Technology in Education Essay

The use of technology in education has brought about wonderful changes in the way we teach and learn.

Through this digital age it really is imperative that technology is usually embedded in all facet of learning and teaching. Educators face a large number of challenges in terms of integrating technology into the classroom due to not enough training, plus the availability of technical equipment. Research has shown that to serve our college students who happen to be digital natives, and to stay globally competitive we need to ensure that classrooms early spring forward into the 21st century.

Relating to Pelham, Crabtree, & Nyiri, Education researchers, federal government officials, and the international expansion community often times have different concepts about the best approach to increasing educational attainment across the globe (2009, s. 74). The same can be said intended for educators and district leaders; there are a variety of opinions about how important the use of technology is the class, and the need for it in preparing learners to stand out in today’s digital contemporary society. In the early 1970s an extremely small number of schools had entry to computers, and generally those colleges we house of the top notch. However , through the late twentieth century the most obvious necessity to add computers into the classroom became apparent.

Companies such as Apple and Hewlett Packard leaped promotions, which allowed more districts the cabability to purchase technology for their colleges (Nyiri ain. al., 2009). Since then, the mixing of technology into education and educational institutions has become extremely important in the capability for students to become prepared to get the modern world workplace. Schools are interested in introducing technology and personal computers into the classroom but there are numerous obstacles that they can must defeat. The first obstacle may be the lack of financing. Many schools embrace the thought of integrating technology into the classroom but you don’t have the funding to provide the technology for their students or teachers.

Director Obama’s demand to assist in every class with computer systems and line every university for Net use is seen as the light at the end with the tunnel. Throughout the summer of 2009, many educational groups urged our elected representatives to spend many billion dollars to improve technology in the classroom, and to ensure that educators knew using this technology effectively. In accordance to Miners Recognizing the importance of the subject, president Obama and congressional leaders included $650 , 000, 000 in the government stimulus package deal for the enhancing education (2009, s. 35).

It is expected that over 25% of this money is used to teach teachers within the use of this kind of technology. In acquiring technology pertaining to schools, and training teachers on the effective use of this technology they are going to in turn prepare our learners to be throughout the world competitive in this digital universe. There are a variety of technological equipment that can be applied to the classroom; and although technology exists often times it is not necessarily used.

The key issue that should be overcome is the lack of schooling that instructors receive with this technology which creates a impression of apprehensiveness in including technology in the classroom. As stated by Miners, teachers have got desired to use this technology in the classroom but have done so poorly because of perhaps a great unsatisfactory execution of badly conceived programs (2009, s. 36). In 1997 a team of teachers accomplished a study on how the integration of technology could possibly be used to improve student learning.

This started to be known as the Instructor Leadership Program. This program provides transformed into a specialist development for teachers which usually train them on the utilization of technology in their classroom through an intensive summer analyze and continuous online training. Then these types of teachers may return to their very own schools and train their colleagues (Miners, 2009).

Building the integration of technology into their lesson plans can be imperative to emphasizing the ease and effectiveness with this technology in their classroom. Not only this, yet educators need to utilize technology when participating and communicating with their acquaintances. Email, instant messaging, and university websites are only a few of the techniques colleagues are able to use technology with their peers’ whilst modeling ideal use to get the students. When students enter the class room they want to become immersed in the lifestyle they are really accustomed to at your home.

Cell phones, pcs, IPods, and gaming devices are the tradition at home, pupils have grown up with this technology at their fingertips and know how to work it in many instances more efficiently than most technology professors. They may be accustomed to conversation via instant messaging, reading digital books, playing music on mp3 data files, posting their diary upon blogs, and making friends with facebook. Going into a class room that is stuffed with old ebooks, white panels, and no technology present would not provide them with the kind of environment through which they need to master.

As Harris and Rea state, with the Google/Facebook generation familiar with being linked to information resources and internet sites all the time in addition to many forms, how can we best work with these solutions to transform, supplement, or even supplant current pedagogical practices (2009, p. 37). The 1st issue that needs to be addressed may be the use of technological equipment inside the classrooms. Smart boards, also known as digital white boards are the wave of the future. According to Corcoran, intelligent boards happen to be are a portal for the digital world (2009), college students can connect to the information on the screen employing touch screen technology.

Almost a third of sessions in the United States have got Smart boards, which in turn allows students during these classrooms to get actively engaged in learning. Students who have entry to smart plank technology become doers in their classroom rather than a sponge ingesting the info disseminated by the teacher. That allows registrants of all learning styles the opportunity to learn; offered the fact that it can be of great importance to identify in education, being able to cater to all learning styles if visual, oral, or kinesthetic through the clever board brings about a very fruitful learning environment. However , an interactive white board in their classroom is merely a white board if it is not used efficiently.

PowerPoint delivering presentations which are fun are much better than an oral spiel from the tutor, or note-taking from an e book. Being permitted to manipulate and interact with the knowledge allows the students to absorb and retain what exactly they are learning. Teachers can make lessons that are visually exciting, link their particular lessons with online websites, integrate music, pictures, and video into the lessons. They can generate online games such as Jeopardy or Millionaire to evaluate student learning, or use programs including ClassScape to evaluate students learning. Teachers may create internet quests, that are interactive devices of learning.

By permitting students to use the internet as a form of learning rather than constant dictation from your teacher all of us allow them to attain the information themselves therefore maintaining it easier. Jonassen, Howland, Marra, and Crismond (2008) noted that web activities such as WebQuests or scavenger hunts are normal tools that allow for independent pondering, challenge college students intellectually and assist with solving problems skills. The integration of technology into the class are type in motivating the scholars to learn, to get active in the class, and to utilize the knowledge that they have in dealing with technology in the classroom.

An individual of conventional paper and pad classrooms, while using integration of technology into the classroom comes the love of learning can be rekindled in several of these students lives. With the wide array of websites available on the web nowadays professors have no justification for not making use of technology in the classroom. Websites like these can be used in the classroom and also at house. An excellent model is Wiki space the webpage in which teachers can post their very own lectures and notes or where they will create a forum pertaining to class discussion.

While students happen to be invited to the wiki-space they can edit and add to the conversation online. College students can make their own wikispace, which can significantly decrease pressure when working away at group assignments. Teachers may build their own virtual classroom websites that can be used to as a way to get in touch with, and make parents aware about the goings on in the classroom.

Students are able to use these websites to access homework, and also to contact their teachers. Through incorporating technology into the class and to put it to use as a type of communication with parents, fellow workers, and college students, teachers are preparing the students for life nowadays and making certain when they leave the classroom and enter the workforce they are really prepared to get the technological challenges that they may face these people.