I'm comfortable under many headings: athlete, performer, geek, or particularly educator. One such heading I have never felt particularly close to however was blogger. I've never been one to talk about myself. In fact, I've spent most of my life in some kind of spotlight so I have always believed that if you do a good enough job with what you're doing other people will talk about you more than enough. Perhaps this assignment to keep a blog throughout this Classroom ICT course is already doing its job then, by forcing me to shift my thinking and write about my own experience...here goes nothing!
Within this first post I am supposed to provide some of my personal insight as to why technology is important to use in the classroom so I will get right to it.
The initial question may be as simple as "should I make sure to incorporate technology into the classroom?" The answer however is not quite as straight forward as replying "yes." Obviously, making an effort to incorporate technology into the classroom is something you want to do in this digital age but the reason should never be so shallow as thinking it's a good idea for the sake of itself. There certainly is a push to develop computer literacy within the school system and I will not argue as this becomes a priority, although I believe the proper question should not be how to implement technological tasks into a lesson but how a particular program or method can be used to bolster understanding. - Effectively killing two birds with one stone!
My reasoning for this outlook is rooted in my experience as a student. When I entered high school they were just installing the first smart boards and by the time I exited nearly every classroom had one. This provided some varying levels of effective instruction but I was fortunate, at least, to take note of the successes and failures my teachers had as they implemented this new technology into the curriculum. The most common error I can recall is when a teacher would make the technology the centre of the lesson. Students can tell when a lesson plan is shallow and a teacher is using technology just for the sake of itself (not to mention the fact that they generally have a better grasp of technology from the onset!) It can be very easy to lose all credibility by doing this. I think it is important for a teacher to ask themselves the question "Would I be conducting this lesson without this technology?" If the answer is no, my way of thinking is to try something else.
Just because I don't believe technology should be the centre of most classes, it does not mean that I am arguing the importance of implementing technological aid when applicable. I view computer literacy similarly to how I view its less advanced predecessor. In a working classroom the development of these skills should be a byproduct as we cover the main ideas of the course. For example, by the time a student reaches high school they are working on essay structure and how to formulate an argument, but spelling and grammar are certainly being developed as they practice those skills. By the same token, while going through their assignments a student in the 2010's should be developing computer skills as they progress.
Finally, my philosophy as a teacher stresses the importance of teaching students how to find answers and solve problems rather than learning the answers themselves. If the answer to questions these days is so often "Google it", perhaps that is what we should be teaching them to do.
This is a good point: "but the reason should never be so shallow as thinking it's a good idea for the sake of itself".
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