As an aspiring future educator at this time in history, I will undoubtedly be interacting with technology in the classroom both to improve my own teaching practice as well as to support my students’ learning. Although technology will likely be even more prevalent and accessible in the classroom when I begin my teaching career than it is now, my mission when it comes to integrating technology in my professional future is that I will do so thoughtfully, purposefully, and only when the benefits outweigh the costs for my teaching practices as well as for my students’ learning.
I believe that technology should only be integrated into a classroom setting when it provides a method for improving pedagogical instructional strategies or for improving student understanding and exploration. As Jennie Magiera repeatedly emphasizes in her book, “Courageous Edventures: Navigating Obstacles to Discover Classroom Innovation”, different and new does not always mean better. In other words, just because digital technology may provide a new and different avenue for learning, this does not necessarily mean that it provides a superior method to engaging students, enhancing their learning, and extending their understanding past their time in school. Therefore, in my future profession as an educator, I will thoughtfully review and experiment with different technologies to assess their ability to improve student learning so that I can then purposefully integrate only those technologies that will best help my students achieve academic, social, emotional, and behavioral success in the classroom.
Some of the technologies I could see myself using in my future professional career include technologies for communicating between home and school such as email or Seesaw, technologies for managing my classroom such as a digital timer, a music playlist, and ClassDojo, technologies for delivering content such as a smartboard or an overhead projector, technologies for providing scaffolding, differentiation, and personalized learning, and technologies for supporting student exploration and self-agency.
