Many educators see a major need to incorporate technology into the classroom. Administrators send the faculty to one meeting after the other about how to incorporate technology and the wonderful effects it will have. While this may be true, we must ask, “Why am I using this technology?” and, “How will it meet me meet my instructional goals?” There must be a specific purpose behind the technology and definitive goals to be reached. When we do use technology for the right reasons, we have to always prepare in advance in case of technical difficulties. Instead of students waiting for the teacher to hook up the computer to the television, they could be accessing all the knowledge they know about the upcoming lesson with a KWL (What I Know, What I want to know, What I learned) chart. Being over prepared is absolutely necessary when using technology in the classroom.
1 response so far ↓
1 Cynthia // Nov 11, 2006 at 1:55 am
I completely agree with your comments: we need to know why we are using the technology, we need to be prepared with back-up plans. In my very limited experience, I obssess about what I would do if the technology didn’t work and so I printed oput the interview I wanted to play from an internet site, and I had lyrics and music prepared in case the PowerPoint presentation failed. This took a little extra time, but gave me a great deal of security as I started the day.
Perhaps I am overly optimistic in my belief that we should use what technology we have available to us. I overhear a great deal of reluctance from experienced teachers. I wonder how–or whether–techno-savvy talk to their reluctant peers about planning these lessons?
Cynthia