Why is it important for all teachers to integrate technology into the lessons they teach, regardless the age of the students?
Please forgive me as I answer that question… with another question. What are the students we are teaching today going to be doing for careers in the future? The fact that things change rapidly with technology has been a very common theme over my time in this course. Another common theme, we are teaching kids today, for jobs that don’t even exist yet. When we don’t use technology in class on a daily basis we are doing a great disservice to those we are teaching. What good are we doing them and what are we preparing them for without technology in our daily lessons?
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| education ... perfected? |
My Dad drives a truck for a living. He has done this for over 35 years. Do you know what he has to use on a daily basis? Yep… technology. Now as you can imagine it has evolved quite a bit, no longer is he filling out forms, now he just has a GPS. My point in giving this example is that nearly every single job and career is going to utilize technology.
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| now with 84.3% more technology |
What may be barriers to technology integration and how you as the teacher can overcome them?
To a certain extent people take great pride in things that they have memorized. But is that really learning? How can we change what we do to open their minds for higher level thinking We as educators cannot go around with blinders on to the rest of the world around us and how rapidly it is shifting. As it says in this blog “Students are using technology to solve problems outside of school. They are also creating their own technology in some cases”. So why are some of us pretending that we still live in a world where these things do not exist? Let’s embrace things like Google Docs, Wikipedia, Sweetsearch, and other tools the Internet has to offer… and stop pretending they don’t exist.
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| what is this Interwebs thing? |
The biggest take away I have gotten from this class is Sugata Mitra and his educational philosophy. His is approach is is extreme, but I think that this is necessary while trying to facilitate a change is a system that is generally locked in one viewpoint. So I think that what I could do to overcome problems, is lean on my online-PLC for support and ideas. That is where I can go for help, and where I can go to move my career in technology integration forward.
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Steve,
ReplyDeleteI liked the comment you made about every job having to utilize technology in today's world. I try to explain this to some of my students who do not like using computers. Many of these students are very interested in mechanics and how engines work; however, they don't realize that so much of today's vehicles are computer based. It is important they gain these basic computer skills no matter what field they are going in to.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point of you. I like how you ask " What good are we doing them and what are we preparing them for without technology in our daily lessons?" Technology is everywhere and if we do not prepare the students, who will? This is definitely something students will use in the future. Like you said you even need it to drive a truck.