Technology is going to be extremely important in education in the future years. Technology has completely broken down the doors of communication between people in both communities and across the world. Has anyone read the book "The World is Flat"? The book discusses how jobs are changing and how technology is playing such a huge role. In the book the author describes how some fast food chains have moved to using call centers to take peoples order. To think that our fast food drive thru workers will be in another state or country when taking our order is bit weird, but the users of call centers discussed in the book how the drive thru they operate are now faster and more effective using the call center approach. So although postman may say that the call center does not solve a "problem" since he was able to get a burger just fine with the human taking the being the same one he gives money too, the owners of a company may not see it that way. If a boss can make more money through the use of technology then a boss will probably use the technology. Since part of our job as educators is to prepare our youth for jobs, and jobs are becoming more technical, it would seem that education must become more technical.
Technology allows students and teachers to be connected in amazing ways. As we strive to have education become more differentiated, technology will allow us to connect and deliver information in new and exciting ways. One area I look foward to seeing developed more for use in education is video conferencing. There are many times teachers are expected to deliver information that could be done in a much better way by someone else. If I wanted to explain how engineers test and evaluate a product, how great would it be to use an actual engineer to talk to my students. Technology will also cause the role of the teacher may greatly change. Teacher will become facilitators and enablers to students who will seek out information that using different methods optimized for the experience they are looking for. This topic is really a can of worms. In an attempt to summarize some of these fairly random thoughts, I would have to say in response to the two readings that both teaching using technology and about technology will become essential in continuing to develop authentic, meaningful experiences in education. Even if Postman doesn't think there's a problem.
2 comments:
Matt,
I agree with you that we are opening a can of worms with this topic. As for the technology part I don't know much. But for the teaching part, I feel that my job isn't to just prepare the youth to get jobs, but to more importantly, learn how to interact and cooperate with the people they will be working with.
I definately agree that technology will become a larger part of the classroom experience; however, I don't know how teachers will be able to keep up with all of the new programs, softwares, gadgets...in order to use them effectively in their classrooms. That may be a foolish comment now,but that is because I am that teacher who does not know how to use the new technologies effectively. And I don't know when, or financially how I could ever learn everything. I continually find myself trying to tap the brain of the technology teacher in my building, and they may be the way I will have to learn.
I'm sure there are ways to use technology in the classroom that will replace some old ways of teaching, and I am looking forward to learning how to do it.
I agree with what you were saying that technology is changing the job market. It is completely necessary for schools to "transform" the way teachers teach because of how jobs are changing. I have a daughter in ninth grade and she is not being exposed to the world of technolgy because she is not taking any tech courses. I think each subject area needs to explore the possibility of using technology to it's fullest so students have a wide range of exposure!
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