Technology is now a part of our lives.

    Technology is now a part of our lives. For me, largely it is because it has saved time accessing information or communicating and interacting with others and improving quality of my life. I engage with individuals across the world, I attend online classes from anywhere, my phone has all the apps I may need to live a life where I am not thinking all the time with a to do list running in my head. So why not include it in the school curricula for the kids to be experts at using and building using technology when they grow up (Adam & Petty, n.d)?

    Real battle is then to encourage educators to use technology in the lessons. This would help them to get over the bias against it and see how it eases off the lesson planning and development work. For this it would be needed for the ministry of education to prepare teachers by exposing them to courses in technology (Prasanna, 2021). As an ex fourth grade teacher, I used to include technology in my work in many ways such as:

(a) use Google class to create and post a test and also posting the scores, 

(b) have kids play skill-based games, 

(c) use videos projected to make my subject (math) alive for the kids and 

(d) use a timer to help them manage time when at work. 

I did that for it gave me time to engage with the kids at a personal level leading to a relationship with them. It also helped me to provide support to the kids.

    This was not without its challenges through! Once internet is opened for the kids, they can cross any firewall and be on the sites that are banned. I ended up monitoring them and then bringing a win-win solve of ’10 min Facebook break’. Kids also often got distracted while playing games. The biggest challenge was, however, economic reasons that led to all kids not having access to technology at home. I overcame these challenges by keeping learning at the heart of a class and not use of technology. If any kid was not comfortable with technology-based learning, I allowed use of textbooks. If kids went on banned websites, then I would have an ‘technology off day’. For kids who did not have computers at home, I created space for them to use the classroom systems for their homework too or limited technology-based homework for them.

    In conclusion, I would say that while technology is here to stay and we need to have the kids learn the nuances of it, let us not forget the main goal of the work and that is ‘learning’. And, as I discovered, unless life skills are also focused on side by side. Just technology might end up hampering education than helping!

References

1. Adams, K. I., & Petty, P. (n.d). Preparing teachers for the challenge of teaching and learning with technology: standards, strategies, and statistics. Pearsonschool. http://assets.pearsonschool.com/asset_mgr/legacy/200 727/2003_06Adams_401_1.pdf

2. Prasanna. (2021). Importance of Technology Essay | Essay on Importance of Technology for Students and Children in English. Importance of Technology Essay | Essay on Importance of Technology for Students and Children in English - A Plus Topper