Moravick 1 Lauren Moravick Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1102-026 Date: 30 November 2013 The Influences of Technology Usage

in an Elementary School Classroom When most people in to days world think of technology, in general, they think of the #1 best-sellers like the I-phone, Android, and the Tablet. Rarely do they ever think about the small, equally as important, technology like the Smart Board or the Classroom Clicker Response System or even the Overhead Projector. After hearing those examples, most people would say Oh yeah, I didnt think about those kinds of technology! But you know those really arent used as much as the I-Phone is used. But more often than not, these people are, in fact, wrong. The article Technology in Education states that the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or INACOL, estimates that more than 1.5 million K-12 students were engaged in some form of online or blended learning in the 2009-2010 school year. At the end of 2010, supplemental or full-time online learning opportunities were available in at least 48 of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia (INACOL, 2010). These numbers are just astonishing! As much as adults are using their own kind of technology, like the I-Phone or Tablet, you can believe that children in a classroom all over America are also using that same kind of technology. How can educators be sure that this kind of learning is indeed beneficial to their students? How can we examine the positive and negative effects technology use has on the students of this generation? Well, first we have to get a clear understanding of the different kinds of technology we are talking about.

Moravick 2 Although there are many different kinds of technology being used in the classroom setting nowadays, I will only be focusing on four different kinds; the Smart Board, the Classroom Clicker Response System, the Overhead Projector, and the I-Pad. The Smart Board is essentially a board that is mounted on the wall of the classroom that is able to project images, documents, and really anything that can be seen on a computer screen; including videos. The best part about the Smart Board is the fact that it can become an interactive form of learning, meaning the students can physically touch the screen and make changes to what they see. This can come in handy when the teacher is performing a lesson that involves student interaction. For example, if the teacher is teaching a lesson about multiplication tables and then asks for a student to answer a problem, the student can physically write in the answer on the screen with their fingers just as if they were writing the answer on a piece of paper. This same idea applies to the use of an Overhead Projector but rather this technology projects a mirror image of what is being shown up on the board. Although students cannot write on the board, they can write an answer on the projector screen itself. The same basic concept of student involvement and interaction happens here with the Overhead Projector. The use of the I-Pad has a similar effect as that of the Smart Board and Overhead Projector but varies on a few things. I-Pads are usually used for individual work and studying in the classroom. Recently, I went into an elementary classroom and noticed that each student had their own I-Pad that they could work on; no one had to share their I-Pad because there was a class-set. I-Pads are great because they do everything a computer does but they are smaller and the perfect size for an elementary age student. The teacher can also monitor what the students are doing on their I-Pads. And whats really neat about this type of technology, is that it allows the student to view old things in a new way. The example Jeff Utecht gives in his article Evaluating

Moravick 3 Technology Use in the Classroom, says that students can now watch things like Martin Luther King Jr.s speech or even listen to a recording of Joseph Stalin instead of reading them out of book. These are not new things by any means but rather new ways of interpreting old things (Utecht). Instead of talking about a battle site in Social Studies, we can now show our students how to visit that battle site virtually, says Jeff Utecht. The last type of technology I will be focusing on is the Classroom Clicker Response System. This system is a completely wireless, hand-held, and new alternative to in-class participation. The students are now given a hand-held device that looks like a remote control that has buttons 0-9 with corresponding letters like a key-pad would have. This system is hooked up to the teachers main computer and allows for interactive questions with immediate feedback for students. The system then polls the findings from the question and presents its data with a graph or chart (UMC Web Team). This type of technology is very helpful when teachers want to know if their class is paying attention. My professors in college use this style of participation in most of my classes. In my biology class, for example, my teacher uses this system to see if we know the material being discussed in class; if the majority of the class gets the question wrong then she can further explain the topic to us. I love the use of clickers in my classrooms because it mak es me pay more attention in class. I really have to focus on what my professors are talking about if I want to do well on the tests. I am in college and I'm using the same kind of technology that students in elementary schools are using, how can this be beneficial to them? Are they too young to be learning through the same means that most adults are learning through? How soon is too soon to be using technology in the classroom? After having watched the Frontline video titled Digital Nation, it came appare nt to me just how frequently technology is being used. Executive Director of Design, for Quest to Learn,

Moravick 4 Katie Salen, states that gaming is a lens for viewing the entire curriculum. Games give us an incredible learning experience (Salen). Katie Salen goes on further in the video to talk about how gaming in the classroom provides experiences for students to collaborate with each other and often times help each other out. If a student is stuck on a topic and the teacher is busy helping another student, then a nearby neighbor can help the struggling student get past a difficult topic or section. This kind of learning provides for an incredible and engaging learning experience (Salen). These kids from the video were between the ages of ten and fourteen, which I think is a sensible age to start implementing technology in the classroom. I dont think that students younger than ten years old should be allowed to use such high-tech equipment. I have come to this belief because over this past summer while I was babysitting, I noticed that the little girl I looked after was able to take her I-pad home from school to do work and play games. She was only in the second grade (seven years old). I thought that using an I-pad at this age would sort of cripple her, in a sense, from doing other things like actually writing a story. How is she going to know how to spell words, for instance, if the technology she uses corrects her misspellings for her? Should we have technology available for only certain subjects then? When is it appropriate to incorporate technology in a lesson plan? Only when needed? Every day? Some things, I feel sure, just do not need to cha nge, says Adam Frank, the editor of Sometimes, The Old Ways Are The Best Ways. In his article, Adam Frank brings up a good point, In a world of PowerPoint, YouTube, automated homework and massive open online courses, what the hell am I doing with a stick of chalk in my hand? (Frank). This statement made me laugh because by some means, the old ways are becoming more and more outdated. The new ways are becoming a cooler way to view the same things that were once boring and old.

Moravick 5 Technology has stepped up its game on how to view things in the last decade. Most teachers nowadays would choose the easy route and have the technology explain the process of doing division, for example, to their students rather than actually writing out the whole process on the board. Like Adam states in his article, The act of copying what was appearing on the board was a kind of meditation. You had to stay awake and aware, like a man walking across a frozen pond. Let your mind wander for a moment and BAM! You were lost. You couldn't see how the professor had gotten from one step to the next. But keep your focus and you'd be rewarded with that most precious gift: understanding. (Frank)

I found this example to be true, especially in math classes. Theres nothing better than seeing a process step by step in front of you and actually being able to follow along with it. Even if you get lost in the process, you can go back and see from the beginning just where you got tripped up. I feel that using the new technology is a good buddy that pairs up with the old ways of teaching. By buddy, I mean simply that some teachers could teach a lesson in the old ways then bring in the new ways involving technology to help practice problems that go along with the lesson. I see this idea being implemented into a math based curriculum. The teacher begins the lesson the old way, marker on a whiteboard for example, and then leads the students into practice problems using a Smart Board. It could be a very simple idea that includes both forms of teaching styles. But is it worth it? Why would teachers feel the need to teach both styles? What would students gain out of both styles of learning? The article Using the Technology of Today, in the Classroom Today, states what I think is a very good example as to why technology in the classroom can benefit students. Eric

Moravick 6 Klopfer states a full story about John, a Literature teacher at a small, rural high school and his ideas of technology being used in the classroom. At the beginning of a new school year, John starting using a blog site for each of his classes; just to try a new form of technology out and see how things would go with his students and their interactions with each other. John used the networks as a form of communication among class assignments, class discussions, and just thoughts and ideas, in general with his students. What John came to find out was that through the use of this blogging site, the students were able to continue discussion outside of the classroom, share ideas and even work online together. This new idea of communication opened up the pathways students could take to ask their peers questions if they needed help or even ask their peers to revise a written assignment due for class. John found it remarkable that some students would check into the blog site even though nothing was due that night for class. The students were just simply fascinated by the ideas of new technology being used as a means of communicating outside the classroom (Klopfer 14). It is crazy to think that something so small as a blog site, could have that big of an impact on the students abilities to communicate. I know that being in a classroom with thirty to forty other students can get rather overwhelming at times; but with the technology we have nowadays, it can become extremely easy to get to know each other. I feel that this idea would help, not only, in a literature class but also a science class. For example, if a student needed help with a problem and it was the middle of the night and that student couldnt email their professor for help, they could easily go online to the blog site and ask the question there. This way other students have the option to become engaged in the question and everyone really works together to figure the problem out.

Moravick 7 Technology is surely a broad topic and covers hundreds of different types of resources but I think that its overall purpose in the classroom is to benefit the students. Not only are the students becoming more engaged in what they are learning but they also get the feeling of being helpful towards other students who might be struggling. Although technology could be enforced less in the lower grades, I still feel that it is preparing the younger generations to be more creative and more open-minded to new ideas. Technology definitely has its setbacks and negative points but in the world today, what doesnt have these things? Technology in the classroom has substantially risen in the past years and there is no doubt in my mind that it wont continue to grow as time goes on. Technology is a part of this world and it wont be going away any time soon. We either need to face it head on as a problem or just embrace it as a gift for knowledge. Technology is ever changing, so its up to us as adults to either change with it or watch the world around us change.

Moravick 8 Works Cited: Blair, Julie. "Technology in Education." Education Week. Editorial Project in Education, 1 Sept. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Dretzin, Rachel, and Douglas Rushkoff. "FRONTLINE: Digital Nation. PBS Video. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Frank, Adam. "Sometimes, The Old Ways Are The Best Ways." NPR. NPR, 03 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

Klopfer, Eric, Scot Osterweil, Jennifer Groff, and Jason Haas. "Using the Technology of Today, in the Classroom Today." Using the Technology of Today, in the Classroom Today (2009): 14-15. The Instructional Power of Digital Games Social Networking Simulations and How Teachers Can Leverage Them. Creative Commons, 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

UMC Web Team. "Clickers (Student Response System) | CIDDE." Clickers (Student Response System) | CIDDE. University of Pittsburgh, 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Utecht, Jeff. "Evaluating Technology Use in the Classroom." The Thinking Stick. Foliovision. 23 Jan. 2008. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.