Technology has become a very prominent part of education over the recent years. As most people know it is required of students to take a certain number of technology classes in high school in order to graduate. These classes range from learning how to do graphical design, basic typing, and learning how to use basic computer software. However, now technology is being used in various ways in every classroom from high school, all the way down to the Pre-K level.
My mother is a Pre-K teacher back in my hometown. She has been teaching for over 20 years and has had to change her teaching methods multiple times due to the continuous changes in technology. She now has the use of 5 computers in her classroom, about 10 ipods, and the new Apple Smart board to teach her 3 and 4-year-old kids. She uses the computers to teach different counting techniques and to help her students learn letters. The ipods have different apps that the kids learn to use throughout the year to further enhance their learning. All of these types of technology not only teach the students the basic skills they are required to learn, the alphabet, counting, etc., but they also begin to teach the children how to use and navigate the Internet through various types of technology. As these kids learn how to use these technologies, I feel that it is taking away from what they truly need to be learning. By using technology, you require the students to not only learn the material they are required too but also how to use the technologies which is requiring them to learn and process much more information then ever before. If technology is to continue to be a significant part of education, can we still require students to retain as much information as in the past? Or should we hold them to a higher standard due to the fact that they now have more information available to them?
I feel like technology shouldn't be used as an excuse to make the work load bigger for students, but as tool to help them understand the curriculum better.
ReplyDeleteWow they use iPods in Pre-K. Although its kind of cool that kids are getting to use new technology to help aid their learning. But it also scares me because it looks like we are starting our children's addiction to technology at an even younger age. I was looking at iPhone 4 covers with my boyfriend the other day and saw a Yo Gabagaba cover and it seemed crazy that a kid so young would have an iPhone or any phone for that matter.
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