The book discusses that one of the primary uses of educational technology is to improve student motivation, attitude, and interest in learning. I think technology can be used especially well in this way to make content subjects that would otherwise lose students’ interest, much more intriguing. Students today lose attention in class easier than ever before. Similarly, students in this day and age are used to watching television, or used to clicking on their family computers. As a result, students are becoming much more intrigued by a colorful display, or interactive learning as opposed to the traditional instructional means of lecturing and having students take notes. We as educators have a multitude of ways for integrating technology in order to grab and hold on to our students’ attention. For example, instead of over-heads, we now have smart boards, LCD projectors, and interactive computer software. All of these advances are assisting teachers in what many educators would call the most difficult task of teaching: keeping students intrigued.
While the chapter lists the many uses of technology in the classroom setting, it also discusses the ethical and legal issues that we as educators must be careful in dealing with. Today, the Internet has developed into a mass networking system; connecting billions of humans to one another. As a result, the Internet has come to reflect much of the ethical problems in society. For example, just as we have theft and plagiarism in the real world, the Internet is filled with issues such as software piracy, hacking/trespassing to restricted areas, and illegal downloads without purchase. As educators we must be careful not to allow our students to negatively use the Internet in this manner, while also keeping them protected from these types of individuals.
No comments:
Post a Comment