Technology and School
Technology is advancing at an ever increasing rate and this means that the technological struggles of yesterday are significantly different from the struggles of today. The 2 main issues faced, in relation to technology, in the '90s and 2000s were:
1. Not knowing how to properly place a transparent sheet on a projector, and
2. Not knowing where to slap the VCR player to get rid of the fuzz.
Today the main challenge is deciding which piece of technology amidst the mass amount of options is worth developing a competence in. Technological advances have led to an entirely different classroom; some of the technologies that can be found in schools today are: smart boards, laptops, wireless Internet access, and new-school projectors (included with smart boards). Another aspect of the classroom that has changed is the amount of students that have their own personal smartphone, especially in secondary school but since we aren’t wasting time slapping VCR systems anymore, we can use that time to incorporate technology into the classrooms. Below is a list of the new-age classroom essentials.
2016 Essential Classroom Technologies:
Smart board
Wireless Internet
Laptops
Online Class Webpage
Online Quiz Tool (with grading)
Not only can these technologies create a better learning environment for the students but it also simplifies some of the tasks of the teacher, like grading for example.
The first thing I would do when given the courses that I am to teach for the year, is create a webpage for each course. On this webpage there would be information on class expectations, units of study, grades, assignment descriptions/syllabus, extracurricular work or resources, homework assignments and due dates, my contact information (email address), and a social page (or link to a social page) where classmates can communicate with each other and myself; all classroom information should be available on this site so that all students that can stay up to date.
Next, I would use a quiz tool that makes formative assessments fun. A great resource for this would be plickers, which you can find a description of by following this link: https://www.plickers.com/.
In terms of actual teaching I would integrate PowerPoint presentations with the smart board and use the editing option on the smart board to fill in some of the gaps in the presentation. I would also use the smart board to present videos and data to the class. Using the laptops and wireless internet I would create assignments and in class quizzes that allow for the usage of these technologies so as to further student aptitudes in using technology; which will be of high importance to them outside of the classroom. The integration of technology has its challenges but its importance is far greater, especially for the students of today.
