Technology has the Ability to Enhance Education

In John Seely Brown's book he states in chapter two that technology has the power to enhance education and learning. It opens up new doors for teachers to teach with and for learners to learn with. He also makes a case saying that just by putting computers in a school does not necessarily mean the students are going to benefit from them. Teachers need to be able to use technology efficiently and effectively. There are programs and tools that bring interactive learning models to the classroom.

Some of the skills I want to build in my students as a social studies teacher is research and study skills. Often in social studies and many times in other subjects students are asked to to research on a particular topic. There are many websites, databases, and programs out there that I want to make my students aware of and be able to get the most out of. These tool are essential for their learning now and especially in the future.

One instance I saw effective use of technology in the classroom, was a stock market class I took in high school. In this class we used a programs where we had to research, then buy and sell stocks. We were assembled in teams and we competed against each other and also other teams in the state.

Technology is everywhere and its about time to use all these resources in education. I would like to see more professional development of teachers in the area of technology so the school as a whole is able to benefit from these advancements.