Technology And Education

Humans always has tried to develop gadgets that makes their lives easier. Fire, paper, wheel, computer, electricity and so on. So, everything that made by humans to make their lives easier can be called as technology. Engineering and industry always associated with technology, but all branches of the science are correlated with nowadays’ technology and many technological devices, tools and gadgets can be used out of their purposes. Many technologies are developed for army, or big companies. For example, PowerPoint software program is developed for use of companies, yet it can be used in many different areas, like education, science.

Until the end of the 20^th century, just a few of technologies had developed for education. But teachers and some other developers changed these technologies and make it usable in education. Nowadays, many technology companies understand the importance of education and technology based lessons and its market value, and they started to develop some useful tools, software and gadgets for schools and teachers.

We as a teachers need to understand the importance of the using technology in the lessons. Technology, especially computer based technologies, are in our lives from now on. Students can get many information with one click form anywhere and at any time. Many of the students are playing games in their computers and phones. The concept of phone has changed. They are like computers moreover many of them are more powerful then computers. They are being exposed that much of technology in their daily life and when they come the class they do not want to see old fashion lecture. They want to see same technology in the classes, so they can feel comfortable and interested in lessons.

The most important crash in here is the teachers; old teachers who are not able to follow new technologies and who cannot adopt them into their lessons. Think about it! You are living with technology, you have computer, smart-phone, smart-tv in your home, you can reach the internet from everywhere and at any time, and when you enter the classes you are using pen/pencil and paper for all lecture, for 40 minutes. Isn’t it boring? Can you be interested in the lesson anymore? I do not think so. Teachers should understand that they should use the technology, they shouldn’t escape of it; anyway, even if they try, cannot escape.

When we say to the teachers these above, questions come “how can we adopt it, while we do not know to use it?”, or “There many technologies how can we know which one is the best for my classes?” and these goes and goes. John Dewey says “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”. We are teachers and if we did not understand the education in this way how can we educate our students? We have to educate ourselves, improve our skills, enhance our visions; so we can be teachers. Think a student who says I do not know how to use letters, or How can I know which of the numbers fit purposes? Can you imagine a student like that? What will be your reaction to the student? Can you say: OK! Doesn’t problem you can do how do you want to, you can use which do you want, or you try to make his/her to understand the importance of the letters, numbers and so on.

We are also students. We will learn many things we didn’t know, even we couldn’t imagine. If we stop to learn and be a student we cannot be a teacher, a good teacher. If we want from our students to think out of box, we need to know how this box is big and we should try to imagine how outside of it can be. Thus, we can guide them to think different and deeper than us. Class environment can be more productive when students start to discuss and think. While they follow every technological development and we cannot follow it, we lost their interest to the class, and us.

I will use as many technology as in my class when I become a teacher. However, using technology needs to be careful about it. The technology that we used should be appropriate for the subject, and should fit needs of us and students. We have to consider the students, time consuming, class management and applicability of it. Many of the students can distract easily, many of them cannot know how to use these technologies or cannot understand the main concept. To sum up, technology is in our lives and as John Dewey says “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”, so one way or another, we need to use technology in classes. The main issue is “which and how?”, and this is upon us. Stay educated and be a good teacher!🏫📏📐😉