Week 13: Gaming, Teaching and Learning

This week we discussed how technology is rapidly changing the way people in general, and students, learn. While technology has evolved outside of the classroom not much has happened in the classroom. For the most part, teachers stick to the traditional way of teaching where they explain a concept and the students take notes and are then tested on the material. While this was effective in the 19th and 20th centuries, we are now in the 21st century where so much more is available. Most students are more apt to learn if there is some form of technology involved. They like seeing examples through power point and videos, instead of simply having them explained to them. Instead of teachers having the role of the "teller" they need to be the "guider." Students like to be asked their opinions on topics and like to interact with each other through group projects. If teachers start helping students learn instead of just lecturing, the students will be more successful. However, this is not to say that by simply using technology a student will learn. Technology must be appropriately integrated into the curriculum otherwise students will not understand the connections between things. Nowadays, students are used to looking information up on the internet, finding it instantly, and scanning articles instead of reading them completly. Educational games can be extremly useful and can motivate students to learn. They encourage them to set goals and they are forced to memorize and learn certain things in order to win the games.
All of this is important for me to keep in mind. I have to try and integrate technology along with book work. It's also nice to know that teachers are not expected to know how every bit of technology works, because the students know that already and it is the teacher's job to grade the work and help the students learn as much as possible.
This was an interesting article that brought up great points about technology in the classroom. It also reminds us of how not everything found online is quality information. I thought that the ideas that it gave, such as starting a class website, were great.
Technology in the classroom