Integrating Instructional Technology Essay

Modern-day technology in the classroom is getting to the point where it has improved scores just not substantially yet. “The digital classroom needs a well-planned

Incorporating technology in the classroom is a leading trend among educators in the 21st century. Teacher use classroom websites, technology tools, and online web assessments to keep parents and students informed, improve instruction, and individualize learning. Using technology to support communication helps keep both students and parents informed on what is happening in the classroom and the students’ academic progress. Integrating technology in the classroom helps increase student engagement and participation. Students use technology tools to help reinforce instruction and teachers may use it as a form of remediation. Technology can also help with differentiating instruction with the use of online assessments. Incorporating technology in the classroom can increase students’ success in the classroom and beyond.

According to my findings from unit 1, use of technology in lessons must not be a goal unto itself: the purpose is not to teach children how to use computers; they can do this as they get older, just as they can learn to drive a car later in their lives (Wardle, 1999).Successful technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent, accessible and readily available for the task at hand and supporting the curricular goals, and helping the students to effectively reach their goals.

In the articles “What Is The Future Of Technology In Education?” by Matt Britland and “New Class(room) War: Teacher vs Technology” by Samuel G. Freedman, two different viewpoints are expressed toward technology integration education. The authors show the implications of technology on the attitudes of teachers and students. Britland and Freedman agree that technology and theoretical framework are two inseparable facets but propose different solutions to the actions that should be taken to result in pedagogical expertise.

With the explosion of technological advances in the 21st century comes the increased need for the incorporation of technology in the educational field. The classrooms in America can all benefit from the use of technology to increase the understanding of academic content whether in the general education or special education setting.

In general, most K–12 academic settings today utilizes technology for educational and non-academic use (Helms, 2014). Researchers agree that budgeting can share a significant impact on classroom technology integration because many schools do not have the funds to pay for teacher training and all of the cost associated with maintaining technology resources (Blackwell, 2014; Chou et al., 2012; Helms, 2014). The lack of adequate technology training, support and funding can also influence teachers’ attitudes (Kirkwood et al, 2014). A gap appears to exit in empowering teachers with technology skills to implement an interactive learning experience for all learning styles (Helms, 2014).

Technology is often used for the wrong reasons in the classroom. Teachers find a new idea and jump on the “technology band wagon” without considering if this is the best use for the digital tool. When planning lessons using technology, consideration needs to made as to how the tool will enhance the lesson or will it just be an added feature.

As the Instructional Integration Technology Specialist, it is my role to teach, encourage, and provide ongoing support to classroom educators to integrate the resources and tools of technology into all subject areas. Technology is not a separate entity in the instructional learning process. It is just as significant and useful as a pencil in all of the major learning subject areas. In my position as the Instructional Integration Technology Specialist, I will be instrumental in providing authentic and needs driven training to educators begin to incorporate technology in their lesson plans. I have nine solid and successful years of doing this in a school, and with educators in the various other schools, in a major school district as a Technology Coordinator.

Teachers can use technology to teach various subjects and to find out more information on how to present a topic in a new and exciting way. Teachers can also allow students to use technology to broaden their learning experiences tremendously.

Two important aspects of using technology in the classroom to promote learning are included in our text. They are:

In classrooms today, it is important for teachers to use technology with their students, but only in a way that enhances the material being taught. For this reason, it is essential for teachers to understand the concepts of the TPACK framework. The TPACK framework includes technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge. It is obvious that a teacher must know the specific content to teach and know how to teach it, but it is less obvious to note that they must know how to effectively integrate technology into their lessons in a way that will enrich student learning. Often times, teachers place technology into their classrooms through the use of PowerPoints, laptops, iPads, etc. and do not effectively use the technology in

A rising topic among school districts across the nation is the implementation of technology into the classroom. Originally I wanted to write a paper on how schools should focus on managing the sizes of their classrooms, but that is something very difficult for an administrator to control. Technology has become increasingly more utilized in schools around America. Technology is important because it allows the teacher to find multiple ways to teach an assignment and the students learn in a hands on environment. But putting a piece of technology into every student’s hand is a tough task to ask for considering budget limitations can be very tight for some school. For our School Presentation Project, I interviewed my old middle school principal, and the topic of technology’s place in the classroom came up. He believes that technology is something that should be implemented in classrooms across the world because of how much is at the literal fingertips of the students. As a result, I believe that technology is a crucial factor in the education process of our students because it allows schools to expand and be more versatile with their teaching strategies.

Introduction. Technology incorporation in the classroom is the development, application, organization, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning. Technology is a broad term that often describes a discipline devoted to techniques or ways to make learning more efficient (Earle, R. S. 2000 ). It is the responsibility of each educator to provide an educational program that appropriately supports each child’s learning development and learning goals. In a technology based society, children must understand and prepare to be productive, independent, creative, and knowledgeable individuals. Having proper access to technology and being able to use technology is essential and will be one of the many skills necessary for future use in the workplace. Technology is a crucial tool that children use to productively carry out ideas, acquire knowledge skills, and solve problems. Technology is both customizable and intrinsically motivating to children; it is compatible to expanding the learning experience. Research on the effectiveness of technology has focused on higher education, but research also suggests that uses of specific technology can improve students of all grades learning capabilities as well.

Technology has had and will continue to have, the ability to transform society and necessity to incorporate into education to, as Bruce, 1998 simply states it, “…learn technology, learn through technology, and learn from technology.” (p. 22) Teachers, not computer technologies themselves, need to take ownership of the responsibility ensuring students learn well with any given technology. Teachers and school leadership must be willing to use the available tools appropriately, integrate into the development of lesson plans and implement in the classroom for it to be successful to support the education of students. As technology advances forward at a relentless pace,

One of the trends over the past decade has been the growing use of and interest in qualitative research for educational research. Qualitative research, broadly defined, means "any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification. Where quantitative researchers seek causal determination, prediction, and generalization of findings, qualitative researchers seek instead illumination, understanding, and extrapolation to similar situations. Qualitative analysis results in a different type of knowledge than does quantitative inquiry. " (Hoepfl, 1997) "During the past several decades, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, naturalistic