A+Vision

A Vision for Technology in Education Technology is here, for better or for worse. It can be used to enhance learning or destroy a reputation. My vision for technology in education is that all teachers and students will utilize all technologies available to them to develop independent and life-long learners.

__Advantages of Technology in the Classroom__
There are certainly many advantages of incorporating technology into the classroom. The first advantage is that it is a huge motivational tool for students. Any time they can get their hands on a computer-for whatever reason-they LOVE it. If teachers can tap into this excitement that students feel and develop lessons that encourage students to be critical thinkers, it should be done. Our students are growing up in the digital age and expect to taught this way. See the video below as a wake-up call to educators who are against the use of technology in the classroom:

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Students are more motivated when using technology. If a teacher can bring in a podcast, videocast, or video clips into lessons, students are more engaged. Technology in the classroom allows students to not only be more independent, critical thinkers, but it also allows students to collaborate. This collaboration can happen with their own classmates but can be extended to collaborating with students in other cities, states or countries! Students become more in charge of their learning when using certain technologies. If our goal as educators is to make independent, life-long learners, than why not use technology to assist them on this journey?

Check out this excellent material on the advantages of using technology in the classroom!

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__Disadvantages of Technology in the Classroom__
Although I am highly motivated to use technology in the classroom, there are some downfalls. The first downfall that I have experienced at my own building is the inconsistency of Internet access. When the Internet goes down, we could be down a couple of days due to the fact that we share an IT guy with two other buildings. He cannot always get to our building right away, and we can be without access to the Internet for a while. This is a huge disadvantage when trying to even the simplest of tasks. If the network is down, our students cannot even access documents on our shared-student drive. It is frustrating for both the teachers and the students. Another downfall I have experienced is when our network will not allow students to access certain sites. I know that all social networking sites are blocked and even some great sites for educational use such as Glogster. I had to contact our network administrator to allow me access to Glogster. I have also dealt with cyber-bullying issues in the past and count this as a huge disadvantage to technology in the classroom. I had a group of young men access a document created by a young lady in another class. They changed her document and added in some very vulgar content. She was devasated and her mother was understandably upset.

Check out these articles on the disadvantages of technology in the classroom.

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__The Future of Technology in Education__
I see a bright future for technology in education. We are living in the Digital Age. Technology is NOT going away. Companies across the globe are integrating technology in their business practices and advertising. Teachers and schools need to continue with this trend. Our children are digital learners needing and desiring to be taught through the use of technology. There are high expectations by major companies on our students to have the ability to use and manipulate technology with little direction. The only downfall I see with technology in the future is that I fear people will become completely dependent on technology. For example, schools all over the United States have started to eliminate handwriting programs from their curriculum because they say handwriting is no longer important because people type everything. My question to them would be: So what happens when technology fails? How will people continue to communicate? This is a sore spot for me because I teach writing and generally write in cursive. When I leave a note in cursive to a student, I have many that come to me and state they cannot read it. I do not understand this because I have beautiful penmenship. When I ask them why, they tell me that they were never taught. So, what happens when people can no longer write and technology fails? How will written records continue? The other downfall in the future that I can see is that people will communicate more often through a computer or other device and not face to face. I can see this becoming a societal issue when we have generations of people that cannot effectively speak to others without the use of a computer. However, despite the downfalls I see, I think the future of technology in education is bright. See the video clip below that encourages teachers to reach their students through the use of technologies.

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