Most of my ten things are in question form, and a couple are in statement form.
1. Why does technology change so rapidly? Schools purchase technology items for teaching, such as iPads. Next thing you know the iPad 2 is out, and iPad is outdated. Schools can't afford to keep up with all the technology advancements.
2. What will educational technology look like in twenty years? Educational technology looks very different now than it did twenty years ago. How much will it change in another twenty years?
3. Will online classes ever become more mainstream that traditional classes? I first heard of online classes when I was in high school (just 6 short years ago), and I thought that sounded crazy. Now here I am doing my entire masters program online.
4. There seems to be no solid definition to educational technology. We all defined eductional technology in our own way, and we built an "Educational Technology is..." map with ideas that just kept growing.
5. Kids today must be exposed to a lot of technology before they even begin school. My librarian is also the librarian at another school in the district. She is at my school every other day. She told me last week that she was teaching mouse skills to the kindergarteners at her other school, and it seemed to her that many of them had never really used a mouse. She said they wanted to touch the screen or put the mouse on the screen. She said they must be used to using iPads.
6. How do most older teachers feel about educational technology today? I would think it would be difficult to change the way the they teach after teaching so long with limited technology.
7. Are kids more interested and engaged when using technology tools in the classroom? When I was in school it was exciting to use technology tools, such as laptops. Now technology is used a lot more regularly. Are they excited about the technology, or is it just everyday school work to them?
8. Will Kindles replace library books in the future? Since I've started this program my dad has asked me that question several times. I tell him I don't know, but it's definitely a possibility.
9. How popular is the flipped classroom concept? I've never heard of it outside this program. Statistics show that it is very successful.
10. Are there still many classrooms that don't have an interactive whiteboard, such as a Smart Board? My hometown just built a brand new elementary school, and they have Promethean Boards, but the old elementary schools that it replaced still had just white boards and chalk boards. That reminds me of a funny story. Last school year I was subbing for a first grade class, and the teacher had left me a transparency to use on an overhead projector for an activity they were doing that usually involved the Smart Board, but she was going to a meeting and had to take her laptop, so the overhead was the best alternative. Apparently that was the first time those first graders had ever seen an overhead projector. They were in awe over it and kept saying how cool it was. I felt ancient when I told them that's what my teacher used when I was their age. :)
Good questions Tara! I, too, wonder how schools can possibly keep up with ever changing technology while continually finding new ways to cut spending. I think we're going to find schools eventually sponsored by businesses just so they can afford supplies (e.g. Acme Concrete pencils and Circle's Pecans erasers)...hahaha!
ReplyDeleteAnswer to #10 is yes, our highschool still has chalkboards, and they still use old transparencies, at first when I started working for the district the teachers that did have smartboards did not like them and used them as a spot on the wall to shine the olders transparencies, it was a killer to watch them use the smartboards as a projector screen. And the teacher in mind was in her 20's and already stuck in a rut with teaching.
ReplyDeleteCraig