I felt I learned a lot about
technology in the classroom from interviewing a Social Studies teacher for
Interactivity 5 so I decided to interview another teacher about their views on
technology and how essential they feel it is. I interviewed is an English
teacher who has been teaching for eight years. I emailed her with three
questions and here is what she said:
What technological
devices do you have in your classroom?
I have access to/use a
computer, a projector, an iPod, iPads (sometimes).
What do you think the
positives/negatives are of using technology in your everyday lesson?
I think it is amazing
to have resources at my fingertips, like being able to pull up a YouTube clip,
or a song in only a few seconds. On the other hand, I think that
depending on technology is negative, because you never know when technology is
going to encounter a glitch! You should definitely use it, effectively,
but not rely on it solely.
How many times a week would you say you use technology
in your class?
It depends on what you
would deem technology. Probably 1-2/week?
She has access to great
technological devices and feels they are important. She also added that there
was one time when her projector was not working and her lesson was heavily
dependent on the projector that day. She said that was the last time she did
not have a backup. On the other hand, she said using YouTube really gets her
students more involved than just reading all class. She said that she has been
using technology since she started teaching, but understands why teachers who
have not always used it don’t rely on it. I think technology can be complicated
and as I have said before teachers should attend seminars to really learn how
to utilize technology in the classroom.
I really enjoyed this blog post, I thought it was interesting that you conducted an interview. It is nice that the school has that much technology available for students, the teacher I interviewed did not have that much accessibility. I will probably be that teacher who uses the Internet to supplement my teaching, like using YouTube. Teachers must be prepared to teach a lesson if they are having technical difficulties.
ReplyDeleteShe seems to believe what we are all learning from this class, which is that technology should help a lesson and not replace it. That's great that she has access to iPads and iPods, most schools don't.
ReplyDelete