Technology: To Have or Not to Have? A Guest Post by The Teacher

A Guest Post by The Teacher

In an ever changing society where technology changes faster than a college student can finish a basic four year degree, one questions its importance in a classroom. To have it or not to have it, that is the all important question in education today. Well I have an answer, not simple, but not too complex that can make you really think about technology and its use in the classroom.

As a teacher I have been one who has had abundance and had none but the bare necessities. So what is my preference? Well I really think that I am a situational technology user. I don’t use it every day, I don’t have to have it, but I enjoy using it to add to the diversity of my classroom. When I first started teaching, I had 2 computers, a teacher computer and a student computer. My TV was a 20Inch tube that had no running VCR or DVD. I had very little. I actually brought in my personal TV from home which wasn’t in use and purchased a VGA converter to use my actual teacher machine to project a video clip, pictures, and PowerPoint presentations. In my middle years of teaching I had so much technology, I felt I could have shared with those that didn’t and been just as well off.

To have technology is extremely important for our future generation since most jobs and or avenues of like revolve around it. But I feel we too often use technology as the only way to allow students to succeed. Where in all reality, it is only a tool to be used wisely and in most cases can be. While on this side, I don’t think it is wise to require or demand teachers to have to use technology. I know personal teachers who use very little technology and their students do just as well if not better than those that use it over pervasively.

Not to have technology is a shame when I have been in classes where dust covered computers, laptops, ELMO (Document Camera), and other machines have been left to waste. This isn’t the answer as well for our modern society.

In my opinion, a projector, ELMO (Document Camera), and a computer are the only tools teachers should really have. Keep it simple and make it useful. In one year of teaching I think I used these three items daily, but not solely, I used them to complement strategies, techniques, and my personal style of teaching, blending old, modern, and new strategies to reach all types of learners. In short, technology used thoughtfully to complement teaching is how it should always be used.