Technology in the 21st Century Classroom

University students work in a small group using computers.

One question that I get asked often as a teacher is "What are your beliefs about using technology in the classroom?  How much technology is too much?"  In this post, I will try to address my thoughts about using technology in the classroom and provide a picture of what technology use in your student's class will look like.

When I was in elementary school, I do not remember using computers.  When my teachers wanted to incorporate technology into a lesson, the most they had available to them was a video or overhead projector.  Throughout the years, I grew up right alongside technology; as technology became more and more complex and wide-ranging, I learned to use various forms of technology to discover new insights, uncover new information, and even have fun!  For a fun look at the way technology has changed in education throughout history, check out this link:  Timeline of Technology in Education

By the time I graduated high school and eventually college, I was so accustomed to an integration of various types of technology into my classes that when teachers or professors opted to NOT include technology in their instruction, I was caught off guard.  Because I grew up during a period of great technology growth, I believe that I have and will always view technology as a central aspect in any classroom.  My students, your children, will be required to be competent in the most up-to-date and cutting edge technologies and will need to be "digitally literate" in order to succeed.  Take a look at the video below to see what the nature of information technology is like and will be like in the future of your students:

Based on the information presented in this video and my own experiences, I believe that as a teacher, I have an obligation to instruct my students on how to use technology to inform their knowledge, decisions, and interaction with others.  There are so many benefits to incorporating technology into the classroom, including but definitely not limited to:

• Increased student-to-student learning
• Collaboration
• Development of problem-solving skills
• Increase in English vocabulary, as it relates to technology and content
• Addresses a wide range of learning types and ability levels

Based on these benefits and so many others, I design my lessons to integrate technology into each day.  Learning English as a second language is oftentimes very difficult for students, but by incorporating visuals and interactive technologies into our ESOL classroom, I believe that the students learn and retain much more language and content skills.  So, if you were to walk into our classroom on any given day (which you are more than welcome to do!) your students will most likely be engaged in a collaborative, hands-on, problem-solving activity in which technology plays at least some part in the learning process.  Our classroom sometimes looks exactly like the photograph below:

Teacher leading students in an interactive lesson using technology.

So there you have it- my philosophy of technology in the classroom.  Please take a moment to ask your children to share with you the technology they are experiencing in our classroom.  Together with your student, take a look at Buford Academy's website, which provides an excellent resource of technologies that we use at Buford and that can be used at home!  As a classroom community, we can make sure that your students have access to the many technologies available to them so that they might succeed in this technology-based world.