ipad

I recently obtained an ipad as part of an event give-away within the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education (JRCoE). The event is part of a pilot program at OU (One University digital initiative) to encourage teachers to incorporate technology into classrooms because technology is becoming a domineering factor in most people’s lives. The JRCoE hopes that by instructing future teachers in how to use technology in a classroom, that they’ll be better able to reach their students.

image from: theregister.co.uk

Being eligible to receive one I was naturally excited, and still am, even though it isn’t something that I would spend my own money on. The consumer in me liked being able to call a touch-screen product my own, and opening the heavy cardboard box, as a group at one of the giveaways, only increased my excitement. In fact, initially I thought that it had to be a scam- who would give away over 500 ipad’s to undergraduate students?

John Dewey, image from: dewey.pragmatism.org

I know that OU is trying to educate the “next generation of teachers” in a technologically advanced way. Incorporating technology changes how students learn. Many educational philosophers, such John Dewey, believe that students will engage more in learning if they actively engaged in the learning process. By encouraging students to take on a more active role in their own education, they are more likely to remember it as it will be more meaningful to the students. Although the use of technology isn’t what Dewey had in mind for engaging students in the learning process, students are actively making decisions about how to convey information, especially when the information is at their fingertips what with phones, tablets, computers and the internet.

However there are also concerns about the effects that technology will have in the classroom.  Todd Oppenheimer , a speaker on Digital Nation comments on how he believes that incorporating technology will only increase students want for “instant gratification and that schools will no longer be places of “discipline.” There is a fear that the widespread use of technology won’t instill necessary traits for things such as problem solving, and the social skills necessary for engaging in a group-oriented workplace.

Image from: securedgenetworks.com

I believe that technology will be incorporated into the classroom, regardless of whether people think it is good or bad, because that is the way that we as a culture are heading; technology is becoming increasingly more important to our lives and our way of life is changing to reflect it (i.e. phones that can connect to the internet, cars that have built in GPS systems).  As such I think that it would be more useful to focus on how we want to implement technology in the classroom, not on whether or not it should be implemented.