Although technology is the future of education, it is the
teachers’ guidance that allows this way of teaching to be successful. Hew &
Brush (2007) said, “integration of technology is typically affected by the
following three factors: teachers’ technology skills, teachers’ technology
beliefs, and teachers’ perceived technology barriers.” Therefore without the
correct technological skills and knowledge, it is uncertain whether or not the
true impact of learning with technology will influence children, “teacher
inexperience and skill deficiencies may often be an important factor inhibiting
the effectiveness of ICT use in education by students,”( http://www.infodev.org/articles/teachers-teaching-and-icts,
no date)
With the continuous evolution in the world of technology, it
is clear that the skills set that teachers presently have will no longer
suffice. “Children should be finding out
about and identifying the uses of technology in their everyday lives,” (Siraj-
Blatchford, 2000), therefore it is obliged for teachers to expand their ICT
skills to accommodate children’s rights to learn with various multimedia. Therefore
it is important for the pedagogy to change in many schools. In comparison with
my personal experiences, the ICT skills that my teachers had were very limited
compared to what is required with teachers in today’s classrooms because the
quantity of multimedia in my class were very limited and occasionally absent so
the teachers’ and the pupils ICT skills were very basic. In my primary school,
the teachers’ skills were limited to just the computer and maybe an Interactive
Whiteboard. But for the future of education, practitioners need further
training to use Interactive Whiteboards, ipads, apps and become familiar with
the futuristic virtual tools that are becoming more common in classrooms to
keep up with the technology rather than the technology taking over their
occupations, which is already proven in existence with the Steve Jobs Schools
and the increasing influence of Gamification in schools.
Hew, K.,
Brush, T. & Glazewski, K. (2008). Development of an instrument to measure
preservice teachers’ technology skills, technology beliefs, and technology
barriers. Computersin the schools. Vol
25. pp.112.
Siraj-
Blatchford, I. & Siraj- Blatchford, J. (2000). More than Computers: Information and Communications Technology in the
Early Years. London.
I agree with Sara, teachers should continue to train and have the confidence in using the technology that could benefit a child’s education. I see where you’re coming from when you say that some teachers don’t want to change the way they teach, they see their teaching styles are working so why do they need technology now? Which is a fair enough point as when we were children we dealt with having very little use of technology as we didn’t know any different. However, now that the technology is there for them to use, I think the best way forward is to have the teachers fully trained on each bit of technology. Technology will always change, so therefore teachers should go on training courses every few months to keep updated with all the changes for the child’s sake (KSBC, 2014)
ReplyDeleteKSBC, (2014) Technology is always changing; if you want your business to survive, you’re going to need to change with it. [Online] Available at: http://www.ksbc.co.uk/knowledge/technology-is-always-changing/ Accessed on: 19/01/17
I also agree with what Sara and Jodie are saying in regards to the requirement of teachers attending training courses to become more competent and confident in using technology. On the other hand, I must agree with Jodie’s statement only to some extent regarding practitioners attending training courses on a regular basis. In some instances, many practitioners; often the older generation of teachers still feel uncertain about using technologies within their practice, although training has already been provided. In a study, it was discovered that there was a lack of confidence when using technology. This came because of the level of qualification the practitioners possessed and also their age. (Marsh, 2005)
ReplyDeleteFrom this I am suggesting that although training can assist a practitioner who lacks confidence to some extent, there may always be a degree of uncertainty surrounding their confidence when using technology.
Aubrey, C. & Dahl, S. (2014) ‘The Confidence and Competence in Information and Communication Technologies of Practitioners, Parents and Young Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage’ Journal of International Research & Development. Vol. 34 (1), pp.94-108