Digital Badge #B – chapter 2

            Chapter 2 talks about the issues and trends involved with technology integration into the classroom today.  One section titled Critics of Technology in Schools talks about the adverse thoughts some adults have towards electronic devices, this survey states that adults believed that students should spend more time reading books.  This same section also stated that the same survey was given to students and the findings were that according to students, they would be more likely to read more if the format was in e-books.  Which just goes to show you that there is still some debate and conflict on the subject of technology integration into the classroom and the use of technology in general.  According to this section some adults believe that computers negatively affect intellectual development, commercial marketing pressures children unnecessarily, and the overexposure of right-and –wrong answers in computer games can limit creativity development in young children, which are all alarming reasons to be concerned about the use of technology.  This section goes on to talk about the importance of the teacher to keep the negative aspects and the positive benefits in mind when integrating technology into their lesson plans. 

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This chapter also talks about teaching philosophies.  The section titled Your Teaching Philosophy goes into some types of teaching philosophies such as Teacher-centered which is the idea that the teacher is knowledgeable and therefore conveys information to the student, practitioners of this style of teaching base there outcomes mainly on test scores.  There is also a teaching philosophy called Student-centered, this philosophy is based on exploration, experiences, questions, conversations and engaging the student interests.  Which goes to show that the teaching approach of a teacher can range from one end of the spectrum all the way to the other end of the spectrum and anywhere in-between.  It is stated in this section that the ideal teaching style would consist of taking a teaching approach that involves both Teacher-centered and Student-centered philosophies.

The goes on to talk about digital natives and digital immigrants and the difference in the views of technology between persons who grew up with constant access to computers and the older generation who grew up without computers but later adapted to the use of computer once computer use became the norm.  This section titled Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants goes on to discuss the Students perspective of working with technologies and states that digital natives are less likely to learn from traditional methods of instruction.  Which takes us to the next technique called Teacher action, which is the teacher actions in creating a lesson plan that accommodates the technological experience of all students.  This section emphasizes the need for teachers to constantly evolve and adapt new techniques in developing a lesson plan that involves the integration of technology into their classrooms.

This chapter was very informative and gave me insight and perspective of the various issues that can hinder or even detour veteran teachers from integrating technology into their lessons and teaching philosophies.  I also take away from this chapter that the 21^st century learner expects their teachers to be current on technology trends and integrate these trends into the lesson.  Teachers who integrate technology into their instruction give students with various learning styles the opportunity to understand and explore subjects that otherwise would be unobtainable or just uninteresting to them.

Resources:

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2014). Transforming learning with new technologies (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.