New Age Classrooms

After watching Classroom of Tomorrow, it amazes me how much technology can be used in the classroom. I have seen a lot of use of smart boards and projectors, but that seems to be just the starting point at what can really be done in the classroom. I worry that not all classes are able to afford this kind of technology in the classroom. It is a bit ideological that students will be able to use their phones to pull up a PowerPoint to present to the class. My student teaching placements where in city schools where few students even had paper and pencils to bring to class. I know schools are constantly developing and moving towards better classrooms, however I'd still prefer schools to spend more money on having more teachers with smaller classrooms than to provide an IPad to each student. I guess in that sense I am a little old fashioned. I hope that progress continues to happen and that classrooms do continue to grow. The best investment to make is toward the education of our future generations. I believe that technology is a great tool to use in the classroom. Students are usually tech savvy and are more than willing to show what they can do on a computer. I think technology education is also important because many of their future careers may be based on the functioning and operations of the technology that is available today. Students need to be well prepared for the ever growing world around them.

 

Another video that I enjoyed watching was A Vision of 21st Century Teachers. The video started of with the quote, "adapting and evolving, teachers digitally empower diverse learners to connect, communicate, collaborate, and create in an interactive technology-rich environment." This could not be more accurate. Teachers are the window to helping students use technology in a productive and empowering way. With our help and guidance students can learn to communicate with each other and produce material that is relative to them yet using advances in technology as the medium in which it is shared. I also enjoy that they ended the video with the quote, "who dare to teach must never cease to learn." With a constantly changing world, teachers need to always be adapting and learning new and better ways to communicate and teach with their students. The video gave a lot of examples of how those teachers are, but you could also see that they spend hours researching newer and better ways to develop their classrooms. The video is a good way to inspire teachers to always be willing to learn something new about the benefits of technology in the classroom.

References:
smart board photo
IPad photo
Never Stop Learning Photo