Friday, June 4, 2010

Blog #3: Integrating Technology in the Classroom

The article that I was to read was called Technology: Toward a New Model of High-Tech Schoolrooms by Royal Van Horn. The author of this article explained the differences between a high-tech school and a high-tech classroom and then told of the advantages he thought a high-tech schoolroom had over and all over high-tech school. By creating a high-tech school you are basically placing six computers in a classroom with no guarantee that the computers will even get used or integrated into the curriculum (Van Horn 487). This could potentially be a waste of money for the school because the computers that are not being used would need to be replaced about every three years costing the school about 250,000 dollars plus labor costs (Van Horn 487). Instead of creating a high-tech school we should try and create high-tech classrooms where the technology would be placed in the classrooms by “matching the technology to the grade, subject, and teaching style of the teacher” this would help to ensure that the “technology would become an integral part of the curriculum and not a high-tech add on” (Van Horn, 2006, 487).

I found the above two quotes to be the most significant quotes in the article. I think that in some subject areas technology is more useful to help explain and teach subject areas then it is in others. Also some teachers have been teaching for longer times and have a specific way in which they like to teach and may not know how to use specific technology or even may not want to use the technology because they like the way in which they teach their subject. I feel that if a school is going to purchase technology to be used in their school it should be bought with the intent for it to be used as an integral part of the curriculum. The students should be using the technology to help them to learn. It should not just be there to be there. If a school is going to purchase technology and spend thousands of dollars on it than they should know that the technology is being used efficiently.

Although the author of this article states that the technology should be matched to subjects and the teachers that would use the technology as integral parts of their curriculum and I do agree with that statement I also feel that technology is such a great resource for teachers to have to teach their students that in some ways they should be not necessarily forced but highly encouraged to use this resource. Technology has become a way of life for almost all students with TV’s, the internet, ipods, iphones, blackberrys, videogames, social networking sites, etc. why shouldn’t teachers have to start making technology a way of life in the classroom? There are so many different types of technology out there that could help teachers make students learning experiences not only more enjoyable but also more beneficial and relatable to the real world. If teachers use technology correctly they could show students how a certain subject area is applicable to the real world since in almost all career areas out there technology is used.

The article Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons are Many is an article that I read in one of my other education classes. The article states that “effective technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent and when technology supports curricular goals.” The “technology will help students acquire the skills they need to survive in a highly complex, highly technological knowledge-based economy” and will help “make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun” (Edutopia Staff). I think that these quotes from the article help to support my point and also the article that I read for this assignments point that if technology is efficiently integrated into the classroom it can help support the curriculum that the teacher is teaching and also help to create more of an understanding as to why the subject is being taught and how it can be used in the real world. Also with technology being used on a daily basis outside of the classroom it can help make learning more relatable to what is going on in the student’s everyday lives.

In several of my classes teachers have used technology to help me understand material better and also to make it more relatable to real world situations. For example in my high school anatomy class the teacher used a web cam to connect with a doctor who was performing an autopsy. By allowing us to see the autopsy being performed we were better able to understand where parts of the body were located, what they looked like, and how they were all used together to function as one. In one of my education classes that I recently had we actually talked about how to use technology in the classroom to make it applicable to the real world. One example that was used that I think is very useful for me in particular since I will be teaching geography is to use a GPS to do a sort of scavenger hunt so that the students will be able to see the topography of the area as well as learn about directions which they will need later in life. I think that even thus far in W200 we have used a useful tool to integrate technology in the classroom, our blogs. Whether just used as a communication tool for the teacher to keep in touch with students and parents outside of classrooms or used as a resource for students to turn in homework and journal about things done in class I think they could be a useful tool for the classroom. It would be a way for students to express themselves and have fun in maybe a subject area that is not necessarily their strong point. Also with social networking sites and blogs becoming so popular in our world today it would be a way for teachers to stay current and make their class more enjoyable for the students.

Everyday technology is becoming more and more a way of life for people around the world. If we want our students to stay current and our educational systems to continue to be some of the best in the world we need to learn how to integrate technology into our curriculums so when students do get out into the real world no matter what career or path they choose they will be knowledgeable of the technology that is out there and how it can be used.

References
Van Horn, Royal. (2006). Technology: Toward a new model of high-tech schoolrooms. Phi Delta
Kappa International.
Staff, Edutopia. (2008). Why integrate technology into the curriculum?: The reasons are many.
Retrieved June 3, 2010 from Edutopia Web site: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-
Integration-introduction

1 comment:

  1. Hey, Nice Essay. I thoroughly enjoyed your reading. Look forward to working with you!

    ReplyDelete