Although most teachers would agree that integrating technology into the classroom is beneficial to student learning, most teachers have not actually achieved this in their teaching. In fact, for most teachers, technology's greatest impact on teaching comes in the form of preparation and communication tools while instructional tools are left out. There are many reasons why this occurs; however, it is obvious that teachers must make an effort to shift technology out of their hands and into the hands of their students on a regular basis if they want to make the most use of their resources.
According to a study by Russell (2003) most teachers use technology for preparing materials and for communicating while few have mastered actualy integration into their curriculum. What was most interesting about this study was that the youngest, most technology savvy teachers were the ones who actually used technology the least in their actual teaching. Even though this is at first suprising, it actually kind of makes sense. Finding ways to use technology in your own life is easy, but creating great lessons that use technology in a meaningful way means that you have to plan a whole different aspect into your teaching. While young teachers may be the most comfortable with teaching, they are probably the least experienced teachers, gennerally speaking. In order for teachers to be the most successful at integrating technology into their classrooms, I think that they must be comfortable with technology and with experimenting with new types of lessons.
When technology is being used in the classroom, there are many areas where it can be integrated into the curriculum. According to our class text, the six categories of technology that most applications fall into are word processing, spreadsheet software, organizing and brainstorming software, multimedia, data collection tools, web resources, and communication software (Pilter, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski 2007). By utilizing all six different types of applications and coming up with daily ways to integrate technology into curriculum, it is possible to extend student learning by capturing their attention, presenting the information, and allowing them to take control of their own learning.
References:
Russell M (2003). Examining Teacher Technology Use : Implications for Preservice and Inservice Teacher Preparation. Journal of Teacher Education. 54 (4), 297-310.
Pitler, H., Hubbel, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.
Wow. It is surprising what the Russell study concluded. Thanks for including information from the Pitler book, too.
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