Friday, January 23, 2009
Technology in the Classroom
Do you think that technology is taking over too much of the classroom? With society gearing more and more towards integrating computers and harnessing the internet to assist our students, do you think that technology can ever become overbearing? For example, if we capitalize upon computer use are we alienating our students from the wellspring of inspirational creativity that often results from putting a pen to paper? Sooner or later will we become more robotic and cryptic in our views of life and lose the fresh humanism of simply talking instead of blogging, or writing a letter to a penpal in a foreign language instead of texting or emailing? Just a thought. I think that while technology is of course useful to enhancing the overall teaching and learning experience, we do tend to place a bit too much emphasis upon its usefulness. Today I observed a teacher who doesn't really believe in technology and her lessons were absolutely both useful and easy to understand. The students related well to the knowledge that she extended and her activities helped in retaining the information. What do you think?
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I think you are absolutely correct. I will be teaching art, and I think that if computers are used too much, one day computer graphics are going to take over. No more pencil drawings, or paintings, there are programs that can look like paint on canvas. Lets hope it doesn't go that far.
ReplyDeleteTechnology does seem to be used too much sometimes. I think that it is good to utilize those tools made available to the teacher to enhance the learning of their students; however this should not be the only way they are able to deliver the material to their students. I am worried that in the future everyone will start relying on technology to much for teaching. So then what will they do if there the electricity is out or if their computer gets a virus? Will they be able to successfully teach when all they know is how to use the technology given to them.
ReplyDeleteI am a social studies major and think that it is wonderful to have Smart Boards to enhance a lesson plan, and its the same for PowerPoint and other programs but it will never be over powering, it will be used to enhance as it should.
As an English Education major, I am saddened by the problems that technology has brought to the classroom. Thanks to children being brought up with texting, spelling becomes an issue with many students (even speech becomes shortened to its texting counterparts). Children no longer hand write, which becomes a real hassle because in class activities becomes nearly impossible to grade as students no longer get practice with their handwriting outside a classroom setting.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, what happens to the students who don't have the technological advantages that their classmates have? The gap between the haves and have-nots becomes wider if technology is pushed in the classroom. A poorer student or a student without a computer will have to find time during another activity or stay late after to school to type up a report, publish, or do any kind of creative piece that involves a computer.
Lastly, if a teacher relies on technology, and the technology is unavailable (as happened with a science teacher of mine in high school), the teacher must have a backup plan or an entire lesson is ruined. Time is valuable, don't waste it trying to load something up on the computer during class, use the boards or in class models. It's great to use technology in the classroom, but you cannot rely on it for everything.
In order to be an effective teacher you must have valuable information and a means of reaching your students. When covering dry material, it may be useful to use a form of technology that will make the information more interesting to students. That being said, technology will never be a quality substitute for actual information. However, as coming generations become increasingly bonded to technology teachers must also be aware of what it can do as a means of reaching students. I hope to never see the day when a good class discussion is made obsolete by some form of technology, but I also think that using some amount of technology helps to keep students more interested than the teacher just lecturing on and on about a subject.
ReplyDeleteI think that there needs to be a delicate balance between too much technology and too little technology. Too much and we have like you said with the students acting like robots and taking the pen and paper aspect out of the classroom. I do think that technology is an amazing tool to use because if we are trained properly to use it an unlimited amount of information is at our finger tips. I recently taught a science lesson on the solar system and during the lesson as always we can discover a secondary lesson. My class got caught up talking about just how long one can travel at the speed of light over the course of a year or a light year. Almost instantly I was able to use the computer with the use of a projector and explore with the students for about five minutes how long it would take to reach the nearest stars to our solar system. The textbook did not cover anything on the material but overall I think it gave the class a greater sense of just how big everything is out there. Without technology in the classroom this would not have been possible.
ReplyDeleteDear all: Thanks for the great comments-I think that as a new "generation" of teachers we should make every effort to balance the new aspects and instrumentalities of technology with the tried and true methods of pen and paper.
ReplyDeleteFor example, maybe have your students hand write the key components/points of a really interesting powerpoint lecture. There is some connection between the hand and the brain that really reinforces information like nothing else can.
Keep things light and interesting but keep it traditional is my theory. Personally I think I'm pretty conservative anyway (I still hunt with a longbow!) but I do believe that the new technologies provide our students with opportunities that they have never had before. It's amazing to think that you can get a 3D, visually interactive representation of France with just a few clicks of a mouse! Culture, everything becomes much more real and engaging to students. However to really reinforce that information; I think we need to take them back to more traditional pen and paper methods.
As jephno72 said, it should be used to enhance, not overpower.
What do you all think of classroom discipline? Keeping control of 30 youngsters in a classroom all day can be tiring, to say the least, and also a bit frustrating at times. At the college level most of us want to be where we are so classroom management issues are not really experienced on a daily basis. When you have your own classroom, what do you plan to do to maintain order and a constructive learning environment?
ReplyDeleteSay for example you are teaching the parts of the body and some 13 year old makes an inappropriate comment in front of the entire classroom...what do you do? Do you do anything or just ignore it and move on?
Feedback please...
I think that classoom discipline is a difficult balance to strike. I think each person will have their own idea of what discipline in the classroom looks like to them. I think this goes back to personalities and your own ideas on education. For me, I think there needs to be a balance in the classroom. There should be rules that the students must follow with consequences attached. There should be mutual respect between teacher and student, but that doesn't mean for me that I have to be strict all the time. I'm pretty easy-going, but that doesn't mean that I will tolerate students crossing the line especially on issues important to me like cheating. Inappropriate comments will happen, students are maturing as they grow but I think it would be best not to encourage students especially if the comments would get disruptful.
ReplyDelete