Teaching Tots with Technology
I am an aspiring elementary school teacher, raised on the brink of the technological age. Therefore, my future students are going to be innately even more adept in modern technology than I. This fact, combined with my personal belief that education must be made relevant in order for students to be engaged and learn to the best of their ability, is my inspiration for researching technology integration in the elementary school classroom. Prior to beginning my research, I felt as though there was a place for technology in schools—yet to what degree? Tools such as SMART boards and skills such as the ability to research on the Internet are undoubtedly important; yet I would like to know what other resources are available and what technology does not belong in the classroom. I have heard many educators and future educators promote the use of social networking sites and the like, but how—if at all—can they be effective educational tools?
In order to address these questions I began by consulting fellow education students and professors, then researching various technological resources I had heard about. Once I had garnered enough information, I compiled a video using imovie that discussed the potential use of these technologies in the classroom. I felt as though actually using a technological resource as an organizational tool for my research would give me a first-hand perspective on how students may feel when using technology in school. My next step involved taking the classroom technology I had learned about and implementing two separate lessons using different resources. This gave me insight on what it is like to be a teacher using technology in his or her own classroom. I concentrated on creating lesson plans that aligned with standards, integrated technology, and then conducted the lesson with fellow college students. I wrote personal reflections on the lesson prior to completing it as well as after it had been implemented. The final aspect of my research included reading various articles and watching videos that discuss the benefits of a classroom technology. These tended to confirm the conclusions I had made during my prior research.
Overall, the research process taught me that as I predicted, technology can be an extremely beneficial educational tool for students; however, I also learned that technology can be an effective learning tool for teachers as well. For students, using technology helps develop skills that they will be using for the rest of their education, as well as in future careers. It also helps keeps students engaged, and if used right, can create lasting knowledge. For teachers, technology can help share ideas, inspire others, and improve teaching ability. A large part of teaching is finding exciting new ideas, and technology makes those ideas more accessible so more students can have positive learning experiences.
Based on my research, I now believe that I can successfully integrate technology in my classroom, and in doing so, enrich the education of my students. Further, I discovered that technology can teach me a great deal about how to be a better teacher. However, I did not find anything in my research that proved social networking sites can be successfully used for educational purposes. I now fully support the use of blogs in school, yet I believe that social networking sites do not belong in my future classroom. In addition to all of the information that I learned through this process, I believe I have become a better researcher. I used the technology that I was researching and I implemented lessons that integrated technology, which gave me a personal opinion, rather than exclusively conducting research from books and articles.
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