Digital Badge #I- Chapter 12

  Technology in schools tends to follow one of the two patter: Infusion or Inclusion

Infusion: Means that computers and other information technologies are ongoing features of teaching and learning in all academic subjects and grade levels.

Inclusion: Means that computers and information technologies are used mainly for transferring information and practicing skills.

I would like to practice Infusion in my classroom when I become a teacher for a number of reasons. The main one being ongoing interest and uses of technologies increase student motivation and engagement, which also increases everyone's ideas and creativity. Using technology in your lessons can and will increase a students passion to learn. Tapping into their creativity and asking them to create is much more effective than authoritarianism teaching that only involves testing and work sheets. Children need to be stimulated, not just black and white testing because intelligence comes in many different forms and helping a child discover theirs is the whole reason I want to teach in the first place.

My Kahoot 

There are different stages teachers can be at with the level of technology they use in their classroom, 5 to be exactly.

• Entry- Teachers are beginning to learn information technologies
• Adoption- Teachers blend technology into their classroom practices without making any significant changes to those practices
• Adaption- Teachers fully integrate new technologies into traditional classroom practices
• Appropriation- Teachers easily and confidently use technology both in the classroom and their professional work
• Invention- Teachers start to experiment with many inventive and creative ways to use technology in and out of the classroom 

I believe that every teacher should work to at least make it up to the adaption stage. This way they can use technology to enhance their lessons plans and make their jobs easier and students job more enjoyable. 

Picture by: R Joanne at Flickr

Of course there are always going to be issues in integrating technology as well. Some teachers will have to face them and come up with creative solutions to the problems. Some of those issues include:

• Administrative Support and teaching styles 
• Unwillingness to change favorire lesson plan
• Reluctance to use technology in new lesson plans
• Use of technology as a reward or punishment
• Use of technology as an ass-on to other activities
• Use of technology to separate students by ability groups.

At the end of the day not everyone is going to agree that use of technology in a classroom is a beneficial and positive way to engage your students. It is a very hot button issues and teachers who are used to teaching without it are not going to be as open minded to change. However it is very apparent that when a child is allowed to create and use his/her imagination to learn they will engage with more enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Using technology to educate, if done correctly, can be a wonderful and exciting thing. Teaching future generations in this way is, in my opinion, the way of the future and as a society we are technology driven, its just the way that it is. 

 Resources:

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.