Reading Assignment #3

Reading Assignment #3 Reflection
Teaching With Technology
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	The use of technology in education can be very helpful if used to its fullest extent. Schools use audio-visual equipment such as power point lessons and CD-ROMs to help teach students, as well as print-based materials, such as overhead transparencies and worksheets. These are referred to as “product technologies”. This can make a teacher’s job easier because technology often makes processes faster and less complicated. For example, the calculator, specifically the graphing calculator, has changed the way teachers have to teach math. It is a lot simpler and quicker to press a few buttons than to work the process out by hand. In fact, some teachers would be lost without them. “Idea technologies”, on the other hand, are just that. They are the idea, or concept of a new technology based on the use of a product. The first three steps to the “traditional perspective” of educational technology are “familiarization”, “utilization” and “integration”. These focus on how the teacher uses technology in the classroom, such as the use of overhead projectors, worksheets, or a video. The other two steps, the “contemporary perspective”, consist of “reorientation” and “evolution”. These are when students use technology in their learning, such as to learn from a WebQuest or to do an internet search. Technology can be implicated in multiple ways in the classroom, however, I believe that it is best if students can use the technology themselves, and “reach all the way to the Evolution phase” (Figure 1). It is nice for a teacher to use technology when teaching a lesson because it may be easier and quicker to demonstrate. But if students get to use hands-on technology in the classroom, they can discover things for themselves, as well as become more literate in our technologically enhanced society.