Educational discoveries

I have just completed reading an article that completely explains my personal experiences of the use of technology in the classroom. This article ‘ Stuffing technology into the curriculum‘ explains clearly how teachers have been forced to push technology in the classroom but have quite often not understood how to integrate it correctly and so end up using technology that is rather useless at enhancing the lesson or tacking onto free time educational computer games.

This is how I have seen technology used within my own primary schooling and also in my last practicum, where the teacher was so afraid of technology that she herself refused to have anything to do with it and therefore left the teaching of any technological skills to the part time computer teacher. One aspect of the article that particularly challenged me was the consideration of technological tools to be used in the classroom. Tools should not be chosen and then forced into the curriculum regardless of it’s practicality or suitability to the lesson. Instead the teacher should first clarify learning goals and then consider and research how technological tools will enhance the learning experience for the students.  Technology use within the classroom must be purposeful and challenging for the students rather than just slapped into the lesson in the form of a boring powerpoint presentation or left for a student’s free time.