The increase of technology in our world continues to take shape as teachers put more and more student resources on the Internet.
Teachers are posting reading passages, homework assignments, student assessments, and links to Websites that are lesson-related. Some have even started chat rooms for their students in order to foster relevant, educationally-based discussions among both students and parents.
Technology isn’t going anywhere, so shouldn’t teachers learn how to make it work in their favor? Or do you think education should be learned in a more traditional fashion? How do you hope to see classroom technology evolve?
We must all come to terms with the massive shift in the way things are done in the current world. Refusing to accept it will only leave you out in the cold.
Some of the technologies that are available in classrooms and to teachers and students alike are awe inspiring. Yet there seems to be other technologies that serve only as a distraction and will probably pan out to be a passing fad in the education world.
At the end of the day, certain skills will need to be learned the old fashioned way. Multiplication tables must be memorized. No fancy ways around that fact. HOW we teach our children to memorize them is the important part. Many educational software programs make the learning more interactive for the child, and this should hold their interest more. But at the end of the day, it is just a tool. The child must still memorize the tables.
So, it will be interesting to see the technological tools that will stand the test of time, and the best ones that will continue to adapt to the latest available technology, as opposed to the ones that are just a flash in the pan. Let’s face it, though, educational fads are nothing new. “Whole Language” anyone?
E. King
Educational Warehouse
shop.educationalwarehouse.com
I’d like to see new technology used as freely in the classroom as in our daily lives. After all, the printing press is technology. Pencils are, too, for that matter. If kids can use computers in their math classes in the same way that mathematicians do, and ditto for science and history, we’ll be giving them something useful.
Unfortunately, many students end up just playing games and taking quizzes on their school computers — the same things they do at home (though there the quizzes are more likely to be “Are you a nerd?”).
Using technology in their favor is the key phrase, it seems to me. Having enough time and energy to include new technology in planning, and balancing it with active, hands-on learning and human interaction, would make the new technology exciting in the classroom, rather than burdensome.
There seems to be such a dichotomy in the field. My wife’s friend has smart boards, a web site, online everything, then I have teachers coming in to buy music who can’t buy CD’s because their room only has a cassette player. (and a CD player is not in the budget).
A teacher might be comfortable and willing to use technology, but when “8-track” is the best technology in her room, what can she do?
I think many of the online (used to be CD-ROM) things were hit hard in the .com bust. So many of the games our son has available online were made in the 80’s or 90’s. Now, I know that’s not that old and the ABC’s haven’t changed, but 80’s technology hardly competes with the Wii. The software available for us to sell in our store is so out of date that it won’t even run on a new computer.