Technology Use in the Classroom

My personal experience with technology classroom is not very diverse. From elementary school throughout high school, the only technology that was really used were computers, the Internet, Microsoft Powerpoint/Office, and the occassional LCD projector. My least fondest memory of using technology in the classroom was in my senior year of high school. I was taking Allied Health III and IV, which were both part of my Allied Health major (my high school required that all students have a major that lasted for the last three years of school). I had the same teacher for both classes and the classes were scheduled back-to-back with one another. My teacher liked to give us projects once a week, in which we had to give a PowerPoint presentation every Friday on a current event article that related to our lesson for the week. My teacher gave the instructions that the PowerPoints were not to have anny graphics or audio or anything fancy. The actual PowerPoint had to be completely bare with the exception of the information you included. We did these PowerPoints every week up until graduation week. We would always put the PowerPoint presentations together on Thursday afternoon. We would be given two, ninety minute periods to complete our presentations.

First of all, I think this was an inappropriate way to present current event articles. I think that it would have been more acceptable for the students to give a regular oral presentation of the article and to submit a written copy of the summary. Secondly, nobody was able to enjoy doing the PowerPoints because we were not able to put any of our own creativity into it. Our teacher had us complete PowerPoint presentations every week because he said that he did not enjoy grading papers and it was easier for him to just write down a grade for our presentations. The manner in which he incorporated technology into the classroom was completely inappropriate.

I think that technology definitely does have a place in the classroom, but only if it is going to be used in an appropriate manner. Teachers need to realize that there is a time and a place for everything and certain technologies need to be incorporated into the lesson at appropriate times. Being a student myself, I know that I hate when a teacher bombards students with the same routine over and over again. Acitivties such as projects typically are created to stimulate the creativity of the students. If a teacher always puts the same restrictions on what the student cannot use for technology in their projects, students are going to become very disengaged from the classroom. It is important for students to be able to use a variety of technology in the classroom to learn and help to express their creativity and ideas. In my opinion, both as a student and a future teacher, technology should not be meant to reduce the amount of work that the teacher has to do. Technology should and can be used in a way that enhances learning. I think that many teachers misuse technology in the classroom because they have the notion that technology is supposed to replace teaching. I think that technology should be used in the classroom, but only in such a way that students can really pull something from it and never feel that any piece of technology is too over or underused.