Should we integrate technology into the classroom?

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Technology in the classroom... is it a good idea or not?

This is a very important question for us to answer. If we are to integrate technology into our classroom, we should make certain that this is technology that is not overwhelming and not going to cause students to be distracted in their education. As a future ESL educator, I certainly recognize the importance of utilizing technology in my class so that my students can better understand my lessons and the material that their mainstream teachers are providing to them if they are having a difficult time. Although it may take more time, i plan to integrate technology into my classroom so that my students are more engaged and pay closer attention to what I am teaching them. I want students to learn in such a way that they do not get left behind and fall into the cracks of academic society. There is a rule that students in the Intensive English Program here at SNHU are not allowed to use technology in the classroom. I do not personally understand that because if a student is struggling, don't we want to give them the opportunity to learn what they need to? Technology is something that the future generations of students are going to have to deal with every day of their lives. Academia and technology are no longer going to be two separate ideas. One should attempt to have both so that all students can succeed.   This is definitely something I will have a better understanding of and have a better answer for once I finish this course.  I do want to come back to this topic later on.

When watching the video that we had to watch for this blog posting, this statistic took me by surprise:




Capture taken from: http://quietube3.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8



I guess I took that as a surprise because I would have thought it would be much more, but I do not know when this video is from.  Kids are gaming a lot more then that these days.  However, the games that we can incorporate into the classroom will hopefully have a great impact on the learning that future generations of students do.  Are kids going to benefit from using technology?  In English as a Second Language classrooms, perhaps one of the best ways we can help our students to learn is by incorporating games into their learning.  Is technology becoming a detriment to those students of the next generation?  I don't think so.  I think it is important that we find ways to incorporate technology into the classroom so that our future students know that there are limits and benefits to using technology that can be used before they attempt to waste time and make technology into something that will be wasteful and prevent them from accomplishing any real goals.  This video is certainly shocking in some of the details it provides to us as future teachers.