Technology is OK, Teachers are better

As I have stated in earlier blogs, I entered this course with very little regard for new technologies and their usage in the classroom. From personal experience, it had seemed that technology does more to cause frustration and headaches in the classroom rather than supplement learning. Regardless of my personal opinion, I went into this new literacy project with the hope that I would learn to appreciate digital resources and begin to understand all the hype surrounding technology.
Due to the nature of this project and my limited background with different digital resources, I knew that this was going to require a lot of time. I chose my literacy based on one of my favorite things: maps. For me, maps not only illustrate locations, but represent adventure, travel, and exploration. I plan on instilling this same passion for maps and what they represent in my students. However, in today’s technologically driven society, children rarely experience some sort of learning without any technological input, such as television, video games, or computers. In other words, today’s students are digital natives who enjoy practicing visual literacy.
As a result, I decided to combine my interest in maps with digital literacy to create a new visual application that would better capture the attention of today’s students. After much time perusing different websites and downloading different applications to my computer, I decided that GoogleEarth would be the most assessable for me as well as my students. As I experimented with the program, it became apparent that two forms of literacy are required to create a map tour. In addition to digital literacy, I would need to be fluent in environmental literacy as well. In other words, I would need to apply my geographic knowledge and experiences to this new program.
As I was becoming more fluent in the GoogleEarth program, I was actually enjoying myself. This digital resource gave me the opportunity to express myself through my interest in maps, geography, and the environment. Before I knew it, I was uploading old pictures, reminiscing, and feeling a sense of ownership over this project. However, after finishing the project and taking a deep sigh of satisfaction, I pushed one final button before going to bed – “upload.” This one button proved to cause me a terrible headache and made me spend more time figuring out how others can view my video than the amount of time actually doing it. Unfortunately, this only strengthens my ill notions towards digital resources.
Problems with technology are incredibly unpredictable. In many cases, an educator will spend an ample amount of time developing an educational resource only to run into problems when using it in the classroom. In turn, the only thing that the technology seemed to do was waste valuable personal and class time.
Nonetheless, a diverse group of students will still require “effective literacy instruction.” I just believe that that particular technology should be simple – with as little room for error as possible. For instance, I still believe that GoogleEarth is a powerful tool, but I would not use it for much else than classroom instruction. Although this will help all students learn through their own visual literacy skills, it lacks student involvement because of the issues I faced when trying to upload the document.
In general, there is no doubt that technology can be a powerful tool in the classroom. However, I believe that educators are focusing too much on the push to use more innovative digital resources in the classroom and forgetting how to establish quality learning without new technologies. Although it may help in its simplest forms, quality teachers will continue to make more of a difference in the classroom than any technology ever will.