Reading through various articles on the evaluation of technology got me to thinking that technology should be considered as simply another tool in a teacher's toolbox. Whether these tools are effective or not depends on how they are used by the teacher and how they are viewed by the students. Primary teachers can use technology to promote the retention of basic skills and content information. In this case computers would effectively be put to use for skill practice and drills. Students would view this type of use as an entertaining way to learn the things they need to know. Intermediate and upper grade teachers should use technology as a way to engage in critical, higher order thinking and problem based inquiry in addition to expanding their knowledge of content information. By this time, students should be expected to have mastered the basic skills that were taught in the earlier grades so that they, too, can begin viewing technology as a tool to further their own purposes.
I see two problems that can easily occur when using technology in the classroom. Both these problems arise frequently no matter what tools are being used for learning. The first is using technology as a toy. I see this happening all the time, where students go to the computer lab and spend their entire time playing games without ever connecting to the concepts that the games are supposed to teach. This doesn't just occur with the use of technology. The hardest thing for a teacher to do with simple math manipulatives is to get past the play time and on to the learning of specific concepts. The second problem is when students use technology as a crutch that compensates for not learning the necessary skills. Students think that life would be easy if they could always have a calculator or a spell checker with them, but the truth is that those tools are only useful if students already have a firm grasp of those basic skills. It was noticed this year that students who used calculators on their standardized tests did not do as well as students who didn't use them. The reason for this was that students spent so much time punching in simple facts that they didn't have time to complete the test. The students didn't understand that the calculators shouldn't be used for the simple facts that they already know, but for the more advanced, time consuming problems. That way they have more time for the critical thinking that is required for the advanced problems. That should be the whole purpose behind the use of technology, to give the user more time to complete more advanced learning.
When evaluating my project, I will need to make sure that my use of technology will be designed to promote higher order thinking and creativity of products and not simply to entertain the students with something electronic. Because of the progressive nature of my project, I don't think this will be too much of a problem. Students will be gradually building skills using technology and then using those skills to further their knowledge.
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