Week Four Technology in Education

            This week’s content focused on the role of technology in education. Technology is constantly emerging and changing our society. Technology is also important to incorporate into education to keep our students on pace with the rest of the world. Week four contained one video, Digital Media: New Learners of the 21^st Century, and four readings: What is Technology Education? A Review of the “Official Curriculum”, Plagiarism in the Internet Age, Transforming Education with Technology, and Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviors Regarding the Use of Social Networking Sites. Week four discussed the importance of technology, while minimizing the potential negatives that accompany technology in the classroom.

            The negative aspects of the increase of technology in our students’ lives are high cost of technical devices, over ambitious and hard to calculate goals of technology education, increased opportunities for plagiarism, cyberbullying, and internet predators. With the exception of the high cost of devices, most potential problems with technology can be solved with thorough supervision and proper education of acceptable use. As educators we must be willing to incorporate technology in the classroom, and properly educate our students as to the advantages and potential dangers that the internet poses.

            The goal of educational technology is “produce students with a more conceptual understanding of technology and its place in society, who can thus grasp and evaluate new bits of technology that they might not have seen before” (ITEA 2000, 4 cited in Brown & Brown, 2010). It is broken into five categories: nature of technology, technology and society, design, abilities for a technical world, and designed world. The nature of the overriding goal is hard to quantify, yet important to strive for in order to create well-rounded individuals.

            There are many befits to technology in the classroom. Technology provides a teacher with an opportunity to create an environment for students where they are in charge of their learning. Students that can relate to what they are learning are more willing to learn and try new things. Technology gives us the opportunity to inspire our students to strive for success. The internet allows for information to be distributed at a rapid pace. IPads, smart phones, smart boards, laptops, etc. should be looked upon as instructional devices, rather than potential distractions. Innovative teachers can use these technologies to inspire learning initiatives.

            Overall, the damaging potentials of technology are dwarfed in comparison to the positive aspects of technology. When using technology educators must teach of the dangers that technology can cause. Proper use of technology can develop a love of learning for our students, and is something that should be seen as a positive rather than a negative aspect in education.

Resources

Brown, R.A., Brown J.W. (2010) What is Technology Education? A Review of the "Official Curriculum". The Clearing House pp. 49-53.

Cauley K. M., Pannozzo G.M. Annual Editions: Educational Psychology 12/13. New York: McGraw-Hill