The Importance Of International Society For Technology In Education

When the author of this paper began teaching seven years ago, there was a huge push for technology integration into schools. Educators were slowly weaning off of overheads and transparencies as a means to deliver content to their students. Now, many of these “old school” tools have been replaced with interactive whiteboards, one-to-one devices and computers. With the adoption of this technological push, educators are now open to a wider range of educational resources and tools used to educate their students.

The use of technology in the classroom is an important tool to utilize as an educator. Technology allows for educators to have instant access to a plethora of resources that would not be available if technology was not used in the classroom. Teachers have the ability to plan lessons, create presentations, and have interactive games for students to use as a learning tool through the use of different digital devices. Modern day technology is rapidly advancing and providing teacher with many different tools to use in the classroom to enhance the students learning experience.

Technology of the past 20 years has become a focal point of teaching and learning. As a teacher, it is my job to facilitate the learning for an individual by creating an environment that not only conducive for learning, but also places the child in a position to discover and learn them for themselves. Technology has given teachers to opportunity to take learning beyond the classroom, and has begun to reshape their role in the learning process.

Teachers can use technology within the classroom to assist with providing instructional guidance and education to students. However, the use of technology in the classroom has both its advantages and

In the articles “What Is The Future Of Technology In Education?” by Matt Britland and “New Class(room) War: Teacher vs Technology” by Samuel G. Freedman, two different viewpoints are expressed toward technology integration education. The authors show the implications of technology on the attitudes of teachers and students. Britland and Freedman agree that technology and theoretical framework are two inseparable facets but propose different solutions to the actions that should be taken to result in pedagogical expertise.

Although teachers have been the key persons who have played the most crucial role of introducing technology into learning, school administrators who serve as instructional leaders indirectly impact students’ learning environment. The administrators could enhance the instructional technology advancement by collaborating with teachers, providing training and resources,

Demski, J. (2012, June; 2013/11). The seven habits of highly effective tech-leading principals: Un wrapping the key attributes that transform principals into effective technology leaders in their schools and in their districts. T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 39 (5), 48-55Dexter, S. (2011). School technology leadership: Artifacts in systems of practice. Journal of School Leadership, 21,

One of the main focuses of my time as an instructional specialist has been to increase the amount of technology that is integrated into the classroom and used by the students. I believe we have been very successful in increasing the technology usage of both our staff and students over the past three years. We have focused on moving from substitutionary use of technology in the classroom to transformational use. I am very pleased with the progress of the staff in learning how to use the new technology, both hardware and software, and then adapting their classrooms to put those pieces of technology into the hands of the students. I believe it has been an eye-opening experience for the staff to see what the students are capable of producing. I rated most of the standards on the ISTE as a 3 or 4 in importance because I truly believe that as educators we have a responsibility to put or students in the best possible situations to compete in both the career and college arenas against their peers. That means exposing them to technology in as many relevant ways as possible. Many times this pushes teachers outside their comfort zones which can be scary, but also leads to growth and increased capacity within your staff. I feel as a leader it is my responsibility to further my knowledge in regards to technology as teachers look to their administration to set the examples for behavior and expectations within the

In general, most K–12 academic settings today utilizes technology for educational and non-academic use (Helms, 2014). Researchers agree that budgeting can share a significant impact on classroom technology integration because many schools do not have the funds to pay for teacher training and all of the cost associated with maintaining technology resources (Blackwell, 2014; Chou et al., 2012; Helms, 2014). The lack of adequate technology training, support and funding can also influence teachers’ attitudes (Kirkwood et al, 2014). A gap appears to exit in empowering teachers with technology skills to implement an interactive learning experience for all learning styles (Helms, 2014).

Acceptance among teacher has been a key factor in successful or unsuccessful technology implementation. Historically, the structure of the American education system has been resistant to any kind of change (Collins & Halverson, 2009). According to Blackwell, Lauricella, and Wartella (2014) teachers with more teaching experience have less favorable attitudes towards technology and use technology less often than teachers with less experience. Districts are making efforts to provide technology for students. The problem that McDermott and Murray (2000) found was despite access to technology, students and teachers were not using it. This could be attributed to many different factors.

Chapter four talks about upgrading technology. The books talk about educators adding technology into the classroom. Technology is being used to transform classrooms. Even though the use of technology is suggested or required from teachers some fail to reiterate it into their curriculum (Johnson,2012, pg.83). This is due to confusion or some being scared to try something new. Instead some stick to the familiar such as using technology for communicating with parents, recording grades and attendance. The lack of usage in technology sometimes has to do with lack of resources (Johnson,2012, pg.83).

"The study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources." Richey (2008, p. 24)

The Digital Citizenship Unit was designed to encourage students to access information from a variety of sources to form a claim statement about an issue that is pertinent to their lives. Because these are struggling students, it was important to pick a topic that had direct relevance to the students and would interest them. The subject of the unit also aligned with regular level Sophomore English, as determined by my Course Learning Team, which allowed my students to complete similar formative and summative assessments to the regular level course. The instructional goals of this unit were to identify evidence from a variety of texts, use evidence to support an arguable claim, and produce a final written essay that conveyed a strong argument

Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use. It also refers to a person utilizing information technology (IT) in order to engage in society, politics, and government participation. A concept that teacher’s, students, parents, community members and all technology users learn about the appropriate and responsible use of the technology. In today’s society, technology is something that is all around us. Everywhere we look we either see someone on his or her phone, tablet, or laptop. Now in the twenty first century, toddlers know how to navigate a cell phone better than some adults. Kids do not go outside and play anymore like they use to, because of the accessible technology today. With so many people frequently using technology, it is no surprise that there is a lot of misusing and abusing of the digital world. It is important to be a good digital citizen by learning to communicate safely with digital communication, Digital health and wellness, and protect ourselves being aware of digital security.

The plan only directly cited the ISTE standards once. However, it had evidence of the some of the guidelines. It included evidence for the five ISTE administrator standards (Visionary Leadership, Digital Citizenship, Systemic Improvement, Professional Practice and Digital Age Learning), but was weak in including components of the student and teacher standards. For example, administrators would utilize the Digital Age Learning standard by using of Moodle as a web-based content management system for delivering professional development; however, it did not include ways that teachers would incorporate tools and resources to maximize learning in their classrooms. I