Infusing Technology in the Classroom - Essay Example

Infusing Technology in the room Introduction It is clear that success in 21st century education for teachers and alike will hinge on the successful implementation and use of technology. In a 1995 testimony to Congress, Professor Chris Dede stated, “The global marketplace and the communications and entertainment industries are driving the rapid evolution of high performance computing and communications.” (Dede, 1995, Web) While many scholastic organizations have successfully implemented educational technology in a variety of ways one must recognize that many have not gone far enough in adopting technology to the demands of contemporary society. This research essay is an account of means by which technology can be infused into the educational environment – specifically internet, presentation, and podcast technology – and evaluates these methods efficacy, and considers their shortcomings, I. Internet Technology 1. YouTube One of the most pervading uses of educational technology in the classroom is the use of the internet. Most teachers have a computer connected to the internet in their classroom and are required to check their school email daily for administrative announcements and parent, staff, or student emails. A number of teachers have begun implementing the internet in regards to lectures as well. While many school internet connections excludes use of YouTube videos, by submitting a request to the administration it is oftentimes possible to get temporary access to specific video links. These videos can be incorporated into the broad spectrum of lesson planning, from as diverse subjects as home-economics cooking videos, to the watching of sports techniques in the physical education courses. YouTube videos have been employed as means of demonstrating historical events – Nixon/Kennedy Presidential debates, State of the Union addresses – as well as in analysis of music videos, or advertisements. Chris O’Neal (http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-youtube-teaching-video) demonstrates that one need only do a brief user search to discover countless health education field videos on nutrition, exercise, or disease, all of them replete with upbeat music and editing that is able to maintain students’ attention spans where out-dated VHS or DVD public service presentations are not able or are not willing. YouTube has even been used in professional development at the institution. At departmental meeting a group of teachers presented on more effective means of constructing ‘word walls’ – these are walls of relevant terminology that go up in all the classroom. They opened their presentation with an attention grabbing video, and then proceeded to demonstrate ways world walls could be constructed daily through videos instead of the traditional way. There are also other development opportunities. There is even now a site called TeacherTube that is formatted much like YouTube, except that the uploaded videos are a related to teacher development. Many teachers report personally using this for professional development purposes on a number of occasions, and believe that its pool of communal knowledge could be implemented by teachers throughout the nation in developing more efficient means of instruction. 2. Ning Other uses of educational technology through internet have occurred in the growing use of Social Networking Sites (SNS) among students and teachers. Institution have implemented Ning.com in a number of projects. Ning is a social networking tool that allows students and teachers to create their own social networking site, and designated whether it will have a closed or open invitation policy. This technology has been used with great success in a number of classrooms. In some of the humanities classrooms throughout the nation, it has been implemented extremely effectively as students are required to develop a site that corresponds to a particular character, for instance Hamlet. They are then required to post updates from other characters’ perspectives on the site for participation points. Some students became very involved with the activity, uploading links, videos, and music that the character hypothetically would have liked. For teachers, there are even Ning websites for professional development; there is even a Ning Network for developing Ning networks. (www.classroom20.com) While the English Ning Committee (ENC) recently won an award for best Ning site, there are sites for all subjects, including a site for the American Association of Health Education. II. PowerPoint and Smart Boards While a number of teachers still use blackboards and dry/erase boards there is an Increasing trend among teachers at scholastic organizations to implement PowerPoint presentations or Smart Boards in instruction. The obvious benefits of the PowerPoint lecture format over blackboards are the ability of teachers to incorporate videos, pictures, and music, as well as to cycle forward and backward when delivering the lecture. Indeed, power point lectures are an essential component of the 21st century classroom if teachers hope to maintain their students’ interests. The PowerPoint lecture format has one drawback, this being the inability of the instructor to make real-time notes on the lecture presentation. A number of teachers have circumvented this by implementing Smart Board technology. This technology allows educators to make marks on a digitized blackboard, which can be uploaded with instructional software, or connected to a computer. This technology has been used most effectively in math classrooms where students are able to complete digital math problems, and in English classrooms where teachers and students can diagram sentences for grammar or stylistic analysis. III. Podcast Podcasts have recently been incorporated into a number of classrooms to aid students in comprehension. This trend began when teachers started noticing that students were increasingly becoming distracted in her classroom. Many began to attribute this to the contemporary emphasis on ipods, video gaming, and the internet, and decided that the technology must by incorporated, rather than resisted, to better engage the students. As a result many teachers began pre-recording lectures on the topics in class and uploading them to the school websites or similar electronic venues. Students can then be required to download the lecture and listen to it before class, allowing class-time to be spent on collaborative learning activities. This is an activity that can incorporate into virtually any practice as it allows students the means of direct explication that can be conveniently listened to in the car or on the computer. Rather than including long-winded lectures, the podcast can be implemented as a means of offering support to students that they could access when completing at home assignments – sort of like a class room cliff notes. It also could be effective to allow students to make their own podcasts in response to assigned questions, or as presentations in class; for instance, students could be required to construct on public service announcement on recent health care findings. Incorporation of technology on this level both prepares students for their future participation in our electronic culture, and appeals to their learning acquisition tendencies in a way that is commensurate with contemporary society. IV. Challenges While many educational researchers and teacher recognize that incentive systems need to be in place to encourage education professionals to integrate technology into the classroom environment, there has not been enough written on how to adequately structure these inventive programs. Currently, in most classroom environments the incentives are intrinsic as the benefits experienced are seen through the increased productivity of the learning experience, and the increased efficiency of lesson planning. Other proposed measures include extrinsic measures that grant teachers who effectively integrate technology access to funds that will allow them increased access to technology. Christian (2010) points out that in many instances funds from departments not utilizing technology can be collated and implemented in departments that are more proactive in their approach. While implementing an incentive program that directly links reward with technology integration can be challenging can be next to impossible as the fluid and changing nature of technology is difficult to objectively quantify to specific educational tasks, an overarching policy of administrative officials to hire, support, and promote forward thinking and technology savvy teachers is the greatest remedy in ensuring effective technology integration in schools. Conclusion Too often education lags greatly behind contemporary culture and society in adopting new forms of technology. It is not the discovery of educational technology that is challenging, but rather its acceptance and implementation. While many administrators argue that there is a funding shortage, it seems the predominant restrictions to the adoption of new forms technology in the classroom are the bureaucratic restrictions enacted by these administrators and school boards who function in an old world mindset. Even as computers and the internet have become permanent elements of the contemporary classroom, this is not enough to ensure that students in the United States will succeed globally. Indeed, a recent report from the Economist surveyed large corporations and asked, “As institutions compete for the best students and faculty, advanced campus technology will be a core differentiator.” (Economist Intelligence Unit, Web) 75% of corporations indicated this would be a crucial factor for future employees. I believe what is required is a shift for conservative standards of education that seek to blame the student for their resistance to traditional forms of instruction, such as lecture, or long-assigned readings, to a new educational culture that embraces the modern world through acceptance of modern technology. This requires reducing the bureaucratic barbed-wire that inhibits technology savvy teachers from incorporating new means of instruction, as well as fundamentally changing the educational paradigm widely-held among administrators that technology, such as film and the internet, function to distract rather than to enlighten, and that reading is the only true path to knowledge; these are widely-held misconceptions that demonstrate a critical failure in the American education system to educate meaningful information. References Christian. D.S. Integrating Technology in the Classroom. www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/.../IntegratingTechnology-HelpOrHindrance.doc ‘Classroom 2.0’ http://www.classroom20.com/, retrieved Feb. 11th, 2010 Dede, Chris. (1995) ‘Testimony to the US Congress, House of Representatives Joint Hearing on Educational Technology in the 21st Century’ Committee on Science and Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities October 12, 1995 http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/dede1.htm, retrieved Feb. 11th, 2010 O’Neal, Chris ‘How to Use YouTube in the Classroom’ http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-youtube-teaching-video, retrieved Feb. 15th, 2010 ‘The future of higher education: How technology will shape learning’ A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit Sponsored by the New Media Consortium http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Future-of-Higher-Ed-(NMC).pdf, retrieved Fed. 15, 2010 Read More