Do you think that the integration of technology is really a racket to make money for business? Does movements to use more technology in classrooms have our students' best interests in mind?
Technology does work in the classroom. I have seen it with my students, and especially the ones who struggle on a particular skill. Our students are digital natives, and therefore gravitate and respond more quickly to learning with technology. For the most part, I think that the movement to use more technology in the classroom does have the student's best interest because it is creating a different form of learning for students, and serves as a great aid for the teacher.
However, I agree with some of the points that Michael Hiltzik said in his article Who really benefits from putting high-tech gadgets in classrooms? I think that because companies are seeing the need and impact that technology is having on schools, some are trying to take advantage and make a profit. There are too many techy products that come out claiming to revolutionize teaching or make learning easier for the students, but companies do not take the time to understand the real needs of education and it's problems. On many instances, schools/districts have spent unnecessary large amounts of money on a technology product that sits collecting dust on a shelf, or the product is not really living up to what the seller claimed it could do. Some companies completely overprice the product to their advantage without taking in consideration of what the school/district can afford or what they have to do without. When this happens, I am not so sure that these companies have our students best interest. I believe that using any kind of technology in the classroom is going to be a business. One just needs to be more selective in what to buy and make sure that it is reasonable, productive, and effective.
The biggest point that got my attention in Michael Hiltzik's article was:
"Many would-be educational innovators treat technology as an end-all and be-all, making no effort to figure out how to integrate it into the classroom. "Computers, in and of themselves, do very little to aid learning," Gavriel Salomon of the University of Haifa and David Perkins of Harvard observed in 1996. Placing them in the classroom "does not automatically inspire teachers to rethink their teaching or students to adopt new modes of learning."
I completely agree with this quote because technology in itself will not give the desired results and automatically make all students learn. Nothing can replace a teacher. But it is the teacher's responsibility to figure out how to integrate technology as part of the lesson, not have the technology teach the lesson or be the lesson. Gavriel Salomon is right when he stated " Computers, in and of themselves, do very little to aid learning," because computers like anything else, can be used for good, or can be used for bad. The computer is nothing without the guidance of the teacher and the integrative lessons that go along with using the computer.
Technology has the power to lift a student or allow him to remain flat lined, and the deciding factor of that outcome will be on the teacher. Whether or not these businesses have our student's best interest should not affect what we do in the classroom. They are a business, they will always try to make money out of a deal. Companies may not have our students best interest in mind, but we as teachers need to. There is a technology movement going on, and technology does work in the classrooms when used appropriately, but we need to be selective in our products and realize that technology is here to aid the teacher not be the teacher.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
What do you need to work on?
Part of becoming better at using technology during teaching is doing a self assessment of your skills.. what are some areas that you need to work on to make more meaningful use of technology in your job?
I need to work on allowing my students to take more charge of their own learning. I have a very dependent class this year, so everything we do takes more guidance, and more time. Because of this, there are some aspects of technology that I normally do in my class that I have not done with my current class because "there is no time." So I tend to control some of the technology in the classroom instead of allowing them to use it for themselves.I need to work on making time so I can provide my students with the best kind of teaching practice that I know how to do. If time is still an issue, I need to work on how to better incorporate the technology in order to fit the needs of the current class that I have. I need to change and alter the technology for them, instead of waiting for the students to catch up to the technology.
I know they are capable of understanding the technology because they have become very proficient with the smartboard. Some of my students know how to manipulate it more than some of the teachers in our building just from watching what I do with it. They are proficient with it because the smartboard is something we have used everyday since the beginning of the school year. So instead of taking time out from the needed reading/math instruction, I could try to gradually introduce something in smaller steps everyday and then have the students take over once I see most are ready to do it on their own and incorporate it into the core subjects. I just need to be a facilitator.
I need to work on allowing my students to take more charge of their own learning. I have a very dependent class this year, so everything we do takes more guidance, and more time. Because of this, there are some aspects of technology that I normally do in my class that I have not done with my current class because "there is no time." So I tend to control some of the technology in the classroom instead of allowing them to use it for themselves.I need to work on making time so I can provide my students with the best kind of teaching practice that I know how to do. If time is still an issue, I need to work on how to better incorporate the technology in order to fit the needs of the current class that I have. I need to change and alter the technology for them, instead of waiting for the students to catch up to the technology.
I know they are capable of understanding the technology because they have become very proficient with the smartboard. Some of my students know how to manipulate it more than some of the teachers in our building just from watching what I do with it. They are proficient with it because the smartboard is something we have used everyday since the beginning of the school year. So instead of taking time out from the needed reading/math instruction, I could try to gradually introduce something in smaller steps everyday and then have the students take over once I see most are ready to do it on their own and incorporate it into the core subjects. I just need to be a facilitator.
How might I change
Is there something that we did or read that sparked something in you.. and made you think - I could be doing something different that would make me more effective in my job, my life, or my role as a student?
One of the things that I need to change in technology is to really research the technology product that I get for my classroom. I feel like I at times I rush to just use it in my room that I don't make sure that whatever I am doing with it really brings a meaningful lesson that the students can learn from.
I need to work on putting an assessment after using the technology. I need to ask myself, "What do I want them to learn from this?", " How am I going to assess what they learn?", " What do they need to know?', " What do if they don't know?", and " What can I do once they know the skill?" There has to be a purpose to whatever technology that I am using in my classroom.
I need to work on looking at the whole picture, instead of being instantly sold on a new technology idea of teaching. Just how we tell our students to "stop, look, listen," I need to stop, research, and look at the possible outcomes and see the pro's and con's about the technology product. There are budget cuts going around through out our district, so we can't afford to misuse our funds over something that will not give us results.
We have some pieces of technology that our administrator bought because it looked good on paper, and it read proven to raise test scores. One of these products was the Smartboard slate. This product in reality did not produce nothing of what it promised, and became problematic. The product would not work half of time, and when it did, it was just faster to go up and manipulate the smartboard yourself than using the slate. I don't know what it was about this product, but this is the product that really got me wondering about the effectiveness of technology in the classroom. I think it was because they were really expensive and I found out how much the total was! Not all technology is the best technology for the classroom, and because of that, I need to change how I select what I use in my classroom.
One of the things that I need to change in technology is to really research the technology product that I get for my classroom. I feel like I at times I rush to just use it in my room that I don't make sure that whatever I am doing with it really brings a meaningful lesson that the students can learn from.
I need to work on putting an assessment after using the technology. I need to ask myself, "What do I want them to learn from this?", " How am I going to assess what they learn?", " What do they need to know?', " What do if they don't know?", and " What can I do once they know the skill?" There has to be a purpose to whatever technology that I am using in my classroom.
I need to work on looking at the whole picture, instead of being instantly sold on a new technology idea of teaching. Just how we tell our students to "stop, look, listen," I need to stop, research, and look at the possible outcomes and see the pro's and con's about the technology product. There are budget cuts going around through out our district, so we can't afford to misuse our funds over something that will not give us results.
We have some pieces of technology that our administrator bought because it looked good on paper, and it read proven to raise test scores. One of these products was the Smartboard slate. This product in reality did not produce nothing of what it promised, and became problematic. The product would not work half of time, and when it did, it was just faster to go up and manipulate the smartboard yourself than using the slate. I don't know what it was about this product, but this is the product that really got me wondering about the effectiveness of technology in the classroom. I think it was because they were really expensive and I found out how much the total was! Not all technology is the best technology for the classroom, and because of that, I need to change how I select what I use in my classroom.
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