Technology in the Classroom

Technology is continually growing, encompassing larger parts of our lives, and that includes the classrooms that we teach in. This can be a great benefit in many ways as it helps to simplify our lives and increase efficiency and that includes teaching as well. For example, teachers can instead of spending time trying to create overheads for an overhead projector, can now just simply display what they wanted to directly with a Smart Board. It not only helps the efficiency of the teacher but of the students as well. Students have calculators in class which help them to quickly do calculations and to not waste time doing such work by hand. This helps them to focus on the content they are supposed to learn, allowing for them to more effectively learn the material. It is easy to see how technology can aid in the teaching and learning process, allowing for all involved to have the best experience.



Having talked about how useful technology can be, I think it must also be mentioned the potential shortcomings of technology. I think it's great that technology can be used to help students work through questions and attempt questions that wouldn't even be possible without technology. However, I think this must be balanced with the need for students to actually learn the material, and not just become dependent on technology. As a Math teacher I want to encourage students in their critical thinking skills, and while at first technology may seem like it helps in this as it helps students to bypass repetitive numerical work, at the same time by not actively doing that work they are not learning it as well or deeply. This can in turn effect what they are currently learning, because if they do not have as deep of an understanding of previous material, it makes it that much more difficult to critically think through new problems. As a result while I want to encourage the use of technology in the classroom, I want students to fully understand what they're doing before they go to technology to help them. That way the technology is serving as a tool to help students be more efficient, and is not a replacement to learning those skills that the technology can do itself.

Comments

  1. Hi Jonathan,

    I really enjoyed reading your blog post about technology in the classroom. Like you mentioned, I agree that technology encompasses a large part of our lives and its use is almost inevitable within our classrooms. For the past four weeks, I have been volunteering at my old high school and I see that every student has their cellphone or other form of technology on their desks every class. Even when the students are on their phones, I noticed that the teachers don't really say much about it, unless it becomes excessive. Even from when I was in high school 5 years ago, my teachers wouldn't allow us to be on our phones during class time. I think this shows that in just a few short years, the acceptance and use of technology in classrooms has grown immensely and it will be interesting to continue watching this shift through our teaching career.

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