journal #7

In the article, What is your favorite Ed Tech Tool? the author, Paul Wurster, explains the results of an Ed Tech Poll taken. The question posed was: Which group below would you choose as the most effective for teaching and learning over the past 30 years? With the most votes were Internet tools/Resources receiving 332 votes, 37%. General Productivity Tools came in second with 209 votes, 23%, followed by Interactive Whiteboards and Projectors, 151 votes, 17%. Coming in the rear was Web 2.0 Tools with 137 votes, 15%, and Portable Digital Devices with 70 votes, 8%. The total votes received were 899.

So what do the results of this poll tell us?

This poll shows that more and more teachers are incorporating technology into their classrooms. Many teachers find that technology is an additive to interactive learning. Paul Wurston tells us, “I feel that the open access that we have to the internet is one of the catalysts in the classroom, in teaching, and just living and working in today’s society” But we should also keep in mind that students can still benefit from interactive whiteboard learning which allows the student to perform and not just read about a subject. As Jan Williams of Horizon Elementary in Kent, Washington tells us, “I believe interactive whiteboards and projectors have helped students VISUALLY see and understand the information presented. Gone are the days of long lectures. Students are engaged and actively involved and creating their own learning.” The article also tells us that other benefits to technological use in the classroom is that information can be shared across greater boundaries, to the district, state and beyond.

Does technology really add to an instructor’s lessen plan or take away from it?

Teacher’s should remember that nothing substitutes for face to face interactions but technology can be a helpful way to encourage student learning. As Paul Wurston writes, “The ability of teachers to use productivity tools such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Publisher to create and electronically save instructional materials is a powerful thing much taken for granted, yet we’ve had that ability widely available for the past 20 years. Without this ability, lessons would have to be created from scratch over and over, every year, wasting valuable time that could be spent improving and refining last year’s lesson.”