Teachers use technology throughout their day as an integration of teaching even more so than integrating it meaningfully into their teaching. During the day the fourth grade teacher creates a lesson plan, checks online work, researches information, creates and teaches lessons on the Smart Board, and monitors progress through educational software, to name a few technologies used.
Teachers have the responsibility to know how to troubleshoot the Chromebooks, Smart Boards, and projectors before they contact the building IT designee. Teachers are required to take a training session on how to operate these technologies as well as Google Classroom application before using them.
Teachers are learning from effects with technology to simply operate these technology devices. but have been availed learning from effects of technology by using them to create well thought out cognitive lessons integrating the devices and software into education. Once the lesson has been created teachers can present the information any way chosen, it doesn’t have to be with the technology used to design the lesson or that was used to just write the lesson plan for administrative monitoring, which is the effects with technology. Teachers learned how to operate the device to use and can further understanding of how to use it by trial and error, or Googling it.
I think for teachers in any level, subject, or platform the effects through technology are always going to be constant reflection on how I can “up the ante” for the next lesson, the next year, the next job, on technologies used intertwiningly in education. Right now is the “bow phase” as compared to the example of “the reorganizing impact of warfare” in Salomon and Perkins (2005). Not only are we in an era of education restructuring due to technology integration, but this will impact how teacher preparation programs will move forward as well. What will they need to be taught to be prepared to teach students in this technological manner? Will teachers need a technologies integration class or will it become integrated as I have experienced in my graduate classes at John Carroll?
We have to obtain more access to gain a wider range of availability of the technologies to be used. Public education is limited by the money that can be used each year. Teachers’ cognitive capabilities are definitely augmented by the educational technologies they are working with which outweigh the undermining that some of this technology does to the learning.
Tammy McBean 