How can we promote the use of technology in our classroom?

When talking about the use of technology in the classroom, some of the things that comes to my mind are things such as computers or the overhead projector and etc. Although some schools might have more advanced technology or softwares such as the smartboard or inspiration, I think most American public schools will have at least one or two computers in each classroom.

As I was reading through some of the new RSS feeds that I've recently subscribed, I came across a very interesting edublog http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/ by Doug Johnson. Mr. Johnson is the Director of Media and Technology for the Mankato Public Schools as well as an adjunct faculty member at the Minnesota State University. He has also published several books and conducted workshops on education and technology in many places. If you are interested to learn more about him, please visit his bio at http://www.doug-johnson.com/bio

In his recent post, Mr. Johnson mentioned an article from the Teachers Magazine titled The Case for PEDs. The author, Jennifer McDaniel, talked about the use of PEDs (personal electronic devices) in her classroom during students' independent study time. The article is directly related to a post Mr. Johnson has written in his blog back in 2005. The post has a rather long name but you can read it at http://snipurl.com/3tnpg [doug-johnson_squarespace_com]. In this post, Mr. Johnson mentioned the issue of schools or educators banning the use of mp3s or ipods because of various reasons. Mr. Johnson made a case to argue that if schools were to ban things such as ipods and mp3s, then they should probably also consider banning things such as pencils.

Though I can't speak for all the educators out there, I for one can say that I was taught in the 'papers and pencils' era and so I am still pretty uncomfortable with the idea of utilizing fancy technology during instructional time. However, as I began to explore and learn more, I also started realizing the benefits that these technology can bring to my students. Furthermore, the main idea behind technology is to save time and improve efficient so having them in the classroom can definitely help teachers and students to have more valuable "teaching/learning moments."

Until next time...