She Means it!

Barbara Means’ 'Technology use in Tomorrow’s schools' highlights the extreme benefits involved in incorporating technology into classrooms of the 21^st Century. Means accentuates the potential in contemporary students’ learning, once educational facilities are sufficiently equipped with the technology necessary to fuel this rapidly developing era of learning.

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Progressing from the days of my schooling where colossal word-processing computers were installed into ONE classroom, portable wireless and hand-held devices are being established throughout schools in an effort to increase the speed, accuracy and efficiency of students work. This increase in accessibility and availability for students can only further promote an engaged, motivated learning environment.

Means states that “as access to technology grows, educators must decide how best to use it. The potential of technology to provide the conditions that is conducive to meaningful learning: real world contexts for learning; contexts for learning; connections to outside experts; visualisation and analysis tools; scaffolds for problem solving; and opportunities for feedback, reflection and revision”.

However, the teacher has not become obsolete, nor will he/she ever, as “Schools that incorporate the technology of the future can offer the best combination of traditional face-to-face instruction – role modelling, socialisation, and morale building – and projected benefits of learning with new technologies: increased participation in systems of distributed learning that engage broader communities, learning-enhancing representations of concepts and data, a restructuring of teaching and learning roles, and more meaningful assessment practices”.

I can’t wait to tweet my facebook friends about this blog, after all..... collaborating among peers, teachers and students has become a customary advantage in this world of social media.