Using Technology to Enhance our Classroom

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We cannot deny that we are surrounded by technology in our everyday lives. We use it to wake us up in the morning, entertain us, connect us to our friends in different parts of the country and access information we no longer have a need to memorize. This is also true for our students that will someday be in our own classrooms. They have been born into a digital world, coming to the classroom with a vast pool of knowledge on how to use technology. As Boss states in the article “Technology Integration: A Short History”, “ The challenge is leveraging the opportunities technology creates to prepare learners for a globally connected, information-saturated world.” (Boss) I think this becomes a central theme that we meet when we begin to talk about integrating technology into our learning environment.

During the summer of 2013 and 2014 I worked at a daycare in charge of a classroom of elementary age students. One of the core concepts based on the corporation's summer camp goals was to integrate technology into the classroom. I was excited that this was presented as a goal because I felt like I had some experience from my college classes and own personal life that the children would be enthusiastic about. However, when I got to my classroom I realized my plans may not be fulfilled. I did not have a computer in my room to even send emails to the parents. I was surprised to see that my branch of the day care was so far behind while the plans I got for the summer promised the opposite. I was encouraged to keep open communication with the parents through email, but it was difficult when I could not make this contact throughout the work day or even have my own company email. I fought to try and get more technology for my classroom but in the end just had to be very creative with what I did have. We utilized what was available to us outside the classroom, which was pretty much just one TV for yoga classes and music from a cd player as well as my own laptop that I could bring into the classroom on occasion.

Now, I look back at this experience and I question how I could have better integrated technology into my classroom with such limited resources? Thinking on this experience brings me back to my initial concern: how do we leverage the technology we do have to aid learning? At the time, I wished for a computer to use the internet as a resource and for email. However, after looking at a chart depicting the difference between using technology versus integrating technology I find these uses fall into the first column of simply using technology (Rao). If I had been given technology to use would I have been able to effectively integrate it or would I have fallen into the trap of simply using it? Already in the class I have had my eyes opened to how essential it is to harness what we have in effective ways. Hopefully throughout this course I can slowly begin to shift my thinking and skills to be able to efficiently integrate it into the classrooms instead of simply using it.

The distinction is extremely important because we can place a computer in front of a child and see little improvement in writing skills. Students tend to respond better when greater freedom is allocated within assignments. Therefore, if we give them the resources to create using technology they are given many different medias to work within. By opening the door to technology we can offer these varied modes of media. For example, in the video “An Introduction to Technology Integration” students are recording their voices as they read their narratives, they are creating digital artwork to go along with their stories, and creating videos of themselves. These teachers share how they "begin to see higher achievement and success when this type of integration is used effectively" (Edutopia). As it is stated in the video, technology is a tool and it is what you decide to do with it that will determine if it can improve your lesson (Edutopia).

The Michigan Educational Technology Standards for Students were created to help aid teachers integrate technology into their classrooms. One example of an expectations states that by the end of second grade students would be able to “explain ways that technology can be used to solve problems”(PK-2.CT.1.) This type of standard puts the focus back on the learning of how to use the technology rather than using it in conjunction with content based curriculum goals. My hope is that teachers begin to understand the difference between using and integrating. Therefore, we must begin to expose ourselves to multiple ways to use technology across all subject areas.

Each year technology is expanding further and further into our everyday lives. Our students are growing up in this environment and are most often excited to embrace it. As future teachers, we must learn to integrate technology so that it supplements our lessons and gives students an outlet to learn in secondary ways.

Boss, S. (2011, September 11). Technology Integration: A Short History. Retrieved August 26, 2015.

Edutopia. 2012,December 12. An Introduction to Technology Integration.https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLvzOwE5lWqhSgJVgg7VfRkBisbmm-BFUL&v=d59eG1_Tt-Q

Rao, A. (2013, March 29). What’s the Difference Between “Using Technology” and “Technology Integration”? Retrieved August 27, 2015.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/METS_K-2_129581_7.pdf