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Technology

In today’s culture an educator has a responsibility to use technology in an

effective, creative manner in their classroom. Technology has a myriad of uses and

applications in the classroom. I use technology on a regular basis in my classroom

from instructional practices to communicate with families. My job as an educator is

to know when it is appropriate to incorporate technology and when it is not. I think

children should read real paper and ink books but the culminating project could be

something that integrates technology. “Rapidly evolving technology has not only

fundamentally changed the way in which we live, work and communicate, but also

revolutionized the education system” (Li et al., 2015, p. 1). Technology is part of this

world and so it needs to be something taught and used in the schools as I prepare

my students for life outside of school. This website I created has many resources

about using technology in the classroom. I also maintain a class website class

website to aid in communication with families. This class website also includes

many different online educational resources for families and students.

Students enter the classroom with knowledge of technology and are using it

regularly in their daily life. They can’t remember a time without it and expect to

continue using technology throughout their life (Conefrey, 2016). It makes little

sense to omit technology from the classroom when these students are “digital

natives”. The challenge comes with using technology in an effective manner in the

classroom. My role is to monitor the gap “between learners who are using

technology in active, creative ways to support their learning and those who

predominantly use technology for passive content consumption” (Coyne et al., 2017,
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p. 638) and to provide opportunities for students to engage with technology in

creative ways to support their learning.

Technology increases student engagement and can help differentiate

instruction practices. As Hoffman and Ramirez (2018) note “student-centered

technologies have not only increased student motivation and academic

performance, but interactive technologies can lead to differentiated instruction

through which students have again shown higher motivation” (p. 51). In my

teaching I regularly have students use the district provided devices to support their

learning with various math and reading programs. The ability for these digital to

programs to meet students at their level is so helpful when looking to provide

support for those students who are struggling and enrichment for those who need

more of a challenge.

In my classroom I work to seamlessly integrate technology into my students

daily learning practice. This is done through a variety of ways modeling student use

of technology in life outside of school to prepare them for the digital world we live

in. My goal is that “all students understand how to use technologies as a tool to

engage in creative, productive, lifelong learning” (Herold, 2016, p. 16).

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References

Conefrey, T. (2016). Technology in the college classroom: Crisis and opportunity.

Educational Technology 56(4), 37-44.

Coyne, J., Lane, M., Nickson, L., Hollas, T., & Potter, J.P. (2017). Assessing pre-service

teachers’ attitudes and self-efficacy in using technology in the classroom.

Teacher Education and Practice 30(4).

Herold, B. (2016). In pursuit of active tech use. Education Week 35(35), 16-23.

Hoffman, M.M. & Ramirez A.Y. (2018). Students’ attitudes toward teacher use of

technology in classrooms. Multicultural Education 25(2).

Li, L., Worch, E., Zhou, Y., & Aguiton, R. (2015). How and why digital generation

teachers use technology in the classroom: An explanatory sequential mixed

methods study. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and

Learning 9(2).