. . Reflection # 3 .
.
Teaching With
Technology
This
article deals with teachers’ other jobs besides just “teaching.
Teachers are expected to be managers,
psychologists, counselors, custodians, and community "ambassadors,"
not to mention entertainers. The other demands of the classroom are
very
distracting and consuming; therefore, teachers become frustrated
quickly and
easily. The article states that technology can be a liberator to help
reestablish the role and value of the individual classroom teacher.
Technology can greatly improve the
quality of education. In order for this to happen, two things have to
occur:
the perspective of the classroom must change to become learner centered
and
students and teachers must enter into a collaboration or partnership
with
technology in order to create a "community" that nurtures,
encourages, and supports the learning process. However, technology has
consistently failed in education due to students' inability to apply
their
learning. Effective learning requires students to do more than simply
respond
to stimuli. Instead, learners must actively seek and generate
relationships
between lesson content and prior knowledge. With the use of technology,
teachers are able to integrate many subjects into one lesson and engage
the
children. When children are engaged and actively involved their work
becomes
meaningful. However, I do not think that technology alone can greatly
improve
the quality of education. Teachers and the classroom community also
play a
significant role. Effective technology-based teaching is more likely
the result
of teachers' abilities to design lessons based upon robust
instructional
principles than of the technology.
There have been two main types of
technology in education that we choose to label as "product
technologies" and "idea technologies.” Product technologies include:
1) hardware, or machine-oriented, technologies that people most often
associate
with educational technology, such as the range of audio-visual
equipment, both
traditional (i.e. film strips, movies, audiocassette players/recorders)
and
contemporary (i.e. videocassette players/recorders, laserdiscs,
computers,
CD-ROM) and; 2) software technologies, such as print-based material
(i.e.
books, worksheets, overhead transparencies) and computer software (i.e.
computer-assisted
instruction). In contrast, idea technologies do not have such tangible
forms.
The high school I attended used mostly product technologies. I really
only
remember watching a lot of movies. We didn’t do a lot on the computers
at all.
I was never even introduced to PowerPoint until college.
My idea of an effective technology
teacher would be one who combines ideas and product technologies to
encourage
students to engage in deeper cognitive activity, rather than just
memorization
of knowledge. An effective would also present information from multiple
perspectives and utilizes real world problems in the classroom. An
effective
technology teacher should also be organized, present valid and
appropriate
information, and build on previously learned experiences.
In the
future, I hope to utilize technology in my classroom. I want students
to be
able to use these resources not only to learn, but also to express
themselves
and be creative while learning. Students learn best when something is
meaningful to them. My main goal is to teach students why technology is
helpful
and how to make the most of it. I do not want students to view
technology as a
way to cut back on their workload because that it not the case at all.
I
believe that all the projects I have learned in this course so far will
be
extremely helpful and beneficial to my students and me in the future. I
would
like to implement all of them in my curriculum.