Teach Though 30 Day Blogging Challenge- Day 28

Teach Though 30 Day Blogging Challenge- Day 28


We need to move beyond saying that technology is a sideline piece for our curriculum, that is should complement and enhance the material that we are teaching, but not be the central focus. I believe the opposite. Technology should be at the forefront of what we do every day and we educators should work to embed our material within that digital learning environment for our students and for their future.

In this anywhere/anytime age of technology, students need to have the digital skills necessary to collaborate with other people both locally and globally. I believe that IF educators have the available technology/infrastructure/support/training (and I know that this is not the case in all schools- sigh- so sad!) in your school and IF experts in the field have shown how educational technology pieces can be a benefit to the classroom, then we should find a way to incorporate what we teach into technology on a consistent basis. 

I am not saying turn your curriculum upside down and re-design everything, but rather take pieces of lessons, units, etc. a little bit at a time and pair them up with a viable educational technology piece. This article at Edutopia brings up some benefits of using technology in the classroom:

1. it allows teachers to reach multiple types of learners
2. it deepens and enhances the learning process
3. provides a diverse and current array of learning materials
4. connects students to the real world and creaks down classroom walls
5. allows teachers to move into the role of facilitator/coach, creating a student-centered classroom
5. reduces carbon footprints!(well , that is not in the article, but an obvious plus to technology)

We need our young men and women to learn the skills necessary to participate in the highly technical, inter-connected world. Shouldn't we be teaching them that way so that they are better prepared for that when they leave us? Let's find a way to weave in technology more consistently, have students work and create with proven tech tools and have technology be a central part of the wonderful things we do every day in our classrooms.