Sometimes it can be difficult to learn new things. There are trainings, workshops, and classes to attend when learning new technologies and with our busy schedules, nuances of technology can become very frustrating. But we as educators should be examples to our students that it can be done. Learning new things, especially related to technologies can be accomplished. In return, you will give your students the opportunity to learn both in your subject area and advance in technology.
What is technology? Well dictionary.com (wow is that technology?) defines technology as “the application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives” and as “the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization.” Wow, that’s a mouthful but I really like the second definition because to me that means technology is all the ways we as educators can provide our students with the ability to learn about the very CIVILIZATION they live in! When you put it like that, isn’t that what we do as educators EVERYDAY ANYWAY?!? All that we do points in the direction of technology.
But more specifically, what are ways we can use MATERIALS to teach our kids? From projectors, to computers, to gizmos, the opportunities we have as educators to use technology in the classroom are innumerable. Many of us already use a wide variety of things that we may not notice or recognize as technology, but when it's put into perspective, we can see how much we already do use it.
We will explore the benefits and drawbacks of using some of these technologies in the classroom, because with all things, there are positive and negative aspects to the use of technology. How we plan and create lessons plays a big part in the success of our use of technology as well.
