Using technology in education

 Hello everyone! As this is my first post, I would like to mention the impact of this new form of communication between us. The very first thought that came into my mind was how would I get used to it and whether I would succeed on opening an account. It turned out that opening this new "door" towards the huge world of technology was not that difficult that it would be, because the key was already given (the instructions given to us). Writing my first post, I can say I'm excited about this way of presenting my work, it seems like it is burden free of the pressure I sometimes have when presenting a topic in the real life.

 We all know education is a very complex process and the teacher's roles are endless. One of these
roles is to be a facilitator, to make the students understand the subject better. I can make a short comparison between my two teachers of history in my high-school. One of them made us read the text and later we would just reproduce the information, including names, places and especially dates. As it can be understood, the class was boring. The following year, the other teacher always used powerpoint presentations or videos, so it attracted the whole class' attention. It created a context in the class and it was very easy to remember characteristics of each period and even dates. The atmosphere in the classroom was very friendly, while the first teacher made us feel opressed. The second example has been my guide let's say, because that teacher is a role model to me. I think being an inspiration to others is the biggest achievement of a teacher.

 I think and hope that we've all been there when we have loved the lesson because the teacher used technology, but there are some more reasons to use it. As we learned from the video, there are other reasons to use techonology rather than students loving it. Using new technology allows students to: learn new skills that will help them to develop professionally; engage actively in the topic, participate in groups, interact and give feedbacks as well as to connect to the real world. I have mentioned above that creating a context in the classroom is very important for students. We live in an albanian speaking country and our students won't have the opportunity to practice English in the real life, but playing videos, tapes, podcasts in the class makes them more familiar with the language. Also, the teacher might suggest safe sites where students may virtually meet foreigners. Another advantage is that it makes students more creative. Take for example the case of founding a class or school magazine online. There might be so many hidden talents in writing, design etc who were never given the chance in the classroom to manifest their skills or are just shy to perform in front of the class.

Us as students know the importance of research, especially recently when we have had to deal with our thesis. Encouraging students to make researches on the internet, will make them even more prepared for their future and most importantly, selective and critic. Not everything we see on the internet is true, so we have to make this clear to our students in order to protect them from fake infromation. Other advantages of technology include being able to teach to all types of students, adapting to all the styles of learning. For example a powerpoint presentation in the classroom might include sound (which helps auditory learners), images (which help visual learners), and different tasks (which help kinesthetic learners).

 On the other hand, it is a very useful tool for the teachers, because they might save time by preparing tests that may be scored online as soon as the student finishes the test. It might also be easier for them to teach students the major skills such as writing, speaking, listening and writing by using techonology. In addition, to keep students informed regarding the content they’ll be tackling, us as future teachers might create and share a class calendar that details lessons and highlights important dates. And by keeping students in track, we'll help them come prepared for each class. Teachers might create polls and surveys to get instant feedback from the students with the aim of improving their own methods based on the students' opinions and needs.

 In contrast to the advantages mentioned above, there are some disadvantages related with the usage of technology in education. First of all, not all teachers know how to use it and it will affect the lesson time, also leading to a bad performance in front of the students who will be easily distracted. Secondly, schools might lack ICT support or equipments and WiFi service. Furthermore, not every student has technology at home to complete tasks given by teachers. At last, teachers need to protect their students by different threatenings that might occur in the internet.
 Based on my experience and research, there are many ways to use technology, including but not limited to: podcasts that may be interviews with the author of a book your students are reading, lessons about studying techniques and strategies, lectures from professors; images, photographs, videos; surveys or polls; blogging where students can write poems, essays or other writing tasks; online games to improve vocabulary and grammar and live-videos.

 In order to gain a better understanding of the true benefits of technology in today's classroom, further research needs to be completed on building and maintaining an effective technology plan. Since a technology plan incorporates a wide variety of components, it would be beneficial to have data on how the components work together. Additionally, more research is needed to make conclusions regarding individual strategies that work best when integrating technology into the classroom. As educators seek out new ways to engage and motivate students with technology, it would be useful to have specific benefits of technology routines, methods, and practices that show the greatest achievement gains in student learning. By continuing to inquire about best practices at conferences and through teacher-mentor programs, researchers can begin to gather that data and make conclusions about what works best.

 To sum up, with the assistance of technology, teachers and students can both improve their learning and refine skills necessary for tomorrow. It goes without saying that all students can show positive achievement gains when paired with effective classroom instruction. Through professional development and follow-support, teachers can provide the valuable classroom instruction needed for students to succeed.



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