It is inevitable that
technology will one day rule the world.
We will all be subjects of a mechanical regime and forced to be subjects
to the machinery we created. Some would
say that we are already ruled by the technology we have created. I wish I could disagree, but sit down to
dinner one night in a public place and count the number of people engaged in
technology. In fact, it would be hard
not to access your own technology as you absent-mindedly counted the “others” that
are so digitally connected yet personally disconnected.
While I am a bit cynical
of technology use in such settings, I am however avid about the use of
technology in the classroom. Technology
holds such wild implications for the teaching and learning process. First, students enjoy the journey away from
traditional methods, and secondly they are participating in something that they
feel they know something about. If
teachers can harness this excitement and ride the wave, then student motivation
will increase and teacher design and instruction can have the maximum effect.
My philosophy has evolved
every year and as my knowledge of teaching and learning has deepened, my
philosophy on education has become much simpler. Education is tailoring activities and
instruction to the specific needs of the students. Whether it be by means of likes and dislikes,
or whether it be through their preferential way of learning. Education is not a one-size fits all
business.
Within my philosophy,
there exists constructs that I feel are essential to the process. First of all I am a huge supporter of the
social constructivist theory in which students use interactions with others as
a means of developing an understanding of their environment. Although students learn in different ways, I
feel that students, when given the opportunity, flourish in this environment
where they can constantly assess their own learning against the learning of
others. Because of this there has to be
interactions in education. This can be
face-to-face, it can be held in the classroom or on the Internet. In my classroom, social interaction is a
must.
In our lives we hold
certain pieces of information as truths based on our life up until that
point. However, when that truth is
challenged or criticized, we are forced to examine our set of ideas and adjust
our thinking according to the information that we find to support or invalidate
what we thought was the truth. To me,
this is learning. Technology has
afforded teachers the opportunity to give students access to social environments
that would normally be inaccessible.
Because of this, technology plays a huge part of my teaching and
learning philosophy.
