Our world is changing everyday and with new technologies, we have to unlearn our old way of thinking and learn these new concepts. Alvin Toffler said, "The illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." I have to disagree with him, I have seen first hand that technology is effecting the way children learn and most do not know how to read or write anymore.
Several basic concepts of the digital age require unlearning. Teachers need to unlearn that learning only occurs in schools; students learn outside of the classroom as well. Connected learning allows the learner to construct knowledge through passive knowledge for, active knowledge in, and reflective knowledge of strategies. Teachers are used to the old ways of teaching and it may often be difficult to basically forget all of those different strategies of teaching. Technology is changing the way students and teachers learn in the classroom and outside of the classroom; teachers have to adapt to the changes.
Interactive Whiteboards are in most classrooms nowadays. From experience, I found it to be more of a problem, rather than actually helping students learn. The IWB's were always breaking, or the teachers' did not know how to use them and were not trained on how to either. It always seemed to take up more time trying to get them to work or try to figure out how to use them. I also found that a lot of students never paid attention to the IWB's and were not engaged in the classroom. The students seemed to learn more through the teacher actually teaching the material on a chalk board or by a hands on learning experience.
My Mom is a 5th grade teacher, and she told me that the students coming up from 4th to 5th grade, don't know how to write, don't like it or cannot read well. This is due to the fact that the Elementary School, uses technology based instruction. Children nowadays are dependent on technology and seem lost without it. I was raised on a horse farm and I spent my days outside playing or working. I notice now that children just want to stay inside and watch TV or play video games. To me, this is a concern. I think technology is more of a distraction and there are other ways to go about teaching.
Differentiation in the classroom by using IWB's, may benefit some students, but it's not for everyone. Every student is different and some learn better visually and some hands on. If the teacher is the one mainly using the IWB's, how does that help a hands on learner? Using these technology tools can either benefit or not benefit a students learning experience. Some people say that IWB's make children learn the material better and become "smarter," when in fact it is based on how the teacher delivers the content of the material and makes it interesting.
