It’s a Balancing Act

Photo contributed by Heather Bowers

While my blog is about the different ways that teachers can use technology in their classrooms, I do realize that there are times in which technology will not be needed or even necessary. Part of a teacher’s job is to find a happy medium; it’s all a balancing act. This post will explain times in which using technology can be beneficial in addition to some instances when teachers should not technology.

Technology should be used to surpass the limitations of a classroom and make learning more interesting and fun for the students. While there are numerous different ways to break the limitations of a classroom I am going to explain one example. A group of my friends and I came up with this example in our psychology (P250) class. We thought that a good use of technology would be to use Skype to talk to professionals in certain fields about their jobs. This would let the students have actual interactions with these professionals which would make the subject more real and possibly more relatable. My friends and I actually got so excited about this idea that we did a short funny video with a fake professional (a puppy professional to be exact).

There are instances in which using technology would not be appropriate. If you have some students with disabilities there is a chance that there will be some types of technology that would not be fitting to use. For example if you have a child that has Epilepsy watching videos with the lights off could be more hurtful than helpful. In addition you should not use technology all day every day; this can cause a disconnect between the teacher and the students. The most important, and most obvious, thing to remember is do not use technology as a babysitter. Teachers cannot rely on technology to do their jobs; it is important for teachers to interact with their students. The use of technology needs to be balanced out equally; perfect your balancing act!