The Importance Of Technology In Education

Computers have first become widely adopted educational technology since the 1980’s in the schools across the United States. Consequently, technology has become part of teacher accreditation and is being integrated ubiquitously into the areas of faculty development, student academics, curriculum design, and resource allocation.

As technology continues to advance and teaching methods progress, a commitment to continuous learning and applying knowledge, as well as acquiring new skills, is crucial for continuous career and institutional growth. Most importantly, what this comprehensive growth plan stresses is that individual professional growth is not an individual venture. The professional success of an individual also requires a commitment to learning and collaboration from fellow colleagues, their organization, and fellow professionals. Therefore, this comprehensive professional growth plan has four interrelated outcomes, which are based on the four outcomes for enhanced student learning by Loucks-Horsley, Stiles, Mudnry, Love, and Hewson (2010, p. 161):

Satterfield (2014) participates in numerous professional development trainings, she gained new theories and techniques every day. She states that we can develop ourselves everyday with today’s technology if we are willing to deal with it. She participated in twitter-chat by exploring with others to discuss and identify the challenges they faced in school.

In the ITEC 7460 Professional Learning and Technology Innovation course, I completed an Individual Teacher Technology Assessment using Knight’s (2007), Partnership Approach. In this artifact, I was able to assess and coach a colleague in integrating instructional technology. Throughout our partnership, I was able to keep a coaching journal to record what I had learned, discuss the challenges that I faced, the coaching strategies that I used, and the impact of technology integration.

In the article, “Technology Instruction: Fixing the Disconnect,” the authors state that schools that do not adapt to teaching with these new technologies that surround students outside of the classroom reflect “a decline in school’s relevancy to students’ futures” (Larson, Kuhn, Collins, Balthazor, Ribble & Miller, 2009, p. 55). In order to prepare teachers to meet the needs of today’s students, schools need to provide teachers with support from a technology specialist who also understands “the art of teaching” and how to transform curriculum with technology (p. 56). Teachers need to not only learn how to use the technology but also be willing to rethink how they teach and manage the classroom (p. 57). Allan Collins

Jenny Arledge, a first grade teacher in Valparaiso, Indiana states, “Technology can become the ‘wings’ that will allow the educational world to fly farther and faster than ever before—if we will allow it.” In today’s society, technology is all around us and ever changing, especially in schools. Technology can help give students a better education by allowing more opportunities for learning. Some people claim that technology is a distraction from learning and that it is more negative than beneficial, but this is not true because technology helps students learn more than they would ever be able to. Without technology students would not have the opportunity to learn to their potential. Although technology has its drawbacks, schools should consider how technology helps schools change in preparation for the future, allows students to retain new information, and increases interaction and communication.

Stewart, Bachman and Babb (2009) found that online teacher training delivered a massive conventional teaching

Another way to stimulate professional growth is lead discussions about the relative merits of current and alternative practices (OLF 2.3.2). While a school principal may formally engage in this leadership activity during a staff meeting or professional development day, the infrequent nature of these types of sessions may not be enough to support the ongoing professional growth many teachers desire. In an attempt to fill this leadership gap, many tech-enabled teachers have turned to Twitter as a source of weekly professional development sessions that provide them with an opportunity to discuss promising

“Each year a committee of educators who are identified by principals and others as technology leaders in their schools are chosen to help with the on-going development, implementation, and evaluation of the District Technology Improvement Plan. The composition of the committee reflects

Many researchers and educators try to describe the purpose of PLNs for teachers (e.g., Couros, 2010; Flanigan, 2011; Powerful Learning Practice, 2012; Trust, 2012), but there is no agreed-upon definition. PLNs have been described as “networks of fellow educators and resources” (Catapano, n.d.), total of social capital and connections. (Couros, 2010), and online communities that facilitate sharing of lesson plans, strategies of teaching, and student work, as well as cooperation base on grade levels and departments (Flanigan, 2011).

Increasing technology in the classroom prevails as the “buzz” words on every school campus. Because teachers are preparing

This literature review was started in an effort to examine the question: Does online professional development provide a better learning environment and opportunity for involvement? Professional development is critical for educators to have opportunities to keep up to date on research, technology, curriculum, and personal

The professional development of teachers should be an important objective for school administrators, since teachers affect student lives daily. Understandably, teachers are required to receive formal training and certification, based primarily on subject matter content, communication skills, classroom management abilities, and student interaction. An important consideration is the professional development training that teachers receive and the method used to deliver the training. Of course, there is the traditional face-to-face method, but with organizations, seeking ways to reduce training cost and travel expenses technology is an effective alternative for training. Technology implementation increased to reach the needs of teacher

Malcom X once said, “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Today, technology has impacted classrooms in many beneficial ways, but there is always a demand for answers of how it will change education next. Modern education has learned to collaborate with technology to achieve better results for the future generations. By taking a step toward improving education and new system has been used to track a student’s progress in school and relay it back to the parents via automated text message. Long before there were smartphones, it was a student’s responsibility to ensure their parents about their progress in their studies. However, frequent communication between parents and teachers about the child’s academic performance to be a vital component to their education. Automated school notifications can improve a student’s overall development by allowing the parents to be more involved, an increase in the student’s performance and GPA, and providing an easy form communication between the parent and school.

Technology involves using tools to solve problems. From the perspective of a teacher, technology helps present information to students. A smart board or a Promethean board is a form of technology that helps present materials during a lesson. Students with visual impairments and visual learners benefit from the usage of smart boards and Promethean boards. For example, while doing observations for a second-grade class I noticed a teacher using an electronic version of their math textbook. Students had their textbooks out and the teacher had it up on the smart board so that they could all work on problems together. When I was in elementary school there were only black boards. However, I did take computer classes all throughout elementary school and all my classrooms had computer centers. I was not exposed to a smartboard until I reached middle school. One goal of adding the smart boards was to make both students and students more technologically savvy. Another goal was to increase the interaction and interest of students within the classroom. Midway through the seventh-grade, the classrooms got Promethean boards. At first, they were confusing to use, but by the time the year ended I was able to use them, so I achieved the goal of being more technologically savvy. Despite the initial confusion, they were fun to use in the classroom. My reading teacher would get electronic books and put them on the board as we read a story. At the end of a unit, this teacher would create Jeopardy