Blog Reflection Week Two (Chapter One)

1. My understanding on educational technology and its relationship with teaching and learning process.

Education is most likely one of the most complicated institutions today. Meeting the needs of each individual student is a high order. To add to the high order, students today were born into a blossoming technology age which now infiltrates our every aspect of life. Thus, utilizing technology as an educational tool has become more and more important.

Educational technology includes a vast realm of ideas and products, but can be narrowed down, according to the text, to include any technology that teachers use to supplement education. In essence, it should not be the end itself, but a means to an end. To begin, this requires that educators are equipped with the knowledge and skill to teach technologies in the classroom. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has paved the way by developing competencies in which a teacher of today’s children should be proficient. Where technology literacy was once considered the exception, it is now accepted nationally as the rule. In fact, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) now recognizes technological competencies as a requirement for teachers. This is because technology is now viewed as a vital partner in the teaching and learning process.

The teaching and learning process can be simply explained as the transferring and receiving of knowledge. An educator uses well-planned instructional events to effectively transfer knowledge and skills. This transference is often affected by environmental factors, psychological factors, and personal filters. Each of these obstacles can challenge successful transfer of knowledge. Learning is furthermore affected by a student’s cognitive style (the way in which they think and interprets), learning style (condition under which a child learns best), and intelligence (inherent capabilities to learn and understand). Different schools of thought argue their perspective on learning theories: the behaviorist theory, the cognitive theory, and the constructive theory. Fortunately, teachers are not forced to conform to one single theory, since a combination of theories may best suit the teacher’s beliefs about teaching and learning. Teachers should, however, examine themselves to decide which theories will be used to design their own style of teaching.

Once the teaching and learning process is understood as a system of varying styles, the use of technology to enhance learning becomes an obvious partnership. Technology is multi-dimensional and can impact all types of cognitive and learning styles. For example, a student can hear a story about World War II, but if they are able to hear a soundclip and see pictures or video taken during the war, they’re learning experience is more meaningful. In my opinion, when learning experiences are meaningful to the student, they are more likely to absorb and retain the knowledge that is being transferred. Thus, the implementation of technology promotes a higher level of effectiveness during the teaching and learning process because it aides in creating more meaningful learning experiences.

Resource: Lever-Duffy and McDonald, Teaching and Learning with Technology, 3rd ed.