Friday, January 18, 2013

Chapter 1- Becoming an e-Teacher

Focus Questions: What six key issues should a teacher consider when looking to integrate technology?

The six key issues include 1) Using technology in teaching, 2) Motivating factors, 3) Barriers to technology use, 4) Ideas for technology use, 5) Teaching methods, and 6) Students and technologies.

Even in today’s world, many teachers are hesitant when it comes to integrating technology. As I have gathered from my own experience, some teachers view technology as a distraction and choose to avoid it altogether. I, for one, think that using technology will spark a certain interest in the students that everything else fails to capture. Barriers to technology, such as the lack of skill, or in most cases the lack of resources from the schools pose the greatest problem. In many cases, there is also a lack of technology in the student’s home, creating an unbalanced playing field among the students.


I am pro-technology use in school 100%, no doubt. There are many ideas I have in mind for technology use in educational settings. For example, I would love for my students to have the opportunity to make and publish videos, communicate and share ideas via social websites, learn how to find reliable sources on the internet (unlike Wikipedia and Yahoo), and an abundance more. I find that it becomes very difficult for young students to learn how to properly cite pieces of information that they used in their work. For this reason, I believe that every single course that students take in their youth years should entail them to write a research paper and properly teach students to cite and credit authors.

Tech Tool link: How Stuff Works
This website has some of the most insightful videos that I have come across. Many of topics I searched were thoroughly explained with a degree of accuracy and precision. I loved the fact that they are able to answer questions using a language that can easily be understood by any age group.


Summary and Conclusion:
Before I decided I wanted to pursue a career in becoming a teacher I had many questions, doubts, and uncertainties. After reading this chapter, I can happily say that it has put my mind at ease. Although there were many issues that were presented in becoming a teacher in today’s society, I believe they can be overcome with time and effort. I am looking forward to facing the challenges that will be presented in future and upcoming technologies.

I was intrigued (and even excited) to read about the highly interactive, inquiry based learning. This stuck out to me the most because this is exactly the kind of teaching I would like to emulate. I believe that interaction is the most crucial difference between “teaching” and “presenting”. You can present something over and over again to a group of students, but it does not mean it has been taught. Interaction is needed to learn, and that is how teaching is achieved.

Resources:
Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010).Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.  

1 comment:

  1. I like that you are already thinking of ways you can use technology in your future classroom. Videos are powerful media and students are generally 'hooked' by them - creating them is even more motivational! :) And, I agree that 'research' is an important skill for students to learn how to do effectively at every level (which is why we have an important unit on it in this class, too!) :)

    Great job on inserting a photograph and link on this first post! The addition of multimedia really enhances the written content. Nice job! :)

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