Technology in Education

Dear Parents,

Our staff and PTA wish to inform and involve you in an opportunity for our students. We wish to increase the technology available to our students. We believe that this will enhance their learning in many ways.
It will:

1. provide greater and easier access to a wealth of information. The internet has vast amounts of information available to the students. In order to provide them with this information we believe that they should be given structured and supervised access. We have teachers who will monitor their usage as well as programs which filter out the websites that have questionable content.
2. increase motivation and participation. Students learn in different ways. Some learn best from hearing, some learn best from seeing and some learn best from interacting. The computer provides the medium for a student to have access to each of these types of learning while experiencing the same lesson.
   Many parents have seen there kids texting on their cell phones. We wish to use this as a way to increase participation. Many students are interested in the material, but are unwilling to speak up in class. Using technology like discussion boards a teacher can help a student to be more involved with the class.
3. give students real life experiences On a computer students will be able to participate in virtual lab experiments, data collections, and interactive diagrams. They will also be able to design and present projects using these features. These are very important skills in the job market of today.
   

These facilities are needed for another reason. We have a diverse student body and some of our members do not have reliable access to computers. This would be another place where they would have access to these invaluable machines of research and productivity.


Our school will be using the theories of directed and constructivist learning in order to utilize technology to its full potential.

Constructivist: the belief that experiences will construct knowledge
The Theorist John Dewey believed that students working together on a hands-on meaningful task would promote learning (Roblyer, Doering, p. 40). Using technology will allow the students to "feel" and "observe" their lesson in new and exciting ways. The virtual world allows them to take part in projects and experiments that would be difficult to do in the real world.

Directed: the belief that knowledge is transferred and stored directly in the mind
Robert Gagné believed that knowledge was passed on through drill and instruction. The students will have an easier access to important materials that will help them study and give us teachers ways to access their progress and plan out ways to improve.


These resources will be used in various ways. In my classroom I intend to use the visual aspects to show interactive and reactive programs. I will have my students see the visual change in world maps and how the borders of countries have changed. We will use the discussion boards to have non-threatening academic debates on the importance of various philosophers on the world, and we will be able to grade and assess study guides that are available online so that the students will be prepared for later assessments.




Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I encourage you to think about what you have read here. This is another important piece of technology. Please feel free to leave your comments and questions and we will try and answer them in a prompt manner.

Sincerely,
Mr. Andrew Prull


References

Roblyer, M.D., & Doering, A.H. (2010). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (5th ed.). Boston: Allen and Bacon/Pearson.