In the world we live today, technology is an essential resource to use and learn from. E-mail and the Internet are must haves for every student today to know how to use for just about every school project as almost everything now is becoming digitized. We can now use social media to voice our opinions to millions of people to hear and see. The amount to technology we have today is incredible than we had during past times and inexpensive that almost every student can gain access too. However, there are pros and cons of using technology.
As teachers and students, we must be able connect, develop, share and learn together. But to convey the same message across face-to-face can be interpreted differently if done through other means of technology. So understanding the limitations of technology, we can incorporate some of its benefits while still incorporating the human-level of interaction that we need. Think of technology as an extension to in-class learning and not a replacement.
Some technology tools that are useful are online libraries, online encyclopedias, blogs, wikis, online audio/videos and forums. There are interactive classrooms tools that try to mimic in-class learning online; ‘virtual learning environment’ that enable learning at all times during the day. The downfalls of this technology that it hinders real human world social interaction. Humans are social creatures by nature and the use of technology can not replace this need. Humans need open lively discussion and feedback face-to-face to reassure their opinions and thoughts are sound.
So in learning there are ways where you do not have to use technology at all while there are certain technologies that are useful. It all actually depends on the learner whether they need traditional classroom instruction and/or online technological classroom instruction. As a teacher, we have to be able foster both means as the world become more technologically dependent and both teacher and learner see technology as an extension rather than a replacement to the current curriculum. As teachers going overseas or at home, resources to technology can widely vary, so we have to have a solid foundation in basic classroom learning without aids or devices and thus be overly prepared to adapt.