Digital Badge #B

Chapter 2: Understanding Educational Technology Issues and Trends   

The three concepts that I found interesting and most important to me as a future teacher is 

1) Teaching Choices and Student Engagement

2) Barriers To Technology Use and

3) Technology Use by Teachers

 The first concept points out how technology can be used by teacher to get their students motivated to stay in school and get them engaged in the lectures to learn the material. When I observed a 1st grade class at my son's school I saw most of the kids yawning and falling asleep during class and even I was finding a hard time to keep myself awake when the teacher was lecturing. Although the teacher was using the projector to teach each assignment she was failing in keeping the kids engaged in the activities. I noticed that not much has change from when I was in 1st grade. I strongly believe that changing the traditional way of teaching to other modern ways that involves technology will be very helpful. Motivating the students to learn, providing them feedback and providing them with new or needed academic skills is very important to their success in school. Like the textbook states "To stay in school, these youngsters wanted better teachers, smaller classes, individualized assistance, a school climate fostering achievement, and a strong relationship with at least one adult in the school believing in them and seeing their potential for educational success" (Maloy, 2013). 

The second concept describes the barriers teachers and students face to technology use. The teachers' schedules is so different in elementary, middle and high school. In elementary I noticed that the same teacher teach each subject in one day while in middle school and high school students have different class periods with different teachers for each subject. I still see no difference from all these teachers because they still have limited time to teach each subject and less time to use technology in their lessons. Also another obstacle for integrating technology in the classroom is the curriculum requirements. Preparing students for the state and national education exams keeps teachers from being able to do any computer related activities. As I was mentioning the 1st grade class I observed I also noticed that the teacher forgot to take her class to the computer lab because she ran out of time. The school administrator plays the most important role of deciding whether to integrate technology in the classrooms. 

The last concept is about the technology use by teachers. The teachers are using technology more than ever. It used to be the grading book were they used to write the students' grades for each assignment and mark if they were absent and now they do it all by computer. I also notice that most teachers provide their emails and even their phone numbers so the students can text or email them. When I was in high school I had all my teachers in my contacts in my cell phone and every time I needed help with an homework I would just text them and have a reply right away. I even have most of them as friends on my facebook. Most of the lessons are now in powerpoint or displayed online so the students can access them at home. I will for sure take advantage of this technology tools when I become a teacher.

I believe that schools should take in consideration the need of computer related activities in their curriculum. They need to give some time for teachers make use of technology in their classrooms because very soon everything will be digital. It will make life more simple for both students and teachers. 

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 Resources:
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.