Journal # 3

This week's journal is called "Too Cool for School? No Way!" by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler. In this article, it disusses how to use technology in the classroom. Something that I found very interesting was a quote towards the end of the article. It read, "Teachers need to develop a willingness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational" (p. 18). I believe that this is the way of teaching in the future. As teachers, we will be forced to keep up with new technologies, not by our districts or principals, but by the students themselves. New technologies are arising everyday, and it is our job to turn them into positive teaching tools for the classroom. Something else this article mentions, and that I found interesting, was the fact that these new technologies were not meant for the classroom, and that it is the teachers job to know the technologies so well that they can turn them into teaching tools. The article writes that it is "possible only when the teacher knows the rules of the game and is fluent enough to know which rules to bend, which to break, and which to leave alone" (p. 16). This is so true. A teacher can not use these new technologies as teaching tools when they do not yet know the rules of interaction. Without the proper knowledge of the many different technologies, students can harm themselves, others, and even damage the teacher.

Question 1: Is technology the only way to be effective in the classroom?

Technology is not the only way to be effective in the classroom. Technology is a great tool that can be used to enhance learning and creativity, but it is not the only way to be an effective teacher. What did the teachers do who didn't have access to technology? Were they ineffective teachers? No. This reminds me of a story that I shared once before in class. I had a teacher in middle school who left a lasting impression with his idea of creativity. After lunch we all began to pile in Mr. Thompson's English class. Upon entry, we all noticed the lights were off, a few candles were burinig in the corners, pictures of skulls and other scary stuff lined the walls, and Mr. Thompson began to read to us Edgar Allan Poe's "A Tell Tale Heart." It was the best way of being creative without the use of technology. This is a prime example of how technology is not the only way to be effective in the classroom.

Question 2: How much technology should really be used in a classroom?

This question all depends upon the teacher and the setting of the class. If you are teaching a class on technology, then the use of technology will dominate. But I feel as a regular teacher technology should be somewhat limited. I do not want my students becoming dependent on a computer and relying on a keyboard to write papers and assignments. I feel that if technology is used a great deal in the classroom, then technology will take over and ruin some unique experiences. Computers and all that good stuff are a good thing, don't get me wrong, but I think we need to minimalize it so that our students learn how to do it themselves before they rely on a machine to do it for them.