Technology has enabled teachers to be innovative and inspiring. Students embrace new changes and are encouraged to dream bigger as technology has made information grow exponentially. The possibilities seem endless as long as abuses are controlled. My conclusion after embracing technology is wrapped up in three words: Flexibility, discipline, and patience.
Teachers need to be flexible with all the changes. Technology doesn’t always work. Being able to troubleshoot when programs fail is essential. While teaching my lesson for this class we experienced technology problems. Rather than stressing over the problem we simply adapted.
In addition, when integrating technology into a lesson a teacher must consider the possible discipline issues that may arise. Being proactive and preventative is much better than reactive. Part of being a good teacher is the ability to have vision and predict possible abuses. This is a form of protection for the students and the teacher. It also helps alleviate stress during the lesson because there is always a plan.
Lastly, patience is essential. Plans fail. Technology has glitches. Take the opportunity to model patience for students. The life lessons learned during these trying times is priceless. Students watch teachers closer than you might think and they know when a teacher is frustrated. Modeling proper behavior earns respect and teaches students how to handle difficult situations.
The teacher is the artist. Technology is one of the paintbrushes. Be creative!
Comments (3)
Good Ideas.
I would add Knowledge or maybe Practice. I’ve seen too many teachers go into a great lesson plan or adminstrators go into some type of presentation using technology that they haven’t spent much time rehearsing. When technology lets them down, they don’t have the knowledge to troubleshoot or the practice to know how to solve the problem.
It’s great to be flexible snd patient, but if you’re floundering in the middle of a presentation to a few hundred staff members (or even 30 teenagers), knowledge and practice can be invaluable. Especially when it comes to your other idea, discipline.
Good point. Practice of the skill is often overlooked in order to save time. Winging it is never a good idea when it comes to new technology. Great insight!
I think you are very right about having to be patient when using technology. As you said, technology does not always work the way we anticipate. How many times have you been in the middle of doing something on a computer and it starts doing things you don’t want it to do? Sometimes technology really does have a mind of its own, which can be problematic when one is depending on it for something important, such as typing and saving a paper or, in our case, teaching lessons. It is important to remember that it can have faults, but in the long run it will have many potential positives that will outweigh the negatives.