My Educational Technology Philosophy

Teaching in the 21^st century has introduced many new and exciting challenges to educators in the classroom. If you take a snapshot of most industries or businesses in the world from 150 years ago and compare it to what they look like today, you will almost always see vast changes in how they are arranged and run. However, do the same for education, and you will most likely see an image of a teacher standing in front of a classroom full of students reading books and sitting in desks, all lined up in almost identical rows. Why is it that while virtually all other industries have changed, education seems to have remained stagnant for what seems to be hundreds of years? If we want our students to be competitive before they even enter the workforce, we need to make sure that they are exposed to the technology that they will be working with in their everyday lives. In terms of how educational technology relates to my content area, science, the two are explicitly entwined. Whether it be through performing virtual dissections, combing through online gene databases, or observing microscopic processes with the aid of a camera and computer screen, technology places a huge role in real-life science, so why shouldn’t these same technologies be implemented for our students in the classroom?

As a future educator, it is my duty to ensure that all students have access to the plethora of educational technologies available for teachers to use to inspire and motivate students to achieve what they deemed previously impossible. This is taking a constructivist view on educational technology, because I believe that technology should not be a secondary means of lecturing students but instead provide them with the opportunity to “construct” their own meaning based on their learning experiences. I must not be afraid of new and emerging technologies just because they are unfamiliar to me or because they would require a great deal of effort to familiarize myself with and implement in the classroom. Although all students may not have access to the same types of technology at home, it is critical that every child be given the same opportunities to utilize educational technology in the classroom so that all students are able to learn in an interactive and engaging environment. Educational technology should never be meant to replace the teacher, but instead be used as one of many different tools the teacher is equipped with to differentiate instruction for their diverse students.