A topic that I believe truly combines my interests and educational background is technology in education. It is a topic that intrigues me and one that amazes me as time moves on. I believe that in learning more about this topic and writing about it, I would not only be able to enrich my life with knowledge but also other’s lives. It is a topic that brings thousands of web hits and various discussions. They can range from such things as “can technology be effective in today’s education system?” or even simple statements such as, “Technology transforms Education,” from the Cisco website.
CISCO’s CEO, John Chambers, has truly taken a stance and dug into this particular topic. His company has invested time and money to fund projects that bring greater technology into classrooms all over the world. According to one of their brochures, CISCO wants to provide solutions to improve administrative and operational efficiency, enhance safety of students and staff, and engage students with next generation learning tools and technologies. Chambers says that he believes, “that education and technology are the two great equalizers in life.”
There are others who worry more about the effects of using technology in the classroom. They do not see the benefits as CISCO and other companies and people do. Some people are concerned that children will lose their ability to relate to other human beings (New Horizons for Learning). New Horizons for Learning warns that technology used inappropriately can be harmful, but if used appropriately it can be, “a tool for the development of higher order thinking skills.”
There are various ideas about education and technology and how far we should go. Generally speaking, people are for it and believe it can really change education and the classroom. In a blog written by Audrey Watters about the Web in the K-12 classroom, she found that using the web in classrooms has brought down the walls of the so called “classroom”, which has given students a way to access information that goes beyond the print-bound copies of encyclopedias and periodicals that were once the standard for K-12 research projects.
Technology educator Steven Anderson maintains that these technologies “really make the world smaller for our students and show them that they can find the answers they need if we equip them with the tools and resources do to so.” In addition to basically making information more available, real-time technologies including Twitter, Skype, and Google Wave have fashioned the kinds of lessons teachers can generate and the sort of projects they can assign to their students (Watters).
This means that not only does this technology help students, but teachers as well. The Web provides teachers and administrators nearly immediate feedback on lesson plans, leadership skills and instructional practices (Watters). Watters’ says, “To this end, teachers have developed a personal learning network (PLN) primarily via Twitter that helps them with real-time course content and pedagogical issues.” It could be said that by helping teachers, technology is also helping students by providing them with better and even greater lessons.
A neat example of how technology was used in school is a story from Watters’ blog. She says that:
Silvia Tolisano‘s third-grade students found an unidentified animal skeleton on the playground, for example. Rather than taking a picture and enlisting the help of parents or the school librarian, Tolisano uploaded the photo to Twitter, soliciting help from those in her PLN. The skeleton – a raccoon – was identified within a few hours.
This is a great example that when used appropriately, technology can change the way a student learns and be an outlet for greater knowledge and understanding.
Technology also creates the ability to either absorb information or even for student’s to form their own ideas and create different projects, objects and other things. Some insist that the internet and other resources are merely a sponge for students to absorb information, but it does not go beyond that. Elizabeth Corcoran posted a blog about “Makers vs. Sponges” where she argues that this technology can really make “makers” out of children. Corcoran presents a chart that shows different technologies and whether they are sponges or makers. She gives six examples, such as a smart board and Scratch, giving each the title of a sponge or maker and why. She shows that it could be argued that these technologies are sponges for students, but that there are equal amounts of tools that are makers for students.
There are so many options when writing about technology in education. Just a few of the options have been offered here, but I believe that if I continued to search and write about it myself, I would find a tremendous amount of topics and opinions on the subject. From viewing other blogs, it is apparent to me that this is a very current and talked about topic. There are endless amounts of information and ideas on technology in education.
This alone creates an opportunity for not only gaining knowledge, but a giving of knowledge as well. To be able to write a blog that informs people and even possibly changes their minds would be great. I would want to provide relevant and accurate information as well as ideas and insights from professionals. In doing so, I would hope that people would see the usefulness of technology in education and possibly understand how important it can and will be to our students now and in the future.
Works Cited
CISCO: Connected Learning Societies. 2010. Cisco Systems, Inc. 1 July 2010 <http://www.cis-
co.com/web/strategy/education/connected_learning_societies.html?POSITION=SEM&COUNTRY_SITE=us&CAMPAIGN=Education&CREATIVE=Education+Technology&REFERRING_SITE=Google&KEYWORD=technology+in+education>.
Corcoran, Elizabeth. Makers versus Sponges School tech should start with a simple question:
Will students absorb others’ ideas or make their own? 14 June 2010. O’Reilly Radar. 2 July 2010 < http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/06/makers-versus-sponges.html>.
Technology in Education. 2005. New Horizons for Learning. 2 July 2010
<http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/front_tech.htm>.
