I have wanted to be a teacher for a very long time, but I do not have as much experience teaching in schools as I would like to. I was a member of the Future Teachers of Alabama chapter at my high school. Sadly, I believe the club only lasted about a year. However, during that year, I was able to go to the local primary school for a day and sit in with a teacher and help her with class. Also, right before Christmas, I volunteered with Junior Achievement (JA), a program that according to their website, is “the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.” I was in a classroom at Englewood Elementary all day, going through five different lessons on business and our city. It was quite challenging, trying to handle discipline while trying to teach, but I really enjoyed it! That is about the only times I have had a chance to teach or help in schools.
Educational technology, in my opinion, is a very broad term. I think that technically (no pun intended), educational technology could be any innovative tool used to further your teaching. I do think that it has an important role in teaching, but I do not think that every lesson should be taught through a PowerPoint or computer. I still think that there is something to be said for personal interaction more artistic and hands on methods. I realize that technology can be used and you can still achieve artistic and hands on methods, but I am personally just not a fan of using technology for everything. Perhaps I feel this way because of the type of technology that was used when I was in school, which was basically the same thing over and over and over, PowerPoint after PowerPoint after PowerPoint. It got old, really fast. Towards the end of my high school career, I had a teacher that used a SmartBoard, and a few teachers that used an Elmo. That was unique, interesting, and really cool, but I did not have much experience with those. The most interesting thing we used were these remote clickers, where the teacher could have questions projected on the board, each student would have a clicker, and we could answer A, B, C, D, or E to the question on the board. The teacher was then able to show the results of what percentage of the class answered which answer.
There are many factors that affect the use of technology in schools and teaching. There are some factors that encourage the use of technology. By using technology, teachers can have a “break,” engage students more easily, relate to students better in this new technological age, and introduce students to new and innovative programs and ways of thinking. Many schools and parents also expect technology to be used in the classroom. They expect teachers to help their students and children learn about new technology, so that is another factor that encourages use of educational technology in the classroom.
However, some factors will discourage the use of technology in classroom. I feel that sometimes, the children can be so caught up in the excitement of using technology they will lose the meaning of the lesson. Also, I feel that right now, there is still some pressure not to conform to technology. Some people still prefer the common teaching methods like lecture. Obviously, there is still something to be said for “old” teaching methods and a teacher who can teach a class well without technology; however, technology is the future of education.
