Integrating Technology

Learning with Technology Interview – Real World Technology Use

This past week, I had the pleasure to sit down with a high school marketing teacher and interview them about education today.  The purpose of this interview was to gain an educator’s perspective on integration of technology in the classroom in the 21st century..  The teacher  I was able to speak with has been teaching for a number of years in our district.   They have taught the classes of ICT; Information and Communication Technology, and now are currently teaching Business Marketing.  Also, they have had the experience of teaching at multiple schools within our district, giving them an opportunity to validate if there is consistency in the district’s implementation of technology to students various classes.  I asked five basic questions to guide the interview gaining their knowledge, beliefs, and learning expectations regarding the integration of technology in the classroom.  The five questions were as follows:

o How important do you think the integration of technology into a teacher’s curriculum and lesson plans are? Why?

o Do you have requirements on the amount of  knowledge of technology you expect your student to learn by the end of your curriculum?

o How do you implement these standards and requirements to satisfy the learning expectations?  (Software, Lesson Plans)

o Does the difference in student’s academic ability to complete the required work according to your lesson plan affect the implementation of the curriculum?

o Is there anything you would change about the required use and/or standards of technology in the classroom for both teachers and students?

The teacher’s beliefs on the importance of the integration of technology into a teachers curriculum they believed was extremely significant for a variety of reasons.  Integration of technology in the classroom allows a teacher to mix and match multiple teaching styles in a single instructional period.  A teacher can do a lecture.  They can also implement and use PowerPoint as an assistant to add notes their lecture if they so choose.   A teacher can maybe use a podcast in efforts to keep the students aware and engaged, giving them a different voice to hear.  There were many options at their disposal. Their department also uses Mimio, which the teacher greatly praised.  Mimio is an educational package their department has ordered which emphasizes

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adaptive instruction with their students.  Mimio takes commonly used resources in the classrooms and puts an interactive spin on them for group instruction, formative assessment, collaborative learning, and student centered interactive learing. Mimio provides downloadable programs for all subjects and curriculums that can be used on smart boards, whiteboards, or even projectors, making teacher's resources interactive for the further engagement of students.

These commonly used teachers resources, which they felt provided great assistance with both, teachers ability to bring course content in a more engaging way, and for students a more conducive environment to be motivated and enjoy learning in.  Despite the variety of resources that are at a teachers disposal, for both students and teachers, there are requirements that are expected of the student in both classes, ICT and Business Marketing.  ICT is required course students are expected to successfully complete their freshman year to be able to take business marketing in their later years of high school.  The teacher explained that ICT was a class that taught students the basic use of the software provided in Microsoft Office Suite. Software such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Publisher.  In the Business Marketing course, the curriculum builds upon those learned skills of Microsoft Office Suite in ICT, through consistent application in various projects throughout the curriculum.  
In Business Marketing, each project places a strong emphasis on the key parts of each individual software application in the Microsoft Office Suite.  Through successful completion of each project, the final project incorporates use of all the skills learned through group collaboration among the students.

                         

On the opposite spectrum, the teacher did notice there is variations in students learning abilities when I inquired about whether or not the different academic abilities of the students affect the teachers ability to consistently implement similar content for all students despite their availability of resources.  Some students come in with a extensive knowledge of technology as opposed to some who don’t even  have access to technology outside the school.  For that reason, they make it their departments responsibility to emphasize the concept of “teamwork”. They expect students to  collaborate on the projects distributed throughout the curriculum.

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The teacher stressed how it may be a complication for the all the teachers in the department to consistently reach all students.  The problem that this presents in regard to the implementation and learning expectations with students was answered by a simple solution. Students are asked to consistently share, guide, and instruct each other on the common goal set and required by teacher’s lesson plan.

As for how the teacher felt about the current standards set for both teachers and students in concerns to the integration of technology. Respecting that technology is not the teaching style or even a personal priority for all, they felt there should be a base foundation of expected knowledge for all educators.  Going back to their belief of the significance of integration of technology within the classroom, if technology is going to be, not only a powerful asset to a student’s future, but may even be a required skill in many careers nowadays, there should be a common use of it in all classrooms.  An example is students being required to use a digital portfolio.  This digital portfolio of the student is accessible by all teachers.  If the student is working on an assignment required by the Social Studies department, keeping it in their digital portfolio the English department can access it and proofread the assignment through the student’s digital portfolio.  The training of this basic use of a digital portfolio for teachers and cross collaboration among departments would be instructed to teachers through workshops.

The interview from this teacher definitely gave me another perspective on the integration of technology in the classroom.  I strongly agreed when the teacher respectfully, technology may not be the teaching style or even a personal priority for all teachers, but it’s the student’s future we are building that takes precedent despite our priorities.  The use of technology is vital to the student's success, whatever path the student chooses to go.  Educators can and should keep their style, but at the same time, as times change,  educators need to adapt their personal styles with these changing times in order to ensure we are providing the most adequate education for our student’s future endeavors.