Technology in the Classroom

I do agree with the integration of technology in the classroom because in the society where we are living today, technology has become part of our lives. Students need to be prepared for the use of technology in their daily lives.
I think that in the classroom, there should be a combination of technology and traditional education, where the teacher not only is able to use some sort of technology, but also he/she takes his/her time to use the board and explain a lesson.

I feel that teachers and students should not be too dependent on technology either. It is not that technology is going to go away, well maybe, who knows, but I think that it is necessary to gain some skills without being so dependent on the available technology. For example, in a math class is important that students know how to use a calculator, but it is also important that they can actually do simple math like addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication without depend on a calculator to do all the “thinking” for them.

At the same time, teachers need to know how to apply the technology in the classroom. There are good teachers who teach terrible using technology, while there are teachers who teach fine with the use of technology. PowerPoint is very popular in the classroom. However, there are some teachers who teach using long PowerPoint presentations, which sometimes are boring. While there are other teachers who use PowerPoint, but their presentations are interesting and encourage the students to learn.

Teachers should be aware of the different ways that their students learn. Therefore they should use that information to modify their classrooms. The same method of teaching does not work for all the students, for example, for me to learn math I have to see where the numbers or letters are coming from. I just don’t like to copy what it is appearing in the slide and then have no clue where everything is coming from. I prefer the traditional teacher who writes on the board and at the same time explains me where the numbers are coming from and what they mean. I have been in classrooms where students use the time to copy the PowerPoint presentations, while the teacher is explaining. For me it is very difficult to pay attention, while I am trying to copy all the written material. That is how some students feel in the classroom, they want to copy all the notes, but did they learn something? Well maybe there are students who can copy and listen at the same time, but that is a technique that does not work for all the students.

I had also experienced being in classrooms where the teacher gives the students time to copy the notes and then he/she explains it. If the teacher gives students some time to copy the information and then he/she explains it, it might be a more effective technique. In this way the students are going to have good notes for reference, but also they can concentrate more in the point that the teacher is trying to explain without being distracted by trying to finish writing down the information from the PowerPoint. There are many ways to modify a classroom using technology. Technology is a very useful tool, but teachers need to know how to use it in their classroom. They should use it to do class more interesting, not boring and stressful.