Intergrating Technology into the 21st Century Classroom

After reading the article, Designing Change for Faculty, Students, and Institutions, I think that it discuss very relative points on how to develop and integrate technology into the 21st Century Classroom. Before any change can happen, each teacher needs to accept that there is a need for change and “the need to learn”. Teachers are afraid of integrating technology because of their lack of knowledge or lack of time. Lack of time is a poor excuse because if your ultimate goal is to help your students retain the things that they learn in your classroom you need to take the time to change. Things that worked 20 years ago in the classroom, aren’t working currently. Your not going to change all teachers minds, but if you show the effectiveness and easy of use of technology integration, they may willing to try different things in there own classroom.

To begin integrating technology enriched lessons into the curriculum for our students, we need to “educate” our teachers on how to do it. It is important to show all teachers how to properly use any programs or technology device. During our SIP (School Improvement) days, I believe we need to organize and develop workshops for teachers in our building. These workshops can cover the “basic” technology skills to how to use interactive programs in the classroom. By introducing a technology concept to a small group of teachers and showing them the easy of use and how to incorporate these skills or programs into the classroom with curriculum they are teaching, it will help them to understand the importance of the technology integration and the affects on the students’ long term learning. The workshops or training should be on-going, so teachers can have a support line to help answer any questions and provide feedback for any problems that might occur. If teachers feel comfortable using technology and know that they have support they will be able to make that transition smoother and will more likely use it in their classroom.

For that “traditional” teacher in the building we can start small. We don’t want to throw everything out and expect teachers to use all of the technology skills, we wouldn’t do that to our students, so why would do it to teachers. With proper instruction, communication, support, and in small doses, I think that teachers will be more comfortable integrating technology into the curriculum. Lecture is one “traditional” tool, that is still very important in the classroom, but by allowing students to “actively participate” in the lecture format, it will help students get out from the “stuff and dump” passive learning environment. Every teacher in our building has a computer; some even have tablets that they can use for “interactive” lectures. Showing and informing teachers how to use PowerPoint and the tablet to incorporate more student communication can be a start for the more “traditional” teacher to get there feet wet with the 21st century lecture format. If the students are engaged and “actively participating” in “mini- lectures” they will be able to engage in higher level thinking by applying the information that they talking about-making that real world connection.

I also thought it was interesting that in the article it refers to talking to the students about the “what”, “why” and “how”. If we want to move the students from the passive environments to active learning environment we need to answer their questions about change and why it’s important for classroom learning. Teachers have these questions, why can’t the students? Students are comfortable doing something like worksheets because it’s that easy “A”, but some don’t want to sit back and be given the information. Incorporating “active learning environments” will help the students become engaged and will be more apt to participate and communicate to each other.

Before purchasing any technology device, it is important to talk to teachers about there current curriculum and then figure out what types of software or devices would well in the classroom. It is important to have technology available for you to use, but the technology coordinator should be expected to show teachers how to use these devices properly, otherwise they won’t be used by “all” teachers. It’s important to stress that we don’t want to replace the importance of the content; we as teacher should look at “integrating” technology as an aid to retain the content for the long term. The 21st Century Classroom, integrates technology and helps students gain real world skills and higher order thinking by creating “active learning environments”.