Technology- It's only as good as the people running it

In my class tonight, a fellow student told me that it is not important whether or not a classroom teaching tool is considered a technology. I was very taken aback by this statement. I DO believe it is important, namely for one big reason. The profession of teaching is a somewhat individual one; teachers do work on grade-level teams and do give each other ideas and lesson plans. But, in teaching there is also a lot of opportunity to "do your own thing". Your classroom is yours, and you decide what the day's activities are. Therefore, I think that how a person classifies technology is extremely significant. How well (or poorly) a teacher utilizes technology is directly related to what he or she perceives technology to be. Furthermore, if a teacher feels he or she is implementing technology in the classroom successfully, he or she will not make a huge effort to up the ante. For example, if a teacher (who is not too tech savy) considers technology in the classroom to be an overhead projector or using math software to allow students to play an adding/subtracting game on a computer, simply using these devices throughout the day will satisfy "implementing technology in the classroom" for that teacher. Teachers need to understand that using anything in addition to standing up and talking is a form of technology, but how in depth and complex the tools are also matters. I think that marker boards are great to have in a classroom, as are overheads. Kids love to write on the overhead. But, these technologies are much less complex than a computer with internet access. The extent that a teacher uses the most current and innovative technology depends on how that teacher defines such technology. We need to know what is out there so we can compare what we ARE doing to what we COULD BE doing. My colleague telling me it is not important is wrong. Because teaching relies largely on one's ability to self assess, we must take into consideration what our personal beliefs, comforts and biases are. I also think that public standards, such as LoTI, are wonderful because they create a "par" to achieve and surpass. As a technological society we need to remember where we have been and how far we have come, and also need to recognize that our society is coming up with new used for technology every day. Before we can decide what technologies we want to use in our classrooms, we need to decide what technologies there are available. Marker boards and overheads may seem like fossils, but what happens when our glitzy computers don't work?? We also need to embrace the older stuff, the stuff that got us to where we are now. We should also make our students familiar with these older technologies, and realize that all technologies, be it a chalk board, an overhead, a doc-cam, or a computer projection screen, help make our job of teaching easier and more interesting.

Each member of my group, myself included, feels that technology will definately not go away. My predictions for the future of technology and education is that is that it will get more complex and beginning at a younger grade level. And I think it should. Kids are all using the technology at home, and they are teaching themselves at age seven how to make their pwn webpage, so why not just let them do it all at school, too? Many people I know that are a wiz on the computer are self taught. I think that the kids who don't have access at home, those kids on the lean side of the Digital Divide, are going to be at a major disadvantage. They need to be caught up at school on the 50% of computer time they statistically miss out on. Letting kids explore on the computer at school, for no matter how much time a day/week, can only help them, not hurt them. I am completely in favor of school filters and monitoring just because of the nature of what is out there lurking on the net, but every kid needs the exposure. I think that it is the teacher's job to make sure that all kids get the same great opportunities at school, no matter what home is like. I think as teachers we tend to overlook a lot, and also assume that school is a suppliment for all of the things kids have and do at home. As teachers, we should always try to make the materials and lessons at school a memorable and exciting thing filled with authentic learning- which DEFINATELY incudes the computer/internet, if nothing else!

Current changes in the school system are gravitating towards a more technology savy future, be it as slow as it is. In my group discussion, we talked about the different between change and reform. I do think that all reform is change, but not the other way around. I think as professionals that facilitate change, we need to accept that not all changes work. We may need to tweak them a little bit before we consider them a reform, a success. Sadly, I do not think a lot of people stick around long enough for that to happen. I think that the new, innovative things scare them. Some reforms may be just that- an amendment or a minor adjustment. I do not think people always view these things as full on changes, they see them as doing something a little different, but they are still doing essentially the same thing. For example, I don't think people minded the overhead projector because it was a reform of the blackboard- and it was easy and more convenient. But the Smartboard is an innovation, one that people do not all like because it is completely diferent than writing on a chalk or marker board. Things can go mechanically wrong, or just be too confusing to even successfully use. Or, people just don't want to excite their students too much (I have seen teachers like that, too *shudder*). All change is inevitable, but I think older teachers prefer the reforms to the innovations. I think that newer teachers are so accustomed to the technology and the changing environments of education (that they themselves are currently learning in) so they are not opposed to them. I also think that there are a lot of younger teachers out there that are purposely trying to instill innovative change in schools. I also think we need this in terms of technology. I tend to revamp my whole classroom dynamics through the use of technology. The way schools are run is changing, just like the students' learning styles. We need to embrace technology, and not try to run from it. If we do not get on the band wagon now, we will be totally lost when technology is no longer an "option" or a "supplement"- it may just one day become the "whole shebang". We need to get ourselves- and our students- ready for the changes.