Pay Attention

   This is worth watching the entire 7 minutes and 45 seconds of video.  You never realize how much we have in our pockets and at home when you stop and think about how much technology we are using today.  I remember in high school, cell phone use was prohibited and it was frowned upon to use any musical devices outside of band or choir.  As this video explains, why can't we use the items we are given before us to help teach our students using something we are so familiar with?  The video throws out a statistic that only 39% of students "believe that school work will have any bearing on their success in later life."  It's sad to admit but I was one of the 61% who always questioned "When will I ever need to know this when I get older?  I don't think it'll be useful to me later in life."  While some of the things I did learn in high school helped, I would have to say that a lot of it that I learned has not given me much to help me later in life.
   I never thought of using a cell phone in a class to learn let alone an iPod or music player.  I even forgot that in this class, we use our cell phones to take surveys while in class.  It gives me an idea by using iPods and music players later in life, have students listen to their music and come up with a poem or short story of their music.  To make it more interesting, have them look up a few lyrics from each song and come up with a story or poem that fits.  It can be silly or serious but it's something that can incorporate technology into the classroom, no matter how small the technology device is.

Technology in the Classroom: Helpful or Harmful?

Technology in the Classroom: Helpful or Harmful?

   Is technology helping or hurting our children in today's society?  How can we as teachers incorporate something like technology in the learning experience in our classroom to make it the best and most productive while students still learn the material?

   What comes to my mind while I read this article is all the learning games that I used to play on the computer as a child.  I used to play Jumpstart when I was in first grade and I moved on to math and puzzle games when I was in 5th grade.  I even remember using Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing all through my middle school years and I also remember how much I felt that typing as fast as you could was a waste of time in a computer class.

   Not only do some subjects have a harder time integrating technology into the classroom the older students get, it's sometimes unnecessary and a waste of time.  While using the computer or other devices to get work done, it could also hurt the student's performance in the class rather than if it wasn't brought into the class.  There are many days in my life where I question if it is worth my class time to be on this computer when I have nothing that I could possibly do but play simple computer games or look up answers to homework problems that I had.

  I feel that when I become a teacher in the near future, I will find a way to incorporate technology into my classroom but it will be tough to keep students on task.  I know when I was younger, I had a hard time staying on task while seated in front of a computer screen.  So while there are pluses and minuses to having technology in the classroom, we need to remember that we need to treat technology as a tool that can be used to better help our children learn.