Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Integrating Technology and Creating Change

Focus Question: What are “digital inequality” and the “participation gap”?

Digital inequality; otherwise known as the digital divide, is the relationship between a student’s financial situation at home and their knowledge of technology. It explains that students from low-income homes that may not be able to provide children with frequent and immediate access to technology may be less aware of how to use technology. Students that have a consistent presence of technology become more involved with how to use it. When student’s knowledge of technology falls behind, it becomes known as the participation gap. Students with less experience using technology are not as prepared as other students to adapt to technology used for learning.

Tech Tool: Edutopia www.edutopia.org

This week I explored the Edutopia tech tool link, and I found it to be very helpful and interesting. Edutopia is a website that shares ideas, stories, and tool to help teachers, schools, and communities to integrate technology with learning. The amount of information this website provides is phenomenal, they have thousands of videos, blogs and resources that can be easily accessed. I saw many videos that I found to be helpful but today I would like to share one in particular. It is about Jim Wilson, a teacher that is trying to go “high tech” and is working to conquer his fear of change to technology.

 

 

This chapter focused mainly on teacher-student understanding of technology and way that teachers can incorporate technology without having to have mastered it. Through a ‘learn as you go’ process teachers can learn from the students as the students are learning too. By integrating technology both inside and outside of the class room teachers are allowing technology to become a part of every ones daily experience. One of the topics that I will incorporate into my career as an instructor is the teacher mindset. This idea explains that technology must be used to enhance the lesson rather than making the lesson about technology. Because of how quickly technology is becoming a part of our everyday lives, it is common for teachers to forget that the curriculum, not the technology, comes first, and technology should only be used if it will improve the way a student can learn the material. One of the major topics covered in this chapter is that teachers should not see technology as a challenge. Although at first it may seem that there is a lot that needs to be learned, most of the teacher’s learning process can be simplified by slowly blending the technology into the classroom and using it hands on. Students are also great ways for teacher’s to learn about new technologies and ideas. Many teachers may be reluctant to use technology because there may not be enough computers available for all of the students, but this chapter shows us that even with just one computer in a class there are many way that each and every student can benefit from it. Through the use of systems such as the one/two/three time activities, students can be divided into groups that periodically rotate through “sections” of a classroom; one of which is the computer, thus giving each student a chance to work with technology. Another great idea is using a laptop and projector to teach digitally. Teachers can project their lessons onto the board and create ‘real- time’ notes depending on what questions of topics arise throughout each lesson. These notes can then be uploaded to an online site that can be accessed by all the students at any given time, therefore giving all students instant access to any changes that may have been made or any material that has been added. Teaching with technology makes learning easier, easier to understand, and allows all students the opportunity to succeed because they now have more tools available to them to help them learn and understand.