ch. 2 reflection

Before taking this class I never thought about technology and the classroom. The technology enthusiast’s argument impacted my thinking about technology’s role in teaching and learning in that it brought the issue to my attention. I agree that school’s technology is outdated and students will graduate ill-equipped to work in careers that are using the new technology that students did not learn to use in school. This is a major problem because school is supposed to be the place that prepares children for careers after school. In this new era, people are using technology in every aspect of their work: writing emails and memos, making their own web pages, using digital video tools, spreadsheets, social networking sites, PowerPoint presentations, and many other ways. Since the above require computer skills to use, people are now becoming dependent on computers and computer tools to complete their projects. However, schools have not updated their technology to include computers. Because of this dependence on technology, people can use the computer to communicate instead of taking part in community activities or face-to-face interactions. Nowadays, people have a multitude of ways to communicate from video chats to Facebook to Craigslist and many other technologies. People need to know how to communicate using different media than the simply the reading and writing skills still taught in schools today. Although schools need to change in regards to technology, I am not sure that they need to move completely away from the curriculum they currently use. I think the two should be integrated and supportive of the other.

Simply placing computers in schools has not helped schools enter this new technology age. The technology enthusiasts suggest implementing a just-in-time way of learning, which is skills-based as opposed to fact-based learning that schools generally use. Using this would give people the support they need to complete the task at hand rather than learning facts well in advance that one may or may not use (or remember) in the future. I think that if schools do implement this way of learning, teachers should be sure to continue to teach on topics that interest their students because they will not remember what they learned using this new way of learning if they are not interested and motivated. The enthusiasts’ solution to this is customization—technology’s way to attempt to individualize their services to suit each person and enhance their learning. While people can choose what they want to learn on the Internet (learner control), I do not agree that this should be the sole way that they learn in school. I think they should have a say but not the only ones who decide what to learn. I think that teachers do a good job of scaffolding in class. I think that computer games and simulations are good options to aid students in applying their skills and explore situations. While having multiple and varying audiences is a good thing, I am not sure I would want to publish my young students’ work online where anyone could post any comments, including expletives and very negative comments as opposed to constructive criticism.

This has affected how I will teach in my future classroom in that I will use interactive computer games as a tool to aid students in learning various subjects and computer tutors to allow students to receive immediate feedback on their work. I would be willing to use computer scaffolding in my classroom in addition to my own efforts. I would not feel as comfortable using video games in my classroom until I could use them and gauge their educational benefit firsthand. Budget permitting, I would have multiple computers and technologies in my classroom.