Technology in the classroom

[Courtney Zobrist]

Technology has become a large part of the education system. Where do you think technology will be in 5-10 years in our classrooms? There is a large push for it now, but there is little funding to go around and districts seemed to be so limited. Do you think more funding will be available for technology, will districts be more up to date with the latest pieces of technology?

[Mike Bower]

It is hard to tell where technology will be in 5-10 years, let alone 2 years.  I think there will be iPads or notebooks in almost every school, especially with how we are seeing them integrated today.  There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of apps designated for classrooms quite yet, however in the next 10 years I could see an educational iPad.  I'm not exactly sure what this would consist of but I think having an iPad designated specifically for classrooms would be a great idea.  I think it would be interesting to hear others opinions of what technology we might see in the future.  I think school districts will work to get grants to get these technologies in their schools or find the funding somehow.  Technology is advancing in education now, and I think school districts are realizing this.

[Elizabeth Doye]

It's impossible to tell where technology itself will be in 5-10 years but I am certain that its presence will have grown tremendously in our classrooms.  As new teachers enter the field I think there will be a greater internal push for technology in the classroom.  In my clinical last semester, my cooperating teacher who is a year away from retirement was embracing new technology and finding ways to use her SMART board in her lessons.  I found it really great to see a veteran teacher disproving the idea that they all are not interested in changing their ways to incorporate new technology.

As time progresses I am sure districts will dedicate more money to technology to be used in schools as more people realize the importance of teaching our students skills for the 21st century along with the traditional core curriculum.  It is crucial, however, that districts ensure that their teachers are properly trained in the use of the new tools so that they get a real value out of their purchase.  

It is hard to say if there will be more funding; I certainly hope there will be as our economy recovers and people continue to advocate for school funding.  As technology is on the market for a few years the cost of it typically decreases and hopefully schools can capitalize on that and update their resources.  I don't think that schools necessarily need to have the absolute newest technology (unless it is AT to help a student succeed) for their students to become adept in 21st century skills.  We could benefit to use technology that has been out for a year or two as people will be better educated in how to use it and to train teachers.  Also this will allow time for "the bugs" to be worked out so that schools have fewer problems with the technology that they are allocating precious funds to.  I also hope that producers of technology continue to try to create less expensive pieces of equipment to be used specifically in schools.  They will greatly benefit from this because as they make it more possible for students to use technology in their classrooms, they will be building a large base of future consumers interested in using technology and buying their products.