Educational Technology Philosophy

Educational technology is an ever growing and changing field in education. It is important for teachers to develop their own philosophy concerning the use of technology in their professions. Before one can successfully use technology as tool for learning, one has to determine his/her approach, objectives, and roles in this area.

Education should be meaningful to all students. In order to do this, teachers must connect the curriculum to students’ lives. Students must be able to see how the technology they are using will help them beyond school. Teachers should mold their students so that when they leave school they have a stronger sense of their place in the world. Education should help students develop their strengths and passions before going to college. Using critical thinking and strong problem solving skills is also necessary for our students. The increasing amount of information available on the Internet means that our students will need these skills more now than ever before.

In the area of educational technology, teachers must be students. Technology is constantly changing and teachers must keep-up in order to stay up-to-date with their students. Teachers using old, outdated technology will quickly lose their students’ interest and motivation. Teachers also have to see technology as a tool to teach lessons and not as the lesson itself. Too often, they get caught-up in using a new software program because it’s fun and cool, but what are the students actually learning? Teachers have to be automators of technology. Instead of asking, “What cool new gadgets can I buy for my classroom?” they need to be thinking, “What information do I want my students to learn and how do I want them to access that information? Is there any technology that can help us with that goal?”

When teaching with technology, teachers need to be facilitators, not dictators. They may provide guidelines and criteria, but ultimately, they should allow their students enough freedom to discovery information and create products themselves. Our students’ relationship with technology is one of discovery. Teachers must realize our students are much more comfortable with trial and error learning then their teachers. As previously stated, teachers should be concerned with the information students are finding, but let the students figure out how to find that information and how to produce it for the class.

As an English teacher, my ultimate goals are to have students who can read a piece of literature and discuss it in a meaningful way and express their opinions well when writing. Technology can help me achieve these goals. Blogging and social networking are great tools to help my students express opinions and share feedback. There are also peer editing and presentation tools to help students share information. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to help students determine credible information from misleading information. Students must also be taught safety when it comes to communicating on the Internet.

School districts and individual schools should offer teachers ample opportunities to learn how to incorporate technology into their curriculum. Teachers should also form a network to share curriculum, successes, and even failures in order to help each other with educational technology.
With the right vision, teachers, including myself, can successfully implement technology as a tool for motivation, engaging, and educating our students in the 21st century.