Last Friday my educational technology class and I traveled
to Grand Rapids, MI to attend the MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer
Users in Learning) conference. I definitely enjoyed going to the conference and
talking with educators from around the state and country; however, I left a little disappointed I wasn't able to see more examples of "how" people are using technology in their classrooms. Yet, throughout the day, this conference confirmed two very
important concepts for me: conferences are great platforms for starting thoughtful
or productive discussions about the use of technology and technology is something everyone agrees is
necessary in the classroom, but all of us as educators have a responsibility to
find ways where students are positively use technology to engage in substantial
learning.
Throughout the day I was able to partake in discussion with
not only my colleagues from the MAC program, but also with educational
professionals in various fields. For example, one school’s
principal talked about how they were implementing 1:1 technology next year. In
this process they are going to have a group of students who are Google
certified to be the student technology guru’s for their school. Their role
would be to help staff and students with the implementation of this technology
as well as help the administration and teachers collect feedback and try new
ideas. I really like this ide of collaboration and involvement of students in
the process of such a learning process. I also found that the conference
started great discussions between my colleagues and I about technology and our urge to know more about how it can be implemented in our lessons to help students engage in learning that
would be difficult to engage in without it.
As we had these discussions, we kept coming back to the question of although there are many ways to use technology - which one is really working to help students learn? I think this is one of the most important things to keep in mind when
lesson planning. If it doesn’t allow for substantial advances in learning and
student engagement, is it always worth it? During the day, I heard a few times
a phrase similar to this “look at that iPad in the student’s hand, and the
smile on their face, they are having fun - that’s learning.” I think as
educator’s using best practices we always have to take it one step further –
does that smile and fun actually result in learning? If so, is it substantial?
As we attended the different sessions, I think all of us educators can agree
that technology is necessary in the classroom; however, it is how we use it that
we continually have to think about and work towards perfecting.
Overall I feel that my day at the conference gave me a big
picture of how to think more about technology in my classroom. Technology is
here, it is a part of our students’ lives, and it is always changing. As we
continue to think about ways to incorporate in our classrooms, I believe it is
important to always think of it through a critical lens and collaborate with
other educators to come up with best practices of utilizing it in the classroom
now, as well as the years ahead.
