1. Technology should be used in education because it provides students with alternative information sources and assorted learning venues. It also broadens the teaching base, allowing teachers to not be limited to simple textbook lectures but to branch out into presentations, interactive learning, and alternative lesson plans. The world is in such a heightened technologic state that the students sitting in our clasrooms will be used to being immersed in it. they will come into our classrooms expecting to be immersed in the same things they do every day. if we fail to meet them where they are, they will very likely lose interest in us and in what we are teaching. Technology acts as both an eductional aid and an educational crutch all depending on how it is used in the classroom. It can make learning more rounded and efficient while giving students a comfort zone to learn. Technology is new and exciting and always changing and growing, which is possible why it appeals to kids so much - it offers consant challenges and opportunities for success and skill mastery in areas they grew up with and understand.
2. Students are generally in contact withmultiple forms of technology on a daily basis. This includes but is not limited to: cell phones, televisions, computers, internet, dvds and videos, cds, iPods, MP3 players, video recorders, palm pilots, GPS systems, laptops, video games, and arcades including virtual reality games. It would be really neat if it were possible to incorporte lesson plans into a video-game of sorts: a game-like situatin where students answered questions and studied as part of the "game." Podcasting lectures, class notes, etc. has become popular, especially on some college campuses. I think that encouraging kids to use computers is a great way to put them in their comfort zone while learning. Also - video and interactive learning (SMART Boards, clickers, etc) may be a great way to engage students in class discussion and projects.
3. There was not a very high level of technology in my high school classroom. Granted, it was a small private school in a fairly small town, but still, one would think that we would have been around more technology than we were. Since I graduted, the school has gotten SMART boards and the like, but when I was a senior, we had old-school projectors that you put transparencies on, we had a small computer lab of about 15-20 computers, and three computers in the library. We had large TV/VCR machines that were on wheels and were rolled from room to room as needed. The chapel had capacity to run powerpint and slides on an overhead projector, but that was about as high tech as it got. According to the Technology Use In Classrooms Rubric, I would say that we were somewhere between tier one and tier two as far as meeting the required conditions goes. We had acces to computers, etc., but we only really had one man who ran the computer lab, and often he was teaching a class and was hard to get ahold of if a student had a question. Assignments, etc. were not posted online, however, but this changed shortly after I graduated - when my 3 year younger sister graduated they posted all assignments online and even had a place where parents coud go to keep posted on how their kids were doing in the classroom. Pretty much all of the changes that I would suggest have since been implemented (online resources, SMART boards, more computers, etc).
4. According to the NETS, a student completing grade 12 must demonstrate mastery of a wide selection of technological skills, including: 1. Students identify capabilities and limitations of contemporary and emerging technology resources and assess the potential of these systems and services to address personal, lifelong learning, and workplace needs. 2. Students routinely apply touch typing techniques with advanced facility, accuracy, speed, and efficiency as they complete their assignments. 3. Students understand and apply advanced software features such as templates and styles to improve the appearance of word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations and to provide evidence of learning, productivity, and creativity. To help students learn ad master skill set #1, simple class discussion could go a long way in helping them understand what technology is and what ut does in the classroom andin the world. Reseach reports, group studies, field trips to science centers like the one in Seattle - all these things would help further their knowledge and understanding of the limitations and capabilities of technology. To help students with #2, assigning students to type all homework would require them to have adequate practice with typing. To help with #3, STudents could do ndividual or group projects in which they must put their findings into some technological medium to present to the class: powerpoint, class blog, etc. Also, instead of requiring them to format their papers and projects in the usual MLA format the could be allowed to be creative with certain assignments andcome up with new formats and new publications that require them to delve into the capabilities of their technology a bit more.
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2 comments:
So after reading your blog it seemed that your high school was in a technology time warp. Myself going to a pulbic school always thought that private schools would have more resources or take advatage of not having to teach to pass a state test and would have more free reign to gear teaching to individual teaching needs. Do you feel as though this occured at your private school or not?
You know...my private school was a bit of a catch 22...as I suppose many are. We had free reign to teach whatever we pleased, yes, but we also acked state funding. So - really the ability to have awesome resources, etc. depends on how deep the pocketbooks of the participating members of any private institution are. At the private school I went to in middle school, funds were tighter. It was fairly small and pretty much family owned and operated in our church. We had no real "connections" persay other than just the dedication of the families involved. In my high school we were fortunate to be backed by some big families in the community - families that had booming businesses and thriving connections with other such companies. This put us in a position to have the technology and experiences we had...though they were somewhat limited (overhead projectors in the assembly rooms, the old school light projectors, a small computer lab, etc.) Teacher were really able to gear their teaching to the individual student's needs, which is the big perk of private versus public schools. But as far as technology goes, public schools have the advantage in that they are state funded...and the state is often all about grants and things for furthering classroom growth.
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