6 Technologies that will Change the Classroom
Why does this scare me? I FEEL OLD! I grew up in the late 90's and early 2000's, so seeing children with laptops is always an abnormal sight to see. Now, it is becoming a more integral part of the classroom, and it will soon become an essential part - as essential as a pencil or piece of paper. Looking back, though, I would have never expected that students as young as elementary-school-age would be allowed to use a computer for their assignments during class. The article in The Journal is interesting because it explains how and when each different aspect of technology will begin to change the classroom. Computers and mobile devices will be used very soon or already used. Not long after, the use of educational gaming will also become an effective teaching method.
In some ways, this new influx of technology makes me excited. Even as I made my Google website and this blog, I was excited in the ways I could be creative and fun with it. This new way of learning could be beneficial for students who want to show off their creativity a little more. It excites me that learning could actually be exciting!
However, I still get nervous when I think about technology in the classroom. I envision children at their desks, with their computers, typing words with glazed-over eyes. As they are typing and educational-gaming, they themselves become the machines. They talk less. Their minds are consumed with their own thoughts, and they think little about what others are thinking.
Now, this is a little extreme. I'm not saying that this is what the classroom will come to with the use of technology. It is my fear, though, that this could happen. Technology could and will be useful and effective in the classroom, making learning a whole new concept - something that can be more fun and interesting for students than simply sitting in a classroom, listening to a teacher talk. But it could also increasingly take away the foundation of human interaction, which is far more important in life (both in one's career and personal life).
It is inevitable that technology will, indeed, change education. However, we have control over just how much it will transform it. There are beneficial aspects to the utilization of technology, but we must realize that there are other aspects of education that are equally as important!
All this technology advancing scares me too!! There is no settling with technology, it is always and will always advance. That's why we need to advance with it. As future teacher if we are not keeping up with technology around us, we will quickly get buried under "old-person" ways of doing things. What if our high school teachers whipped out a VHS or asked us to copy something to a floppy or played a tape? I'm pretty sure I would have been lost in though about childhood, not engaged in the lesson whatsoever. And for our students I don't think the "old-person" way of doing things will be the most engaging either. So, as fast a technology advances and as scary as that is, we must advance right along side it!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right! That is a scary sight to see! I sometimes wonder what the classroom will look like in 5, 10, and 20 years from now. I wonder what it will be like when I am a teacher, as I visualize their crazed expressions on their faces when I try to explain what a tape player is/was. I really liked your post this week Karly. It poses a lot of questions in my mind, and makes me wonder just how quickly technology will advance in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteGood points, all three of you. Our goal in Tech in the Classroom is to prepare you to be able to learn whatever technology you come across in your future classrooms. We can't teach you about the things that will be available 5, 10, 20 years from now, but as long as you aren't afraid or intimidated by technology, well, that's half the battle at least.
ReplyDeleteIt's a known fact that students who want to learn--learn. Does that mean a student who doesn't want to learn but has access to technology can learn without wanting to learn?
ReplyDeleteBecause of the tone of this blog, I will add a few questions.
Say, for instance, there was a student who wanted to learn as much as he could, and was eager to think about everything he could think about and he had high ambitions. But this student only had access to some of the oldest technology, like books and pencils and paper but he used them to their fullest to become something. Would that student learn more or better compared to a student who didn't care so much about learning things, had no ambition in life, yet had access to all the latest technology in the world? How would the students be different from each other? Would the one who had less technology, in some ways, know more? Would the one who had all the technology indicatively be more prepared but not know more? I ask this question because technology can only do so much for a person. However, how we are, as people, determines how technology will affect us. Because we become a people who integrate so much of ourselves with technology, will we become people like the technology itself? Good questions.
You know, think about Wall-E by Pixar. It's all about technology, the use of it, the remnants of it, the plans for it, the future of it. These are thoughts that are prevalent in our society because people are asking questions to how much is too much? And it's not just related to education but to our whole way of life so there are reasons why this topic is kind of hot.
There's nothing to be scared of but to be mindful and keep asking yourself how will you be involved? What will your role be as a teacher, as a human, as a Christian? Can you inspire people to live and to be people and to be controllers of technology rather than be controlled by it.
In this class, we're supposed to prepare you for the future and technology is a part of how will you use it. You'll have to figure it out. But it is fact that if you can use it, you will know what to do with it,.