Adapting Technology to the Classroom

As more schools adapt a technology-approach to learning, we are beginning to see the challenges they are faced with. However, we are also seeing the benefits and impacts technology can have when adapted correctly into a classroom.

Larissa Pahomov, an English and Journalism at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, gave us the three questions teachers should consider in order to make this adaptation easier and more meaningful.

1. What am I already doing well and how can technology support that?
2. Will technology get in the way of my classroom’s best practices?
3. Where is the possibility for tech to transform my teaching?

By breaking these questions down, we can see the steps that we need to take, to truly see the benefits of using technology in the classroom.

What am I already doing well and how can technology support that? Teachers are already accountable for what happens in their classroom. They are also responsible for providing feedback to the principals, parents, school boards, and the students themselves. With so many people involved in the process, technology can help to send the right stakeholders the right information, faster and conveniently.

A big hesitation heard when discussing educational technology is that they will be a distraction for students. They’ll be more interested in playing games on the new devices rather than do the work they are assigned.

By completing a class survey online or by using their phones during the lecture, it was found that not only are students integrating the technology, but they are able to keep the technology use focused, and on topic. Students have to listen to the lecture in order to answer the survey, keeping their attention on the teacher. Cloud-based brainstorming activities also involve the technology in a way that keeps students focused, but engaged.

History is littered with failed attempts to “revolutionize” learning through innovative technology. Fortunately, these struggles have taught us one very important lesson: in order for technology to improve learning, it must “fit” into students’ lives…not the other way around. As a result, E-Learning was born. -Clarke, 2002   

Will technology get in the way of my classroom’s best practices? The purpose of educational technology is not to replace every previous practice used in classrooms. We still know children learn best when they have written something physically. But technology gives more avenues for learning than previously thought possible.

There is no magic wand; nothing is faultless…You’re right to be skeptical, and to ask tough questions. We’re here to rethink teaching and learning from the ground up. Where are we now; and where are we going? And crucially, what’s possible? -Terry Heick

We now have the ability to have children ask the teacher for homework help from home; or even better, discuss the problems with their fellow students on a class forum.

Where is the possibility for tech to transform my teaching? 

The possibility to redefine the role of the teacher exists with technology. It can allow for a teacher’s content expertise to shine and showcase their coaching ability. Now that technology makes it more natural for students to work harder than the teacher, what they really need is guidance in next steps, not to be told the step by step process. Technology allows the students to make their own discoveries with the teacher monitoring their success and occasionally pointing them in a better direction.

By investigating and answering these three questions, teachers can ask how technology can fit in their classroom and the needs of their students on a daily basis; and by adapting it correctly ensures a seamless and meaningful transition.