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I believe that technology is the norm in today's 21st century society. Technology is also an essential part of an effective learning environment in today's classroom. School districts are setting up classrooms with highly equipped state of the art resources such as smartboards, document cameras, wireless internet, distant learning capabilities, laptop computers for teachers and laptop computers for students. Learners of today come to schools with abundant prior experiences using technology such as cells phones, television, mobile devices and at home computers. Educators need to incorporate the use of technology not only to teach content subjects but to expose the learner to the necessary technology skills they will need for future success in the workforce. That is why creative lessons using technology that relate to concepts taught in class is crucial. I believe its important for all teachers new or experienced to use technology in their classrooms as this is the fundamental aspect of 21st century learning taking place.
Since I believe that technology is a fundamental aspect of learning, it is my personal goal to learn as many technological tools, skills and resources I can that will help make me a better teacher in the classroom. By expanding my Personal Learning Network (PLN) I will continue to learn and find new ways to bring great ideas using technology into my own classroom. In the classroom teachers need to be creative with their lessons making sure the technology is being used appropriately based on the content students need to learn. The TPACK model is a good guide when it comes to teachers putting together lessons using technology. The interactions of technology, pedagogy and content (TPACK) forms the core of the TPACK model (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). By using these three components technology is the tool teachers can use to differentiate instruction to meet students various learning needs (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). When creating a lesson, first, teachers need to think about the content we need to teach our students. Then we strategize ways to incorporate technology into our lessons that are purposeful and coincide with our pedological philosophies. These thorough thought out lessons using the TPACK model will be most meaningful to the students as they are learning content using 21st century skills. I believe when you have the resources to expand your lesson and have students gain concepts they need to know through technology it makes it an effective and stimulating learning environment.
I believe I was making good attempts to integrate technology into my math and science lessons over the past two years. I was fortunate enough to work in classrooms that had smartboards, document camera, and student computers, I used those technology tools daily. I used these technology tools more for instruction and presentation. I was always frustrated that students were not using their computers more frequently as a way of engaging them in the content being taught. Having completed the first three Master's classes at Michigan State University in technology I feel I have been exposed to more ideas that I can bring back to my classroom to engage students in their learning. Some of the programs I would like to use this year include Glogster, Blogs, Wikis, Classroom Polls, and iMovies. These classes also made me investigate websites that I can use that have appropriate content for my subject area. The knowledge I have gained using technology to teach content will not be as challenging as it has been in the past. Since students have their own laptop computers provided by the school I am excited to have students use the above tools regularly.
All in all I believe technology is alway changing and it is the teachers role to use technology as a tool to present lesson that meet the content requirements. Technology allows teachers and students to collaborate content with creativity and latest technological advances to keep our students competitive for the future.
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