Technology in Today's Classrooms

Blog Reflection #3 As a millennial, I feel I traversed great eras in technological history. I remember when you couldn’t wander too far from the phone on the wall because of the cord. I remember floppy disks. Playing with the payphones in the school’s lobby was a frequent fun recess activity. Listening centers in classrooms involved choosing a cassette and placing it in a tape deck. In my elementary school years, my teachers used dusty blackboards and squeaky chalk. Computers was a separate class where we learned to type. Two decades and technological light years away from that era I now teach in a time when using an interactive whiteboard is standard in almost every class, I have access to devices such as iPads and search engines in the classrooms, and my students are probably even more tech savvy than me. These are my thoughts on technology in the classrooms and how our technological know-how can help achieve better student success in the classroom.

                Like I said, when I was in grade school, technology meant bulging computers that took up a lot of desk space, computer software that involved CD-ROMs, saving files on disks, and feeding videos into a VHS machine. I think Jaclyn Nordome’s (https://www.techchange.org/author/jaclynnardone/) quote in her September 8, 2010 blog post: …“Today kids have digital cameras, social issue games  Facebook and iPhones — Facebook on their iPhones. …kids today have become frantically digital, and rightfully so…”

                In all the technological craze, I see a lot of positive benefits in utilizing tech educationally, both in the classroom and out. I believe that tablets, apps, video and interactive whiteboards can be learning tools for students as well as teaching tools for us educators.  I agree with the fifth grade teacher who  was quoted in a U.S. Department of Education article saying, “Technology is the ultimate carrot for students.” So the first and foremost positive benefit in technology is where it all starts: motivating our students to learn. And just like teaching the ELL student, well the way I see, technology is speaking the universal language of today’s kids. Besides for motivating students, it also engages them better than I can. I just don’t measure up to those interactive presentation tools, such as video clips and graphics in techno-color-it’s all the “lights, camera, action!” that kids are accustomed to and that helps keep my classes engaged.

Here are several other benefits I see and ways to implement tech today. Firstly, technology like tablets and ipads allow students to work at their own pace, since they read directions, process information and complete work at their own pace. A built in bonus here is this helps free up our time so we can give students who may need extra guidance or assistance the attention they require. Secondly, the supportive tools available through technology is endless, with new and improved digital resources constantly being generated. For example, educational apps, search engines, videos, portable technologies interactive activities, and e-resources provide students with a nearly limitless supply of information. Thirdly, since the entire world is shifting with the digital age, and will continue to progress into the digital model…my principle remarked at a staff meeting last year that soon kids will be born with a digital chip in place of their brains…well these changes should be aligned with teachers’ lesson plans and learning techniques of children and classrooms. We always insist as teachers that the learning children do in school will prepare them for the future, and for this reason it is important to incorporate technology in the classroom. After they graduate grade school and move on to college and careers, they will continue to face the incorporating of technology. I even read an article, forget where that the prediction is out there that the shift will be so drastic that school building s will disappear! Students will instead school digitally. Gosh. We already see this phenomenon with colleges offering on-line degree options and the forecast referred to even grade school students completing their education in this way. Which personally is thought provoking to say the least- will I be outsourced of a job by my PC?!

Which I guess will bring me to the flip side of technology. It’s not all a magical wand transforming everything rosy. I think the first argument teachers and administrators will bring about technology is the expense. Equipment, software, hardware etc.- it is costly. I actually had to continuously ask my principle for three years before I got a smartboard installed in my room. And then I had to ask for tech training and support which I did get to some degree. However, I guess my old-school training still shapes and re-affirms my belief that expensive classroom technology solutions don’t always result in effective teaching and learning. I just read an article publishing a global study from the OECD showing little improvement on student learning even with schools that invested heavily in information and technology systems. (check it out: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34174796 )(yes, I recently learned how to use hyperlinks and I admit I am having fun with it in this blog!)  Students don’t necessarily score higher on standardized test across the country with all our booming tech.

For laughs, I always do this with my class the first time I turn on the smartboard in our room. I pretend to ask it, “What’s 1+1?” When of course there’s no response, I ask my students, “OK, what’s 1+1?” When they all shout out “2!” I tell them, “See, you guys are smarter than the Smartboard!” They love it, and I’m giving over to them the confidence that they’re brains are smarter than any technology.

I think using technology causes an increase in the OT and Speech challenges in students. My cousin who is an OT in the NYC districts bolstered my belief when she told me she’s seen an alarming increase in cases with students whose fine motor skills are weak- things like cutting paper and holding a pencil, and she thinks it’s because kids are accustomed to do things virtually.

And what if technology fails you? The system is down, you can’t access the material in your classroom, access is blocked-whatever. There goes your day’s lesson plan, time to swing into “wing it” mode.

The distractions of digital technology are inherent as well. While kids are engaged and motivated to learn, they can become so diverted from that they lose focus for the task at hand either literally, since they go off into places on-line (games, chat rooms) where they aren’t supposed to be, or because they get so caught up in the tech aspects that they don’t thoroughly participate in the educational aspect. Like if you give them a power point to prepare and they get caught up more in the cool transitions between slides than the material.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the lurking dangers of social media. Kids who aren’t developmentally mature enough to understand and protect themselves from the lure of these real hazards are at risk of falling prey to real harm.  

So I think the blended learning approach is the way to go. The way I see it, a teacher needs to be there and school as an institution needs to exist. Blended learning brings both positive aspects together- the best of both worlds so to speak. There are various models out there, and I don’t there is one right way. There never is in education. A college of min took the initiative this past year to introduce the station-rotation model in the class. I was impresses, the students loved it. I think this will be what I will continue to look into and adapt as my approach moving forward.