“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.
The curriculum is so much a necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” – Carl Jung
Talking about teaching, the first thing that come to my mind is the teacher who always encouraged me to do better and not that tech stuff that helped me do better. The personal touch acts as the driving force to humans. Technology does make education better by opening new opportunities and making ways for better resources, communication, collaboration, enhancing various skills and a lot more good things. But in order to get the best out of it what plays a key role is the teacher guiding and helping us to do that and believing in us that we can do that.
There is no doubt that technology is essential but one thing that must be clear is that tech integration does not aim to eliminate the private touch to teaching. Humans can’t be replaced with machines.
Check out the pointers below to get a gist of what role does technology plays in various teaching models. In other words, to what extent does the technology-aided means of learning enhance learning and add value to the conventional materials? How are they supposed to supersede or excel the learning effectiveness of traditional methods of teaching?
BYOD
Here, students bring their own device to the classroom and integrate technology in their practices and have authority over their learning. With BYOD in practice, students not only have access to the device in the classroom but also when they are outside the class, hence a balance must be struck. The trick is to teach students use these devices optically.
While researching for what you’re reading, I referred this TeachThough’s article on The Brutal Authenticity of BYOD which talks of for Forsyth County Schools and their approach towards BYOD model of teaching.
Tim Clark, District Instructional Technology Specialist (ITS) for Forsyth County Schools, explained the shift that occurred once students brought in their own technology. “As the teachers began to introduce BYOD* into their classrooms, some fundamental changes began to occur. They no longer had to teach their students about technology in order to integrate technology effectively in their classrooms because the students were already the experts with their own devices.”
But there’s more. Clark also touts more important benefits of BYOD—those that lead to better learning.
“This change in practice (adopting a BYOD program) can evolve as the teachers allow themselves to become collaborators with their students in the learning process. When the students first bring in their technology devices, they are immediately engaged and want to explore all of the possible capabilities of the technology. This initial phase of exploration passes quickly as the students become more literate in their devices and learn how to connect them to the BYOD wireless network. The teacher and the students then begin to adapt their technologies to their current classroom practices.”
Check out the full post here.
Blended Learning
I find this approach to teaching of great use. Blend the use of multimedia, social media, offline teaching, online teaching and on-hands activities to make the best out of everything. In context to blended learning, Laura Fleming quotes, “The library today is a place where knowledge is created and not merely consumed.”
With various types of resources, students get to learn with what they find best. Also, the engagement is at best as they are being able to explore more in a very engaged manner. Also, the various approaches used in this teaching model are loved by most kids so practically they learn to use their technologies in efficient manner and for the good reasons.
Flipped Learning
Apart from hybrid learning this is another type of blended learning approach where a student is first exposed to new material outside of class, usually in the form of an online presentation. When the student attends sessions in classroom setting, the class time is used to apply the material in the form of problem-solving and discussion. In this scenario, the use of technology can be of great deal. With technologies like augmented reality, the experience of teaching can be taken to another level. Imagine studying about planets with augmented reality where education comes to life and the balance can be struck when students get to discuss about it with their peers and teachers in the classroom thereby pacing ways to communicate personally.
We ourselves say that technology becomes obsolete and changes constantly, in such scenario the only constant is the teachers. They are the ones who are driving this learning spirit among students, day by day, motivating, pushing and guiding students to do better every day making them realize their dreams and achieve more than what they think they can. Living in this constantly changing world of web 2.0, it is important to use it and find a core purpose and focus on it else it will leave you confused and frustrated. You may try your hand at new technologies and in my opinion you should but before implementing it for all you have to be SURE.
What are your views on tech integration in education? Where do you find your balance?
Next Read: Balancing the Use of 21st Century Educational Technology with Real Life Experience in the Classroom
