered in class was Twitter (www.twitter.com). This tool is a social media tool used to post short ideas, phrases, concepts, or any type of information within the constraints of 140 characters. This tool was presented with the idea of using it for communication with students during the school year. The teacher could "tweet" an opportunity for extra credit, a project date, a field trip reminder, pretty much anything that is needed to be told to the students could be posted on Twitter and could keep the students and parents up to date on what is going on in the classroom. Another way Twitter is used in the classroom is some teachers use it for feedback and more information/thoughts on the topic they are teaching. They allow their students to use Twitter and actually require them to sign up for it, so that they can post ideas, thoughts and discussion topics that go along with the lecture for the day. The teacher then uses the information to help further some discussions  that are "tweeted" and therefore enforces the point that students learn just as well with technology as they do with out it.

Personally, I believe that the more technology we can introduce to students, is only going to help them in the long run. No one is going to suffer from knowing too much about technology. We, as teachers, need to prepare students for the upcoming jobs that may not even be available right now because technology hasn't advanced enough. If we decide that students need to learn the way we did in the 90's, we are going to be hurting them in the long run. Sure, some students may get distracted, some may not understand technology as well as us, and others will excel immensely. We cannot always lean on the more traditional ways of doing things because sooner or later, we will most likely hurt the students in the long run. The sooner our generation gets into teaching, and the more traditional generation of teachers leaves, or becomes more technologically savvy, the better off we all will be.

-Emily K. Lauder