Reflect on the idea of what a technology-infused classroom looks
like. How do you plan to have a technology-infused classroom?
I honestly believe that the classroom has always been a
technology-infused environment. When the
graphite pencil replaced clay tablets, that was the cutting edge educational
technology of the time. Forty-five years
ago as the pocket calculator pushed the slide-rule into obscurity, it was the
most innovative technology there was. Now in the era of interactive
whiteboards, eBooks, meta-search engines, and cloud-based collaborative work
spaces these tools are being field tested in today’s most modern classrooms. These tools then become commonplace to modern students
so that they can grow to develop new technologies for the next generation of
learners. After all, if that is not the
most fundamental reason for a classroom to exist then I don’t understand the
purpose.
So what does a technology-infused classroom look like? Well,
once it was a teacher taking a moment to explain that some of the calculators
were powered by the Sun’s energy. Another time, it was a teacher struggling to figure
out why the VHS tape would not play.
Today, it is teachers examining and instructing with computers, tablets,
3D printers, and virtual reality. Today’s teachers too have difficulties and
sidebars amongst moments of immeasurable success. The moments of failure, when
the software crashes, are essential because it means that teachers are trying. It
is easy for someone to rely on only the tools that have been successful in the
past, trying something new is a challenge that must be embraced.
In my technology-infused classroom, each student has a calculator
that is more powerful than the computer that I brought to college. It only takes seconds for a student to use a
laptop or smartphone to research a fact or formula from the internet.
Simulation and drafting software allow students to explore relationships with unprecedented
accuracy and efficiency. Students work
out solutions on tablets, send them to the cloud, and display them on the
interactive whiteboard for others to evaluate. All the while, I’m trying to
explain how I saw some cool website that lets us take online quizzes and how we
will use it in an upcoming class. And
some days it just doesn’t work, and I spend a few minutes explaining what a
slide-rule is, and how it calculated all of the math that put the first man on
the moon. Because sometimes even the obsolete
technology is important too.
In case you were wondering here is a few minutes on what a
slide-rule is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waiprjueVpQ
This video show some amazing applications of the more modern
technology called augmented reality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHIxYpBW7sc
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