So in my response to the statement taken from “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns” I will say I have to agree that some teachers, including myself, have used technology in very, very limited ways. I basically used the computer for word processing and to find helpful hints on how to make those boring topics more appealing to the students and for students to search for information for research papers, etc. The first program I came across in my teaching was Successmaker. This program was introduced to staff over a two day period and I really thought it would take off and the teachers would utilize it within their own classrooms but what really happened? Successmaker was only used during computer class which was maybe once on a six day cycle. It’s possible some of the staff used the program in their classrooms but I know I didn’t.
But getting back to the question…if I had known some of the things I’m learning through this course and some of the things I’m finding on the internet (fascinating!) I would have used more of the tools available. I suppose it’s not too late to start.
Although I learned basic math skills through drill I think there are more innovative ways to teach those same skills. For instance, during teacher training one of the instructors (math 101) used an overhead projector and a calculator to show us how you could use these tools to teach children calculator skills. I thought that was brilliant since we could all see what she was doing on the overhead. Now technology is far more advanced and there are probably more modern ways to teach this same skill.