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Welcome Class 72!

We will be using this blog to discuss various issues concerning technology in our lives.

You will be responsible for:

1. Writing one article about a technology issue, using any one of the four organizational patterns that we have learned about in class. Your article must contain your conclusions about this issue. You also need to ask either an inferential or evaluative question that your classmates may respond to. You will use the Post feature to add your article to the blog.

2. Responding to at least two of your classmate’s articles using the Better Answers format. You will use the Comment tab at the end of an article to respond to your classmates' questions.


Here is my article and my question that you may respond to. I have used the Problem/Solution organizational pattern.

As our world changes due to rapid advancements in technology, our students’ needs are also changing. Never before has there been a group of students who are able to access unbelievable amounts of information and mass media just by pushing a few buttons. With the technology skills that most students have, there is a great opportunity to use technology in teaching in order to make learning more interesting and interactive. However, sometimes using technology can cause big problems.

One of the problems that teachers encounter is not knowing all that much about technology. In teaching with it, they may find themselves in a situation where there is a good chance that students know more about the technology that is being used than they do. This requires a change in the traditional role of the teacher. It is a movement from expert to facilitator or leader, and a shift that may involve an uncomfortable loss of control. From my perspective, the solution is to be honest with students and tell them exactly what is going on. Also, there are many technology related inservices that teachers can attend to learn more.

Related to the issue of not being an expert, there is the issue of potential ‘landmines’ that may arise in the course of learning a new way of teaching. With the traditional way of teaching, most teachers figure out fairly quickly what catastrophic issues may arise. However, with something new, they never know exactly what may arise. One thing that I learned this morning was that even with the filters and blocks that we have on our system at school, it is possible to access blogs with inappropriate content. The solution that I put in place this morning was to tell students what was inappropriate content, and to provide the message that my expectation is that they would stay away from it at all times. I learned that I will have to deal with the ‘landmines’ as they arise.

Lastly, and perhaps the worst problem that teachers encounter using technology at school is the availability of it. Our server is so slow and dated that it often makes working with technology cumbersome. Another issue is the fact that there is not enough equipment. The computer lab at our school is used regularly, and it can be very difficult to book it on short notice. One way around this is to plan ahead. Another way is to allocate fundraising money toward improving technology in the school. We could work toward providing a traveling mini lab (laptops on a cart that could be booked out to classes) with wireless networking provided.

These are just a few of the problems that teachers may encounter upon trying to incorporate more technology into their programs. However, as technology has evolved, I don’t think that there is much choice, if we are to meet the needs of our students and keep them engaged in learning.

Question: If every student had a laptop and wireless internet access, do you think that student learning would increase? Why or why not?