Digital Badge #B-Chapter 2

After reading chapter two of our book, I learned a lot  interesting things but especially how technology changes teaching and learning in enriching and productive ways.

     The first thing I would like to discuss that grabbed my attention while reading the book was the statement that said : because of years of experience as students, beginning educators often teach as they were taught. I would like to say I do agree with this statement but I'd also like to share what I think of it. It is okay to begin teaching that way, especially for beginning educators. They are nervous, and think that if they do what their teachers did in the past they will be successful. Yes, they can have a successful career but whats better than that is knowing that you made your students reach their goal of that year. By that I mean that you have taught your students something they will never forget. Your class was for the most part interesting, and your class was one that they enjoyed the most. To achieve this, teaching your students how you were taught will not quite get you there. Now a days there is so much being invented, so much new technology, that can help us achieve a fun learning environment and so we have to be opened to new things. We can't get enclosed, even if we don't know of how to work these new inventions. We need to care to learn, it will only benefit both the educators and students  as well !

     The second concept Developing Lessons and Engaging Students : wow ! for many students the main reason of dropping out was that classes were simply not engaging or stimulating enough to stay.  This relates to the first thing I discussed. If the teachers aren't making it fun for the students than who will. Students find that going to class gets repetitive and teachers are failing at connecting their academic material to real world issues in the lives of these students. When this happens students tend to get frustrated and start to miss school because they stop caring and when they start seeing bad grades they decide the school role is not for them anymore. This is why it is so important for beginning educators as well as old to change things up ones in a while. Do activities in class that everyone's different learning types can be used. Technology can help so much achieving this goal as well.  From past experience, I have had a class that I did not enjoy because the teacher would do the same thing everyday, and only spoke about the subject without no visuals or anything. Than, I've had those classes where I really enjoyed going to because I felt like the teacher just had every quality of a good teacher and everything she used in her classroom to teach helped her get her point across.

    Lastly, the critics of technology in schools : There will always be critics against technology and I do agree with some but I also do relate to both sides. Like using technology all the time with students is not always a good idea. Students need to do work for themselves and can't depend on technology to do all the work and thinking. Also when you give the freedom of using technology such as computers or cell phones in classrooms some students take advantage of that and do not end up doing what they are assigned that day. But on the other hand technology can be used to make learning enjoyable for students. Like if your planning to do a puzzle that day, why not do it on the computer. If your are planning to talk about a new book, why not show a short introduction of the book on youtube, as we know youtube has tons of cool videos. With that being said, is the teachers decision when and how to use of technology in the classroom, but we need to think how can we relate it to that days topic. I know that when i become a teacher I will certainly use technology in my curriculum but I will also make the students think for themselves to challenge their knowledge as well.

 

References : Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2011).Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.