Until yesterday I haven’t deeply considered the pros and
cons to using technology in the classroom. I feel that as a young educator I
have to be pro technology because it is so intertwined with my generation.
During our discussion on Wednesday, I began to realize that, like everything
else, there are two sides to the coin of technology in education.
There
are many benefits to incorporating technology into the classroom. The article I
read was strongly pro-techno as were many of the other articles shared in class.
They stated benefits such as increased self esteem, greater sense of
empowerment for the students, increased comprehension in reading, student
engagement, reduced stress due to “even playing field,” and it can reach a
variety of learners in different ways. In my own opinion (without a lit review
to back myself up), I believe technology also prepares students to enter a
technology led world, and if used correctly it can give them an edge on processing
the information they are hit with on a daily basis.
So,
with all of these wonderful outcomes of technology, why isn’t it being used
more often in the classroom? And why is it not used effectively by teachers? As discussed in class there are loads of
reasons and differing circumstances for barriers that keep educators from
jumping on the technological bandwagon. Some of these may include lack of
knowledge on how to use the equipment, fear behind new technology, a mental
block (aka the ideology or beliefs), the resources may not be available, or
maybe the teacher is worried about losing control of her classroom. Another
barrier that teachers often face is that they try to incorporate technology but
they either have a bad experience, no support from their team, the internet it
down, the battery on the computer lab died, etc. These bad experiences can jade
teachers to just return to their old habits and leave the computer lab to
become a good place to store buckets of math manipulatives from 1998.
I don’t
have an answer for these issues… yet. I am excited for this course to delve
into this question so I can help other teachers embrace technology in education.
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