INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY INTO THE CLASSROOM

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                                    “Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be.”

                                                                                              Arthur C. Clarke

            Effectively integrating technology into the classroom is challenging, and requires a delicate balance between allowing students to develop technology skills in a learning environment and allowing students time away from digital distractions to truly engage with a text.

            Technology in the classroom should be about enhancing the learning and modelling effect use of technology and not just tech for tech sake.  Technology must enhance interaction with the text and the teaching and learning not “replace it.” Just as teachers must look to diversify their lessons to engage a variety of learners and learning styles, they must also diversify technology for those students who thrive on tech and for those who need time away from the technology.

            Through my studies over the years, I have had the opportunity to take many online courses, some of them the very first online courses offered.  Like any other type of courses, some were good and some bad, but one was truly exceptional. The course “Emerging Technology Trends in Education” not only introduced the students to many useful and positively disruptive technology but modelled how to use them in an educational setting.  Many online courses are simply slides, required reading lists, and blog postings, but this course used technology and digital resources to “enhance” the learning and not just deliver material.  The course utilized links, online resources and programs, and required students to explore and communicate course topics using a variety of technologies.  I have recommended this course and this professor to everyone.

            This would be my model, engaging students with technology in a way that enhances the learning and utilizing many digital tools that allow students to develop their confidence, but most importantly modelling how to use technology effectively.