Technology in the Classroom

In regards to incorporating technology in the classroom, I view it as being more necessary than some other elements.  I'm only twenty-three years old so I grew up watching my friends playing Super Nintendo, watching my dad use flight simulators on his computer, and playing Number Munchers and Oregon Trail on school computers.  All of these are pretty archaic now.  I grew up being taught that cursive was the most important thing that I needed to be proficient at for high school, but they should have told me that typing was.  I handwrote my papers until high school because I was a slow typist.  I wasn't proficient at typing until the arrival of instant messaging on the computer.  It wasn't the computer typing diagrams that they showed us at school.  It was my need to communicate electronically with my peers and friends.  Not a single paper in college was allowed to be handwritten.  And that is technology in education at a basic level.

Beyond word processors, students are now involved with technology on a monumental scale.  It has been so overwhelming that many educators are limiting the use of technology in the classroom.  What educators need to realize is that technology is a medium for the current generation of students.  It is what most are highly skilled with.  They learn quickly with technological concepts.  Cutting them off from this is in fact costing the attention and drive to learn of the students.

What I hope to gain out of this class is a way to use technology as an intricate tool for learning far beyond that of powerpoints, projectors, and T9 calculators that were used in my higher learning.  I want to find ways to meet students half way becauseI know how fast a learner with technology I am, let alone the fact that technology is a huge part of our modern world.  As teachers, we are agents of change.  We are trying to give students an education that can take them places in their future.  Technology will be an intricate part in the coming years and failing to incorporate it into the classroom is a failure to educate accordingly.