A major concern I have as a future teacher is the inclusion
of technology in the classroom. I have
always believed that it was such a wonderful thing to be able to have
computers, projectors, online grade books, and other advances start to trickle
into the forgotten land of education.
However, I was shocked to that the embrace of technology is often times
absent from classrooms. Caitlin Barry’s article entitled, “Defining Media
Literacy” illustrates what I have encountered in many classrooms, which do have
the luxury of technology. Barry says
that most teachers who have the technology resources are hesitant to use them
to progress learning and instead use them as a vehicle to view a power point
on. From my many experiences in
observation, fieldwork, and subbing, I have found that often times the smart
boards in classrooms are not even touched!
The idea of technology is described as a wonderful advancement for
education but it fails us when the practice is not implemented. I have always excused these behaviors by the
assumption that teachers are not educated on how to use these items and
therefore are unable to embrace their beauty.
Barry brings into question another point of view suggesting that
teachers don’t know what media literacy is.
So I’m forced to ask myself (since she’s probably right), if
I know what media literacy is? Looking
back on a prior class entitled Media Literacy and quick Google searches I have
put together that media literacy is evaluating forms of media to reveal the
hidden intentions, the message, and encourage consumers to ask questions. Considering this definition and the
incorporation of technology, I am confident as a teacher that I will be able to
encourage my students to ask questions in order to discover answers beneath the
surface of “media”. Children need to
begin to question what they are fed through movies, radio, television, and the Internet
in order to educate themselves. For example, integrating news video clips into
a lesson allows students to visualize the classroom discussion. Further, they are then able to question the
point of view of the station, what message was sent, how do we know if it is
reliable or not. We as teachers can begin
teaching the aspect of life that was either ignored or reserved for experience
only.
In the past we have blamed the lack of technology on low
funding, inexperience, or no relation to a subject area. Barry’s article reveals an alternate view
which may be more realistic in the educational world. This is another example where teachers must
take their learning and teaching into their own hands and gain their own
knowledge. The benefits of technology outweigh the hassle of learning how to
use the technology because it paves a clear path to relating with the students. It allows connects from outside the classroom
to be made and more importantly, begin to bridge the gap from learning from
experiences educated versus uneducated.
You make a really great point here about technology integration. I agree with you that it greatly benefits students to integrate movies, smart boards, and the like within lessons and classrooms. I feel that through doing so students will oftentimes be more engaged in the lesson seeing as it is more relatable to their everyday lives. You refer to learning to use technology as a "hassle" for many teachers. Do you feel that there is any way to make technology education more engaging and exciting for teachers?
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