View+of+technology+in+schools

 In some way, shape or form I have been in a school setting for the majority of the past 21 years of my life. During this time I have been asked often what I’ll do when I get out or grow up, and never once had I truly considered answering that I would become a teacher. That was until the April of 2010. It was at that point that I was entering my second month as a long-term substitute with my 27 boisterous first graders. Now like I said, I had never even considered teaching before, but it was one day during that April that I had an epiphany: I loved my kids, I loved what I was doing and I loved the difference that I could make in the lives of our youth. It was at this point that I told Mom and Dad that I was pretty sure I had found my calling. Now just because I had found my calling, it didn’t mean that I was in the perfect situation.  I was in an elementary school, in Fleming County, that was lacking any real technological tools in the classroom. While I did have two computers in my room, they were both desktops and relatively immovable, I had no SmartBoard or document camera. This meant that I was unable to hook any of my computers to the projector in the middle of the room. These limitations made streaming videos and providing my students with any interactivities a nightmare. At one point, I had students tripping over a 15 foot cable that ran from the computer in the back of the room to the projector in the middle of the room just to show a movie. It was at this point I came to the realization that all students, and teachers, need access to technology to keep learning from growing stale.  Over the past couple of years, thru the MAT program, I have been in various placements where I have seen different levels of technological usage. I have been in schools that have basically had any form of technology one could dream of and I have also been in places like the one previously described. Thru these experiences I have come to realize that technology can enhance the learning of most students, but most of our teachers don’t know how to utilize it in the most effective ways possible. I feel that if we are going to make this inevitable shift towards technology, then we need to be sure that our teachers are schooled in best practices of technology usage. I feel this means that many, if not all, of our schools (K-12) should focus much of their professional developments on best practices uses of technological tools.  Now, while I feel that the shift towards the mass usage of technology in our instruction is a good thing for our students, I also feel that it should never be at the core of our instruction. Over the years as a user, an educator and a student, I have seen technology fail man time and time again. It is this unreliability that makes me feel that technology should only be a supplement to traditional classroom instruction. In my opinion, teachers need to be creating and implementing instruction that utilizes technology, but will not crumble if a technological resource malfunctions for any reason. This may be an unpopular stance, but I feel that it will best serve our future generations.