Digital Concept Map

*All words used in the concept map are highlighted in the explanation.

Educational Technology means rearranging our teaching practices and curriculum in order to best educate the 21st century learner. This is why I made 21st century learner my largest phrase. Essentially everything thing else on my concept map describes or explains how to teach these students. Today’s learners need ease of access, motivational activities, and participation. They are parallel thinkers and multi-taskers. Our students use computers, Internet, video, television, social networking, MP3 players, cell phones, and smart boards, among many other things. When considering the reality of educational training, I felt it was important to include digital natives and digital immigrants in my concept map. This is really what makes incorporating technology into our curriculum so difficult. For teachers to be successful in incorporating technology into the classroom, we have to be committed, relearn how to be successful, teach reflection processes, figure out how to grade new technology products accurately, and manage money and time technology integration takes effectively. The impact of using technology in the classroom is great. Out students will be experience increased motivation, creativity, engagement, and connectivity to the world. As teachers, we will be able to expand our lesson beyond the classroom and cater to many different learning styles.