Monthly Archives: February 2012

No, I do not have the answer. Wish I did. But I do have some thoughts:

Let me explain. I think technology can be used to teach in many ways to promote different types of learning. Is a collaborative environment with students sharing multiple views the best way to teach new, absolute content? There are certain situations that require students to learn the basic “truths.” Teaching collaboratively could be time consuming and confusing.

Specifically in a math classroom (in my math classroom) I have experienced the failure of certain pedagogies (Behaviourism?) in making the link between content and application of that content. Here, I think, students could benefit from constructing their own knowledge and sharing their ideas once the very basics are understood.

In response to Kozma (2003) who suggests that classrooms should be reorganized into collaborative learning environments focused on knowledge building, I say sure. Students will benefit from this type of learning once the foundation of knowledge is laid. Disregarding what we already have that ‘works’ with regard to teaching methods could be a mistake.

Reference

Kozma, R. B. (2003). Technology and classroom practices: An international study. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 36(1), pp. 1-14.

There is still a lot of debate over using technology in the classroom. But first we need to come to some sort of agreement of what we understand Educational Technology to be. I tend to agree with Muffoletto’s definition that “Technology…is not a collection of machines and devices, but a way of acting” (Roblyer & Doering, 2010, p. 6). Of course the “machines and devices” are part of it but much more is necessary. Careful selection of the tools must be made. Attention must be paid to the way they are then used in the classroom. Technology can be used simply to transmit knowledge from teacher to learner but it affords much more than that. Teachers can, and should, use technology by incorporating teaching techniques that maximize or reach its full potential. This opens up a whole new debate. Do we need to create a new pedagogy for teaching with technology or will some of the already established ones work?

Reference

Roblyer, M.D. & Doerring, A. (2010). Integrating educational technology into teaching, (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Interviewing teachers about their use and thoughts on using technologies in the classroom was a rewarding experience. So much of what was said resonates with me and many of the same issues were brought to light by other MET students. How do we really know if using technology improves student learning? If there is no clear improvement then why bother using it? Maybe there is a “right” way to implement technologies in order to make them ‘work’ better? There are so many questions that could and should be explored more fully but the one that stands out for me is that of “proving that technology works.” Since this particular question is likely too broad and fuzzy to answer, I will focus on finding out if technologies can be used to improve motivation in a higher education (post-secondary) science or math classroom. Increased motivation should lead to improvements in performance and assessments, I think?