I believe that it is very important to incorporate technology in the classroom. Technology is around us and part of our everyday lives and as a teacher, if I include and teach in ways that my students experience everyday life, I believe that they will have a higher chance at success; which of course is ultimately my goal as a teacher: to prepare and help my students succeed!
Some of the benefits for me as well as my students include the constant modern ideas and activities that can be applied inside and outside the classroom, lesson plans, experiments, and projects. Technology is constantly changing and becoming more advanced, so why shouldn’t the classroom be one of the places to embrace this concept? With technology, students have the opportunity to explore new ideas, express their understanding of the content in a variety of unique ways, and learn through different mediums that were not as readily available with the paper, pencil, and blackboard style of learning. As a teacher, incorporating technology can make our lives more efficient, more organized, and in some ways, faster. It opens many doors to lesson ideas, activities, and creativity. With office programs, the large amount of paper work we need to hold becomes quicker and more organized.
Although technology is a great tool to use, it does have some challenges. Some of these include: the availability of this technology within the school district, sometimes there are glitches in different systems, and some families in the school district may not have the money to supply the technology at home that needs to be carried over to the home.
The most important lesson that I learned and will take with me from taking this class is that never limit myself, expand my horizons, and to not fear technology! Coming in the class, technology and I had some rough patches where we did not agree, and I feared it, but now, I know that it is possible for us to be friends. I want to include technology often in my classroom because it makes learning more interesting and fun and I want my students to remember my class and to retain all of the information that they can. I want to relay these beliefs onto my students because I want them to explore technology and use it in their own creative ways.
