Using Technology in the Classroom

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

The benefits of using technology in the classroom are immense because it enables us as teachers to incorporate a lot of interaction with students due to their technological savvy and ability to grasp concepts with the aid of computers. I have always been an advocate for the use of technology in the classroom through experiences as a student and now as a teacher, I have found out that using examples and tools that students are familiar with and know how to use tend to increase their desire to participate and learn at the same time.

1.     The characteristics of Web 2.0 and its educational implications

The distinction between the internet now and ten years ago is quite evident. Not only in terms of physical technological advancements, and software improvements in leaps and bounds, but compared to the younger years of the internet where it was basically just information provided by companies and the like for the public’s consumption, which was all pretty much one way traffic, to date the web has evolved immensely where the common man can now have his say on the internet without actually having to invest large amounts of money and time. There has been an explosion in the way people interact with each other on the web with the introduction of social networking, blogs, wiki’s, forums and youtube for example are great ways to exchange information at a rapid pace. Even interactive softwares are becoming more and common place that allow students to go online and take lessons that they may have missed during the school term.

There are numerous advantages of using web 2.0 based applications in the classroom. The first important aspect is that using these applications means that as long as the web is running, the information contained therein will always be available regardless whether the teacher is available or not. Another advantage is that students are more comfortable asking questions and posting discussions through these forums and blogs rather than asking questions during classes for fear of looking stupid or being placed on the spot. Teachers also have the benefit of placing assignments and projects up as well to allow accessibility for all students. But these web 2.0 applications are only viable if all our students have regular and reliable access to the internet.

2.     Child Protection, Copyright and Social Issues of Web 2.0

a.     Child Protection

Exposing children to learning through web based applications impact various other aspects of the children’s lives. The explosion of the web has also seen an increase of internet related crimes in many areas and unfortunately our children have not been spared. With the internet available almost anywhere these days, we cannot control who accesses the internet, but one thing we can control to protect our students and children is placing restrictions and screening the websites that our students come into contact with to help prevent any kind of unwanted interaction or exploitation. We must also ensure that our students don’t get misinformed by other blogs and web pages so we must also teach them the skill of finding out for themselves whether something is valid or not instead of accepting whatever is in print on the internet.

b.     Copyright      

The copyright is an important safety mechanism for all parties involved in any intellectual property, especially those who spent time and money in developing the material. When we use material derived from other peoples work we must always give credit to them before using it, and if any changes are to be made, permission must be sought. We must also teach our students that failure to do this is regarded as theft of somebody else’s hard work (a violation of an eternal principle).

c.      Social Issues

We must be careful when dealing with technology based learning via the internet. It is not meant to replace learning that takes place in the classroom but supplement it. It is learning by direct contact and experience that we want our students to discover on their own what is right and what is not, rather than accepting whatever knowledge their predecessors have left behind.

3.     Pedagogical Uses of a Blog

Blogs in my opinion can be of great benefit to both students and teachers as an educational tool. One of the major problems faced by teachers is absenteeism which leads to students falling behind with work and assessments. Placing daily lesson notes and work sheets on a blog can allow those who are unable to make it to school that day to at least have some fair idea of what they missed out on, and give them a chance to make up as soon as possible instead of borrowing somebody else’s books and create more problems for the other student, and this occurs quite often in my experience. After doing some reading online, I came across a few articles that had the following recommendations about the use of Technology for pedagogical purposes.

The following recommendations are from EDUCARUSE QUARTERLY

1. ·        Assess the current climate on your campus to help formulate a strategy.
2. ·        Create a partnership with your faculty development staff, if you have not already done so.
3. ·        Make an ongoing commitment to learn about pedagogy.
4. ·        Create relationships with the faculty built on trust.
5. ·        Model sound pedagogical practices in the services you provide.

Many of us are new to this concept of using technology in the classroom but if you take the time and research on the internet, there are a lot of articles that have studied and made suggestions and recommendations on what works and what doesn’t making it possible for us non IT experts to easily adapt and learn how to use these methods. As the above mentions seeking the assistance of IT staff to help coordinate and better use technological equipment can go a long way to assist each teacher in their subject areas.

I find the best tool to be videos available on youtube which contain detailed mathematical steps and explanations, although the downside to this is that you cant ask questions on a real-time basis, but that is where we as teachers come in for the students to fill in the gaps.

Well I am looking forward to using technology in my lessons as much as possible to make my math classes as interactive and fun as possible so that students will overcome that mindset that math is forever hard, impossible, boring and useless.