Why Students Need Tech in the Classroom

Why do students need technology in the classroom?

 

            Technology is a huge part of our society and our culture. This is even more true for the younger generation who since they have been born, have never been without technology and iPhones. Almost every student has a cell phone extending even towards the younger students. When I was in high school, IF we had a cell phone, we were not allowed to bring them out. Now, cell phones are undeniable, and in many classrooms, become part of that classroom’s culture. This has been my experience so far. According to the article “10 Reasons” it is difficult for schools to navigate and implement technology within the classroom. Schools are hesitant because they feel that cell phones can be a burden rather than a useful tool. Another reason is that the network would have a hard time accommodating the technology properly. (Mareco)

            What this article showcases, is how much the students of this day and age NEED the technology. Technology in the classroom leads towards endless possibilities. It can connect the students in a way they may not be able to which can lead to meaningful connections and collaboration. Technology also engages students more than just boring lessons without it. They are so used to using not only cell phones, but SMARTphones as well as laptops, tablets and other electronic devices. Since they are so used to this form of learning, why not use it in their schools? Due to them being used to it, if we were to take what they KNOW away, then we would be depriving them of that and their education would be lacking. An interesting point that I learned from the article is digital citizenship. So often we use electronic devices but do not know how to use them responsibly, and that is incredibly important. (Mareco) What I also learned, was that Virtual Reality could be used in the classroom to combine it with other technology. A classroom could be learning about Romeo and Juliet and take a virtual tour of Italy. When we add technology into our lessons, we are no longer regurgitating information at our students. We will become part of the experience with our students and learn along with them. This will help us encourage our students as well as let them lead a more student-led lesson practice.

 

10 Reasons Why Students NEED Technology

Twitter Chat Experience

The Twitter Chat experience that I had was very interesting. I observed and participated in the chat #21stedchat on a Sunday night. It began at 8 o’clock with the first question being an introduction. The chat was mostly comprised of professional teachers who already have jobs in school districts. There were two or three other students participating in the chat with me. Many of the questions surrounded the idea of security in each teachers particular district. The following acronyms were discussed- CIPPA, COPPA, and FERPA.  Previous to this chat, I really didn’t know what these were. Through the chat I was able to find out that they all regarded digital safety within schools. One of the questions was why it is important for educators to understand digital citizenship.  The chat was very fast-paced and almost hard to keep up with everyones great ideas and answers! I answered a few questions myself, but I mainly observed instead of interacting too much. Many of the answers were the same from person to person but I learned a lot. It was helpful to observe a chat with people who are already in the field, rather than just students. Yet, it was also to know that there were other students participating as well. There was even one teacher from Canada. The acronyms for them were not exactly the same but still similar enough and meant the same thing. This information will be useful because I know now that there are security measures in place for students according to each school. I also know now that it is up to us as teachers to take responsibility and educate users about these laws instead of assuming the vendor will do it.

21st Century Education

I used to think 21^st century education was learning how to integrate technology within our education. I always thought of the 21^st century as advanced and continuously growing. I also imagined that we would use technology to make our everyday lives more efficient. Although, I don’t think I ever envisioned technology becoming quite the sensation it has become. I always knew we would be working alongside as well as with technology, but I never thought it would take over in such a way. According to Simon Torkington, a study shows that 5 million jobs will be lost by 2020 because of the growing technology industry. It is said that the various fields of technology such as nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics will take our place and need for human workers. (Torkington, 2016) This is somewhat frightening because the world is changing so fast that we have to keep up. It will be difficult to educate our students with technology when it is constantly changing. For example, social media has changed so much in even the past 10 years. There are always new platforms popping up and gaining popularity. In the past 10 years, we have witnessed Xanga, Myspace, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and countless others. This same idea can be applied to work related softwares, and jobs.

 

Now, I think 21^st century education is learning how to navigate the ever-growing technology within our world. Technology is constantly changing and evolving. I believe it is important to teach our young to embrace technology. It isn’t going anywhere, and it is growing at a rapid pace.  I also believe that education should never stop. Since the world is always being altered, as a society we need to keep learning. Many jobs that we have available now will be replaced in the next several decades. It is imperative that we teach our students the importance of learning skills that coincide with and can be adapted with technology. Alison Berman discusses the idea of the continuous learning approach. The article mentions how many people have been getting their degree and stopping there. Berman claims, “It also reflects the demands of the labor market- where lifelong learning and skill development are what keep an individual competitive, agile, and valued.” (Berman, 2017) If we incorporate this kind of thinking and practice in our classrooms, the students will be much better prepared for the future.

Questions that I still have:

Are there some instances where we rely too much on technology?

Links to articles used in this post:

The Jobs of the Future- and two skills you need to get them

No Job is Safe, But These Skills Will Always Be Valued in the Workplace

 

Connect-Extend-Challenge

Great Teachers Don’t Teach

Connect-

The article Great Teachers Don’t Teach is something that I agree wholeheartedly with. Johnson mentions personal experiences he had in a class that he took in college. He discusses what makes a good teacher and some of this includes knowing the content, knowing how to command your students’ attention and putting the student in the “driver seat”. I also experienced a class like this when I was in high school. The teacher was performative but he always made us think. He never gave us answers outright, yet he made us think critically and use our own opinions to formulate what we wanted to say. He did not believe in just teaching the content in the curriculum, but always related it to a life lesson in some way.

Extend- 

The Socratic method is an interesting concept. In a class that I attended last fall, the class conducted a socratic seminar. We ran out of time pretty quickly but it is something that I would love to try again. Johnson describes it as answering a question with more questions and it gets students talking more freely in an open dialogue. I wonder how often something like this would be effective?

Challenge-

How often would the socratic method be effective and beneficial? Why don’t more teachers use methods of making the classroom less lecture based and more student based? With all the great methods such as performance, project-based, cooperative learning, and group learning at their disposal, why is it that it is so easy to just revert back to droning on in front of the classroom?