Chapter 8- Reflection

Technology has no doubt impacted our lives and continues to. As teachers, it is important to stay up to date and be familiar with the many technologies available in order to meet the needs of our students and grow with them. With anything, when the times change we must react as chameleons and adapt too. Technology allows students to learn concepts and gain a better understanding for concepts, by watching demonstrations, seeing additional lectures, seeing actual pictures of places and things we can only imagine while reading. Rather then just learning in class about a topic, reading papers, and researching a topic, technology allows us to explore the subject more in depth and see things we would not ordinarily be able to see.

We all know students learn in many different manners; kinetically, visually, auditorally. Technology can be useful when trying to relay information in different ways. A prime example of this is my experience in my Biological Science class I’m currently taking. We read our chapters as we normally would. But to make sure we really understand the material being read we access this website called, mastering biology, which goes along with the text. The concepts we are learning in the chapter are followed up by a description in visual form of what were learning in the text. Difficult concepts are better understood because of technologies advancements. Studying material in many different ways allows for better retention and a greater understanding.

Technology helps students to further explore concepts. If students have questions or need extra practice, the World Wide Web offers many different websites with practice questions or tutorials. The availability of the internet allows students to research questions to obtain answers when they are struggling for answers at home while doing homework, right away. Instead of waiting to get an answer from the teacher, calling a friend, or getting help by a tutor, the internet offers a quick way to get added help in understanding when you need it.

I do feel that technology definitely takes away the interaction between people which is extremely important while learning Science topics and any other subject for that matter. Sometimes other students will have different ways of thinking through problems and actually discussing why they think the way they think and this is a technique for learning and development that can not be replaced by technology. It is still important to understand how to solve problems, in a situation when technology is unavailable. Or to understand why a problem was thought through the way it was. With anything it is important to understand how you came to an answer and not just relying on technology to do the work for the student. School system budgets may not be able to afford the technologies available and some of the home may not either. So, in these situations emphasizing the importance of knowing how to use equipment or raising awareness of what is available and how to use the equipment is important.