Becoming an educator is a very important career to take on. Teaching matters to everyone students, families, employers, and even society (Maloy, et al, p. 23). As I started reading this chapter this was the first thing that caught my attention because this one statement was more than true and it takes impact on everyone not just the teacher and student. The very important points that were said are so accurate like the fact that we as future educators will go into the field teaching the same way we remember being taught once. The fact is that most of our students will not be engaged into the lesson and many of them will not even know what the lesson is because their attention was not fully there. Students of today don't want to just pull out a sheet of paper and copy the board, take notes, and simply listen. This first concept jumped out to me because this is how I was taught and there was a few times where the lesson did not attract me because it was always the same routine. Technology changes teaching and it helps students have hands on and put more work into what they are doing by actually doing.
Another concept that I thought was interesting and also because it relates to myself is the use of technology to enhance teaching. Teachers of today and upcoming teachers are learning and have learned many ways of using technology in the classroom to keep the students engaged but, "What are the students really learning with the technology being used in the classroom"? What feedback are we giving the students? Are they really interested in the way we use technology in the classroom or would they like to pitch in their own ideas? The book clearly states that even those same teachers that recently graduated and have more technology experience are the ones who have far less experience integrating technology into day to day classroom learning (Maloy, 2013, et al, p. 30). Teaching technology is not only about knowing how to use to technology. It is about making sure that the students are engaged into what they are learning and that we challenge them to learn better ways of technology use for the future.
Lastly, the lack of access is the biggest barrier I see with learning technology in the classroom. A couple of years ago we had maybe two to three computers in one classroom and we had to rotate in order for everyone to be able to take a test on a book they read. In recent years students now have ipad's, flat screen TV's, microphones, and they are even able to connect their phones via Bluetooth if they have a phone. The fact that not all classrooms have computers and teachers have to book time in the computer lab for as short as an hour for all students to be able to connect is hard it is to use technology in todays technological world. Although there are some teachers with several computers in their classroom, this does allow them to use technology as an integral part of classroom learning (Maloy, 2013, et al, p. 31). There are multiple possibilities to be able to use technology in the classroom but, what happens when the students go home and more than 50% of their families for example in my hometown cannot afford or do no know what Wi-Fi is. The biggest barrier we have to break is to integrate everyone into learning to transform technology into something that everyone can understand and use.
Furthermore, the use of technology for students is crucial by just looking at how much it has changed from the 20th century to this 21st century. Teachers, students, and parents have many barriers to break to stay up to speed with how much technology has grown and is going to keep growing. This chapter has given me a way to look at things from a different level specially since I will one day be that new teacher that knows how to use technology but, still has to learn to integrate it with the day to day lesson plan.
Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
MediaFire. (2007, October 12). Retrieved September 9, 2016, from http://www.mediafire.com/?3xbhmdmsfmd
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