Helping Teachers Incorporate Technology in the Classroom

Clearing Hurdles

By Donna M. Dick

Donna Dick believes that technology is the key to improve student achievement. However, if teachers do not receive high quality professional development, then technology will never be able to fulfill the role of improving student achievement. Donna teaches an introductory computer class for teachers with an emphasis on Internet resources and programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Donna comes across many teachers that feel too intimidated to incorporate technology into the classroom. To make her students (the teachers) feel more at ease with using technology, Donna does an activity with them that is based on the tasks that teachers already do and are comfortable with and adding a technological component to it.

Donna splits up the teachers into groups of four or five. It is up to the teachers to make a chart of some activities that they do with their students. Once those activities are talked about the teachers must then figure out a way to incorporate technology into that activity. Once the technology is incorporated the teachers list the student benefits of this activity, including the technology. Here is an example of what one group of teachers came up with:

• Current Activity: Book Report
• Adding Technology: Word processing. Database with fields for title, author, publisher, date, genre, summary, and recommendation. Internet for author information. Accelerated Reader Software.
• Student Benefits: Word processing allows students to produce professional-looking reports that motivate students. Use of a database allows students to share information. Accelerated Reader motivates students to read and has score keeping.

Once the teachers are finished within their groups they come together as a whole to discuss their ideas. This class helps teachers who are too intimidated by technology to see some ideas and student benefits of how technology can work in the classroom.

When I become a teacher I do plan on going to seminars or taking classes that will keep me up to date on all the technology that is out there. I don't think it's enough to just take one technology class in college and think that you will be prepared to incorporate technology in your own classroom. Technology is improving all the time so I think it's important for teachers to constantly learn new techniques and activities that will benefit their students. I'm glad to hear that there are introductory technology classes for those teachers that still don't know or are too intimidated to incorporate technology in their classrooms.