EQ1 & EQ2 Week 5

EQ1 Why should technology be part of the leaning in the classroom?

EQ2 How can you ensure that your technology-enhanced classroom and learning activities succeed? (Refer to up to two (2) of the reasons pointed out in the article "11 Reasons Advanced Technology Classrooms Fail." (http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/04/28/11-reasons-advanced-technology-classrooms-fail.aspx?sc_lang=en)

1)Technology should be apart of the learning classroom for many different reasons. One of the most important to me is that students seem to learn best when a "smorgasbord" of techniques and styles are used. When tech is combined with more formal teaching methods, it creates a larger field of understanding. Students are much more likely to catch on and even better reinforce the concepts they are being taught. Technology is also important to a classroom since technology is the future. Like it or not, the world is becoming more technologically integrated and to give our students the cutting edge, it is important that we give them the skills and experience with technology necessary (if not for the typing skills and work with word processors I garnered in my primary and secondary years, I would probably not be typing this right now).

2)The key to making sure that technology enhanced classrooms and learning activities succeed seems to be not being "unsmart" with your "smart" classroom. The article "11 Reasons Advanced Technology Classrooms Fail" points (obviously) to eleven different problems that the author-a 30 year resident in the advanced technology learning space field-has seen in his time dealing with and setting up classrooms for schools. Many of the reasons though, seem to be so called "no brainers." In fact the first reason given is that some schools toss together smart classrooms just for the sake of having one, without giving any thought to implementation. The sixth reason involves teachers not being trained to use the technology. These two alone made my jaw drop. Maybe as an pre-service teacher I am naive, but it would seem rather absurd to expect a teacher to succeed when they are not given the training to use all their tools or the tools are not set up with their teaching in mind. The article reminded me that there is no shortage of schools and districts that have "lost their way." The purpose of schools is to educate and prepare our students to be responsible citizens of society (and our democracy). Everything else should come second to that goal. Truly, if we want tech classrooms to succeed, we need to put education first-do the little things like research and review to make sure our kids are learning and getting the most out of their classroom experience. Certainly if this were the case, smart classrooms would be researched and carefully planned out and taught to teachers before implementation, instead of just tossing something together and expecting students to all of a sudden succeed.

**On a sidenote, I was not exactly convinced by the article that these problems are rampant. The author started by saying that much of the tech was used at least somewhat effectively but then focused on the failures of "stories of disaster." If "the vast majority of advanced technology classroom projects succeed in some measure," then things must be relatively okay. That is not to say that these problems should not be a concern, just that we have to caution against thinking (and I know some read the article and thought this) the whole system is failing simply because some schools act inappropriately.