The importance of Technology during COVID-19

This week I would like to reflect on the important role that technology plays in education
during COVID-19. Technology has been creeping into the modern classroom over the past
few years, but we have never seen its true power until the start of this pandemic. The
pandemic brought with it lengthy school closures with little prior notice and if it were not for
technology students would miss out on virtually an entire school year of their education.
During last year’s first lockdown we saw schools venture into the unknown and use online
teaching methods they have never used before in many cases. Programmes such as Zoom,
Google Classroom, Microsoft teams have played such an important role in keeping our
students educated and in touch with friends during the lockdowns. Last year my focus was
on technology in the classroom however I had never thought that this year I would be talking
about complete dependency on it for online teaching outside of the classroom.

“Technology in the classroom is changing the experience of education. It is changing the

way children learn, educators teach and how teachers and students communicate with one
another”. (Wainwright, 2013)

The quote above shows how much the classroom is changing with modern technologies.
These technologies can be very beneficial to both us as teachers and the students.
Technology in education is forever growing and I have no doubt that in the years to come
this could be somewhat of the norm in schools. We student teachers have been given a rare
opportunity to become in my opinion some of the best all rounded teachers this institute has
ever produced. We will have experienced encounters that no other final year has ever
experienced before giving us a huge advantage going out looking for jobs next year.

Reference

Catapano, S, Fleming, J., & Elias, M. (2009). Building an effective classroom library. Journal
of Language and Literacy Education [Online], 5(1), 59-73.