Chapter 2 Thoughts and Agreements, Concerns and More

After reading through chapter two, there are some things floating around my mind...


A Constructivist at Heart

While it is clear that most people are some combination of both directed and constructivist approaches to learning, I can't help but feel that I lean more toward constructivist tendencies myself. I feel that it is important for students to be allowed some measure of creative freedom to show what they have learned, and that standardization and the testing that has accompanied its heavy emphasis currently do more harm than good. It is important to hold both teachers and students accountable for students' education, but there is so much attention and emphasis placed on this that I can't help but feel like it is getting in the way of true learning more often than not. Too frequently is there such great emphasis placed on memorization, and "test taking skills," rather than exploring a subject and actually learning something that students can take away from class and use.


Non-use of Technology

This is something to carefully examine both before and after implementing new technology in the classroom/school setting. It often seems like, both in the place of students and teachers, that the user of a new technology being implemented in a school district is being forced into that role. Of course both groups will be resistant to change in any case, but after implementing a new piece of technology, if those being put to the task of using it regularly find that it is inferior to other methods (provided that they are using said technology correctly of course), it should be reviewed as to whether or not the new implement is actually bringing any benefit. It might even be in implementers' best interests to survey the group that is going to be presented with the new device first, to get their take on it before possibly forcing something that is not particularly useful just because it's new or trendy (among other reasons).


Benefit vs. cost analysis

Here is another vital part of technology implementation, only this one perhaps does get the attention it needs since so much hinges on money when it comes to school programs and equipment. However, it still sometimes seems like schools occasionally purchase new technology without weighing the benefits versus the prodigious cause of new equipment. Similar to the ipads mentioned in the text, I was previously at a school doing a technology update wherein they purchased ipad for all of the teachers, then began purchasing them for the student body, when district focus was drawn to google and the new chromebook. The ipads that had already been purchased were stored away to be disposed of later, and within a couple of years, the teachers' ipads were also taken in lieu of given them chromebooks instead. I can only guess hat ultimately happened to all of the ipads, since I don't believe it was ever publicly announced, but I would assume that they were thrown away.


References:
Roblyer, M. D. (2016). Integrating educational technology into teaching (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.