I find myself siding with portions of several areas of thought on Technology in Education. Education can not be defined in one broad statement, or one overarching theme, I think that to be truly successful as an educator, we need to be versatile and adaptive to the changes that are occurring in society and mold our classrooms to fit those new needs.
Education should do many things, it should prepare our learners for their future, make them reflective of their past, and help them navigate the present. Our job is to make our students successful societal participants, and learners who value their education, and strive to continue it. Having an education is a privilege that we are so lucky to be given free. As Educators we need to make our students aware of our pasts and what happened that helped to make us the society that we are today, and how we have grown from those things and can continue to grow. To help them navigate their present we need to give them the tools that will allow them to be successful individuals and understand the societal norms and acceptable rules. Finally, to prepare them to their futures we need to impart the knowledge that will allow them to function in the “real world” by being productive and successful citizens and hold knowledgeable conversations. Part of this preparing them for the future is educating them in technology, in it’s history, in it’s applications, in it’s benefits, and finally in how technology can help lead us to new problem-solving techniques for our futures.
The learner of technological education needs to be ready and willing to learn, adaptive to change, and open to new people and ideas. Our students, or learners, are mostly all ready and willing to be taught by us, however when we fall back into our automaticity and old ways, we lose our students. We can not, as educators, ask any more of them than we are willing to give.
The role of the teacher in technological education is the same as it is for the students, they need to be ready and willing to learn, adaptive to change, and open to new people and ideas. Technology is ever changing, faster and faster with each coming year. We as educators are expected to grow and change with the times. Our learners are not the same as we were, they learn at faster paces, in more highly engages ways, and through multiple facets, we as educators need to be ready to learn how to reach our learners using the technology that is an everyday part of our learners’ lives. If we are to stick to the same old “tried and true” techniques that we have been using over the years, they will become less “true” because we will begin to lose our learners and be moving backwards in the education of our students.
Through research I believe that education should emphasize knowledge construction and focus on authentic tasks that will have meaningful context later on. Education should be collaborative and should focus on higher-level thinking, this aligns with the Constructivism field of thought, however I do agree that a teacher should be a strong leader who can go back and check for understanding of their students often. Yet, when looking into the Pragmatics field of though I also agree that ideas and facts should be applied in real world problems and should have value, that problem solving skills should be used to attack problem, and that even social situations can be solved using this skills. I find myself agreeing that we need to become “teachers” of our students and not merely “trainers” of our students. We need to teach our students to think, that part of our goal in teaching needs to be the How To Think, not merely the first this, then this, and finally this, but the WHY this works, and the HOW this works. All areas of a students life need to be incorporated into the schooling, if you can make those connections to the world outside of our four walls, the student is more likely to hold onto and value what you say. If we teach it to them in the ways that information is presented to them in the real-world, it will also be of more importance and reliability to them. The Pragmatics believe in flexibility in learning and focuses on the motivation of the learner and what they want to learn, I do agree that we need to focus on the students interests, but where I stray from this field of thought is in the fact that there are some of the basics that still need to be taught regardless of want or need. All students learn in different ways, so as an educator we need to be prepared and present our knowledge in varied techniques, with technology being a must, kinesthetically being incorporated, along with the traditional reading and writing. The action-oriented view of Pragmatics reminds me of the Love and Logic techniques that my district currently uses with our students. I believe that sometimes the method in which we learn is as important in what we are learning, being a Science teacher the Scientific Method is a huge part of our curriculum and we especially focus on how sometimes and wrong answer can still be right., which correlates with the Pragmatic and Realistic schools of thought.
My goal is to impart the necessary knowledge to my students to make them successful in life. Whether it be in further education, in their professional careers, or as a socially adept individual. I currently correspond with my students via email, blogging, social networking and my whatever means the student is most “fluent” with. I would like to become more aware of Web 2.O technological tools, such as wikis etc. and utilized them more often in my classroom. Using technology, I hope to become an informator of technology and knowledge and not an automator of technology and knowledge. I will change with the times, gladly, and hopefully in turn my learners will grow and change and gain the needed knowledge to make them successful.
I expect that as an educator I should grow and change with the times, that my colleagues should be as willing to do the same, and that my learners will come prepared, to the best of their capabilities to learn what we have to share. Educators need to be willing to help each other to benefit the learning community as a whole and I will always do any and everything that will benefit the future of my students, and my communities’ students.
Technology in education has a growing responsibility, and we as educators have the same responsibility. We need to be ready and willing to change, to grow, and to move forward. Through meaningful relationships, hands on learning, real-world content and activities and technology integration though each and every activity, we will truly grasp this new day and age, and reach our learners in their new “native tongues”.
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