Walden University Blog

[#1]

On January 22, 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII, Apple ran the following video for its Macintosh computer.

Figure 1:  Video of 1984 commercial

Since that time, humanity has witnessed an explosion of technological growth.  The advent of the internet in the early 1990’s brought about change never before witnessed by the world.  Now, even newer technologies, the iPad or Android phone, for example continue this growth.

How do educators keep up with this rapid growth of technological development?

As teachers, we need to be adaptable to any learning situation, recent high school graduates became the first generation of students to grow up in a world that has always known the internet (Oblinger & Obliner, 2005).  We, as teachers, need to strive to understand this and keep up with the technology our students are using.

How do we keep up?

We must regularly engage with technology. Our greatest source for learning new technology is our students.  We should give our students the challenge to teach us the new technology.  Let them model what they are using so we can understand them and engage them on a new level.  Let them be our guide as we test and try out new technologies, students will be honest with us and can be great teachers when we let them.

We must also seek out colleagues that engage with technology. Joining a personal learning network of like individuals can aid us in not only keeping up with technology but learning how to use it as well.  Seek these people out in organizations like ISTE or on twitter.

Furthermore, we must seek out professional devlopment opportunities that include the use of technology in education.  Organizations like We Are Teachers and http://www.iste.org/ work with national and local groups to sponsor conferences centered on the them of technology in education.

Finally, we must remember the most important rule in using technology in learning: never let the technology rule instruction.  Seek, engage, learn as much of the new technologies as they come along, but use technology in the classroom wisely, according to good learning theory.

Oblinger, D., & Obliner, J. (2005). Is it age or is it it: First steps toward understanding the net generation. In D. Oblinger & J. Obliner (Eds.), Educating the Net Generation: Educause. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB7101.pdf.

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