Friday, July 23, 2010
TRADITIONALISTS AND TECHNOLOGY
Now that I am doing this course in information technology I believe that teachers would soon have to change the look of contemporary classrooms as we know it. Interactive technology tools such as laptops would soon have to be an integral part of every classroom. As teachers we would have to re look the way in which we teach and learn. We would have to make the learning environment in the classroom more stimulating and exciting by the introduction of interactive technologies. there might be teachers who are not interested in using technology and might resist change. These are the traditionalists who might believe that they have been teaching for years without using technology and have been successful so far. I believe that the Ministry of Education should implement a program of studies to train teachers in best online teaching practices to support teaching and learning. Regardless of students' technological skills and digital competence it is the teachers' technological skills that is the key factor in determining how much value a student gets out of classroom technology. I feel that if we cannot beat the technology we might as well join it.
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Heather you have certainly made an important point. Whether traditionalists like it or not technology is here to stay and has already infiltrated every aspect of their lives. I predict that in the not too distant future, pedagogical practices as we know it will be phased out and be supported by technology in every way. It is already happening in some of our successful secondary schools e.g. Bishop's Anstey High School.
ReplyDeleteAs educators who know the benefits of using technology in the classroom we have to get traditionalists at our respective schools on board. We have to show and convince them that it works. Even if it means to show them how to use one tool at a time. We also have to explain to them that technology use is necessary as our learners today learn in an entirely different way.
If we cannot convince them, there is hope yet. Our teaching population is becoming younger and younger and soon our teaching population would consist of "digital natives" themselves who are willing to embrace the technology in the classroom because that is what they are accostomed to.
So it's either they get on board or be phased out eventually. Technology is here to stay!!!