Honestly, I’m not sure what I think classrooms should do about integrating technology into the students daily life. I do understand that every student does learn their own way and that teachers should be able to teach many different ways for each of the learning styles. Students learn at different paces. Depending on their each individual interests, they will thrive in different subjects.
Working in a public school, I can see that teachers are not always giving the students the ability to learn independently. Most of the teachers at my school are veteran teachers and they are stuck in their ways, not saying that their ways are wrong but just saying that they only have one style of teaching. I think that it is important for the students to be able to have many different styles of teachers. In our school the first and second grades have access to iPads in their classrooms. In the third and fourth grade classrooms they have Nobi’s which are mini laptops. The students also attend a computer class once a week. Most of the teachers know how to use the iPads and Nobi's but they are only used during free time or to play a game to go along with the lesson. When using this technology, it is up to the students to figure it out on their own and most of them are great at it. If they are struggling they are encouraged to ask three friends before asking the teacher. This works well because its up to the students to teach each other. Usually while this is happening the teacher has a small group of students, whether they are high learners or low learners, to give them further information and time to understand the lesson.
I found it interesting to read that students need to rely on their own sense of satisfaction and not have someone always telling them that they did a great job. Once this is achieved, they will depend on themselves to get the job done and done well. Once they are independently learning and finding more information on their own that is when they will completely understand a certain topic. When students utilize technology as a tool, they are actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate or display information. Students are then put in the position to define their own goals to get where they will be able to meet those requirements and standards.
Something else that I found that works is, this past year the teacher whose room I worked in would let students be the teacher by running a spelling lesson. The teacher would take the seat of the student and follow along while the student became the teacher. This was giving the student the ability to learn in a new way and they also learned how to teach. It gave the student more confidence, and the ability to critique themselves.
Giving students the freedom to use technology could definitely make their learning experience a better one. It would give them the ability to find more information on their favorite subjects or the subject at hand. I'm sure that if students had this freedom to use when they needed further information that textbooks and research books could not provide for them, their projects would be more interesting. Therefor, their learning experiences are enhanced. It all boils down to the type of technology that teachers use within the classroom. Being able to show the students how to use the technology the correct way and having guidelines for the students to follow will only help them succeed even more and be able to meet academic goals.
