Technology in the Classroom

During the Summer Institue at Eastern Washington University I did not only take part in languages and content classes, I also wanted to find out more about the importance of technology in the American classroom.

We visited more than ten schools in five weeks, from preschools to colleges and universities. In every school I found a huge amount of technology. Some schools offered technology carts to their teachers with laptops, others had several desktop pcs in every! classroom.

At the writing center at Eastern I found a state-of-the-art tech cart. It was an wheels, which made it easy to transport it. On the cart every imaginable piece of technology was present: document camera, ipod dock, tablet pc, dvd player, projector and even a portable screen for the projector.

When talking about tools that teachers use in the classroom I found out that the internet is big in the United States. Teachers seem to love wikis and blogs to stay in contact with the students after school. Programs like this help to keep up with English writing and to serve a diverse class with optional information. If you integrate them in classroom management software like moodle and blackboard it guides the students throught the lessons.

All teachers I talked to agreed, that those tools are very helpful. However, they also all agreed that they miss support while using them. Teachers complained, that there is hardly any training and follow ups. Additionally, teachers said that they felt that they need to invest a lot of time in the beginning.

I totally agree with the teachers I talked to. I love using technology in the classroom but you should not use it a) just for the sake of it and b) you don't know how to use it properly. So there should be an expert about educational techology in every school, which supports the teachers when they struggle. If you know that there is somebody that can help you with a tool, you are also more willing to try out new things and loose you fear. - I could even imagine to be the educational techology expert at my future school.