Using Passive Learning With Limited Opportunities For Student Interaction

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.

During Couros's presentation, he asked us to think about whether we would want to be a student in our classrooms. This question is a compelling one to consider, and it is one that must be regarded as every day. Are there days when we need to use direct instruction to disseminate knowledge? Absolutely. At the same time, this question made me think about how I vary instruction, differentiate, and promote student engagement each day. Students,

It is usual for teachers to use technology in classrooms today. Technology is a great tool to use for teachers to teach and for students to learn. However, that does not mean technology is always being used appropriately. By using technology, the way we choose problems and how we present them change (Goldenberg, 2000). In Goldenberg’s article, he discusses the six principles for effective use of technology in the classroom. These principles are, the genre principle, the purpose principle, the answer vs. analysis principle, the who does the thinking principle, the change content carefully principle, and the fluent tool use principle.

Active learning strategies consist of a large and different variety of activities that share the common factors of involving students in thinking about the knowledge and information they are doing (Bonwell & Eison 1991). These strategies are used to engage students in critical thinking, communication with peers, expressing ideas, exploring their own attitudes and values, giving and receiving feedback, and reflecting on the learning process. These strategies are done with the students inside or outside the class, completed by working as individuals or in groups, and can be done with or without the use of technology. When the instructors use active learning strategies, they will typically spend more time in helping students developing their

Very often, people understand this term to mean computer, but technology itself is just as diverse as its applications. It certainly applies to the use of computers in education, but educational technology expands greatly beyond this one application, to video production, distance learning, smart classrooms and a wide range of additional applications. “Each type of technology has different uses and fulfills different learning goals” (Critical Issue: Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement). Being that technology is a difficult word to clearly define, it is best to define specific technologies by the basis of their application rather than by one vague generalization.

In his book, Foundations of Educational Technology: Integrative Approaches and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Michael Spector explains, “It is not sufficient for a teacher or trainer to understand the use of a technology. What is essential for effective learning and instruction is for a teacher or trainer to understand how to best integrate the use of a technology to achieve instructional goals pertaining to a subject area with a group of learners” (Spector, 2012). PAGE NUMBER

It is crucial that students are not just being educated in only one way. Each child is different; as a result, learning styles should be versatile and open to new strategies. By learning to use technology correctly, teachers are preparing themselves, and the students for the future by developing certain skills that will be essential in the 21st century. Besides developing the students’ technology skills, students will

It’s amazing to think of technology as this worldwide device that every one in every school, house or occupation can grab a hold of. It is devastating to imagine that not every student has all abilities to grasp some education that as been taught by the end of the day. If every student, could wrap themselves around technology today, portraying uniqueness in the way we as society learn as a whole, then technology as viewed today would be similar to an image of parents, only away from home or teacher absent from lecture. Technology today allows us to express our views freely and continue in education forever with the sense being, we learn from technology every day when used. Information technology isn’t a piece of evidence that can be pointed out or highlighted as proof of reality but simply a piece if evidence that most people question, is it’s “genetic makeup” covered or slowly revealed especially in education.

After researching multiple educational articles on technology, most seem to stress the importance of using a variety of strategies in the classroom. Teachers

This paper discusses the advantages and limitations of technology as a learning tool by drawing and reflecting upon an experience wherein it was assimilated into curriculum. In this paper, pedagogy refers to ‘the art and science of educating children…in order to foster good learning outcomes’ (Teaching Australia, 2008, as cited in Marsh, Clark & Pittaway, 2015a, p. 1), while teaching/learning approaches refers to the ‘general principles, pedagogy and management strategies used for classroom instruction’ (Learning styles: All students are created equally (and differently),

Today’s students are more tech-savvy than ever before. “It’s almost like they are programed to learn differently than traditional past methods” (Wainwright, 2015). Having technology in the classroom does not necessarily replace a great teacher, but a combination of a great teacher and a classroom with technology usage can result in great education. “It is important to intergrade technology in the classroom since it has become so integral to the world outside of the classroom and todays students are accustomed to in” (Wainwright, 2015). Since most of our students coming into our classroom have had technology in their hands since they were very young, it is only natural that we as teachers must continue the use of allowing technology in our classrooms to keep our students engaged in what we are teaching. “When we’re engaged in something, we do better at it. That’s as true of learning as it is anything else: an engaged student is more likely to learn and succeed than a disengaged one” (Teacherkit, 2015). According to Visual Teaching Alliance, 70% of the population is visual learners which explain why our students in our classrooms prefer to learn through pictures and video verses words and speech. Describing things in words isn’t always a very effective method to teaching our today students; however, adding video clips to explain concepts creates a much clearer picture for our students and is more entertaining. Our students are social and love being a part of a

Technology also provides new resources for learning the overcome distance and time. The addition of this valuable tool, technology into our education system is a slow process, that one single idea of how to use technology in education, that one soon becomes noted as a meaningful addition and so more curriculum.

Media and technology can be one type of channel ortoolbox to enhance the learning environment, but I believe that they are not the only solution for achieving our educational goals. McLuhan (1964) proposed the idea that medium is the message and the four-tiered questions to evaluate new technology when we think about applying it: “what does it extend?”; “what does it make obsolete?”; “what is retrieved?” and “what does the technology revert into if it is over-extended?”. I believe that if we seriously rethink those questions before we determine what kind of technology we will use to improveour teaching, it will lead us to a more neutral decision.

The use of technology has the ability to allow teachers to teach the student, instead of teaching the grade level. Jon Bower, CEO of Lexia Learning Systems, points this fact out when he states,

Resources. Although ICT plays an important role, today, in implementing their teaching techniques, most lecturers think that it is not essential. Student engagement and learning by doing is important. For implementing studio type activity and sharing, active learning is important.