Teaching With Technology

In today's classroom, one of the most important aspects of the learning process is technology. Teacher leadership at every level, from primary, secondary to post-graduate education, all have the ability to incorporate technology in new and exciting ways, changing the way content is presented and student learning is assessed. Some of these ways are rather simple, such as the incorporation of multimedia components; teachers can integrate music, films, and interactive components of a lesson to further student understanding of a given concept.

Since education has gone high tech, a student may want to investigate whether or not technology has been beneficial in the classroom. With the advent of the Internet and computer prices at an all time low, more and more school districts are jumping on the technology bandwagon in the hopes that computers in the classroom will improve the state of public education. Debate about technology in the classroom has left many people wondering whether computer-based or computer-assisted learning has become a boon or a bane to our children. While many may argue that technology in the classroom encourages the way in which students observe, reflect and study, others decry the use of computers in the classroom and insist technology will ultimately do more harm than good.

Teaching Students With Technology

Other components of technology in education deal with how the information is presented to students. You research paper could focus on how today, countless children throughout the nation are educated in home schools, removing them from the physical classroom and providing them with instruction and social interaction through a digital connection to others. Teachers and classmates convene in a digital world, connected through webcams and an internet connection, interacting with one another from the privacy of their own homes. In the physical classroom, instructors have the ability to use such technology as interactive white boards, allowing students to manipulate content at the tactile level, increasing their likelihood of understanding. Technology has proven monumental in changing countless aspects of our everyday lives; through the use of mobile devices, interactive components, and physical technological elements that did not exist in years past, the educational process is entirely different than it once was, giving students a greater opportunity to succeed.

Educator Goals and Technology

Most educators have made a commitment to improving education for their students. However when it comes to implementing computer technology in classroom instruction, it seems that educators are being asked to go above and beyond the call of duty. Not only are they faced with finding time to re-educate themselves to teach with computers, they are also faced with the challenge of learning new software packages so that they can adequately teach them to their students. In the end educators spend a voluminous amount of time attempting to employ a technology that is supposed to make education more efficient. For educators who are struggling, there is a plethora of information on the Web concerning the implementation of computer technology in the classroom. Instructors simply need to find the time to review it.

Assessing the Success of Technology in the Classroom

In order to assess how technology in the classroom has changed the way in which students learn, it is first important to consider how technology has changed the way in which students are instructed. Forcier (1999) notes that, as schools gradually adopt the use of computer related technology, there will be a marked shift among instructional methods utilized by teachers. According to EdTech teacher some of these changes include:

• A change from whole-class to small-group instruction.
• A move from lecture to coaching.
• A move from working with better students to spending more time with weaker ones.
• A shift to students becoming more engaged in their learning.
• A shift from a competitive to a cooperative atmosphere in the classroom.
• A shift from all students attempting to learn the same thing at the same time to different students learning different things at different times.
• A move from an emphasis on verbal thinking to the integration of visual and verbal thinking.

Changing the way students are instructed will ultimately have an impact on the way they observe, reflect and study. Take for example the first instructional change listed above: a move from whole-class to small-group instruction. Beginning with the revival of Maria Montessori's educational philosophies in the 1960s, teachers have been advocating the use of small-group instruction as a better means to facilitate classroom learning. This practice known as cooperative education, is an instructional method by which teachers are able to communicate directly with their students and students with their peers. Cooperative education is a means by which teachers can show students how to learn. Thus technology in the classroom will only serve to enhance and facilitate student's ability to observe, reflect and study.