Technology in the 21st Century Classroom

            “The twenty-first-century classroom is a connected networked classroom” (Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2014, p.24). This is due to the increasing relevance of technology in education and the involvement of technology in everyday life. Although many schools are enthusiastic about bringing technology into the classroom, there are others who are cautious about it as it can become uncomfortable when students know more about it than teachers. Despite the presence of discomfort, resistance to integrating technology into the classroom can be detrimental to the learning of today’s students (Drake et al., 2014). Technology can be used to improve education by providing support to difficult subjects by integrating the interests of students. It can be useful for making teaching and learning easier by bringing a new and fun aspect to the classroom that enriches and deepens skills and motivates and engages students (Safitry et al., 2015). This can be shown through Blooms Digital Taxonomy which shows through the below pyramid how technology can be implemented through each aspect of education using different tools and websites (Drake et al., 2014).

           With the increasing relevance of technology it is important that teachers are provided with the opportunities to understand how to use developmental technologies in order to create a positive attitude towards them. This can be done through content based workshops that discuss how to integrate tools such as the internet, smartboards, computer simulations and educational software into lesson plans (Acikalin, 2014). It is important to me that teachers are properly trained in the use of these technologies because I did not grow up in a classroom that had access to resources like these. As a future teacher I hope to be able to utilize technology to adapt to my students individual learning needs and to create student interest in subjects they might otherwise not have an interest in. Concordia Online Education discusses five ways SMART boards can be used to improve learning in the classroom. I believe that technology in the classroom is also important because it allows for the use of virtual field trips which connect students to experts and other classrooms around the world. The video below is an example of a twenty-first-century grade one and two classroom that has widely integrated technology into their curriculum. This video shows how bringing technology into the classroom can bring joy to students learning by integrating their interests and providing them with access to material and experts beyond their teacher that would not be available without technology.  

                                                           References

Acikalin, F.S. (2014). Use of instructional technologies in science classrooms: Teachers' perspectives. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 13(2), 197-201.

Drake, S.M., Reid, J.L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment. Don Mills, Canada: Oxford University Press.

Safitry, T.S., Mantoro, T., Ayu, M.A., Mayumi, I., Dewanti, R., & Azmeela, S. (2015). Teachers perspectives and practices in applying technology to enhance learning in the classroom. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 10(3), 10-14. doi:10.3991/ijet.v10i3.4356