Technology and a non tech-savvy person.

My last blog post I was all for technology and the integration of iPads in the classroom. However, as my placement has gone on and we have yet to use them, I start questioning this whole thing of technology in the classroom. Why is it such a big thing to have iPads in the classroom? All my CT and I have had are problems! First, we had to spend an hour putting cases on thirty iPads. Second, we had to decide what apps we wanted to be on them, this is not that bad part. Third and final, as we are pushing out the apps, the computer crashes and well that put a stop to pushing apps to the iPads. With all these problems, our use of the iPads has been postponed even longer. So what is the point of having us use iPads if we cannot use them until the second quarter of the school year? What do we do when the technology fails in the middle of a lesson? We have been preparing lessons that do not involve iPads so far, obviously. When we do get to start incorporating them, we will have to have two lesson plans in case technology does decide to fail on us. I am not complaining about doing more work, just seems a little silly to try to incorporate iPads instead of doing something on paper. I know the students are excited to use them and we can do really awesome things on them, but there is always that question in mind.

So to continue this thought in a more professional and not as a complaining note, I am still excited to use them and for the students to use them. As I was saying about if we are just replacing paper with technology, what is the point? Well, I think the point of them is to integrate and not replace. This can be hard to wrap your brain around when so used to paper. I was thinking how this could be beneficial to the students and what not. We did a reading in the text Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classrooms by Randy Bomer about how to engage students in writing and reading. I was thinking about how I could use the iPads to get the students’ attention with writing. Even with all the technology issues, we might as well make use of them while we have the opportunity. Bomer states about writing: “It needs to fit into the things hey already do and care about—music, friends, TV, nature, spirituality, politics, family, sports, games” (pg. 57). I really do think that having the students use the iPads, maybe they would be more willing to use them and get more interested in finding things to write about. This is still a developing thought, however. Another hope is that students will be willing to write on the iPads, some students like writing directly on a device while others prefer paper. They will have that tool available to them either way. So even though so far there have been multiple problems, I’m still trying to keep an open mind to this whole technology thing.We will have to see as the year progresses if iPads are this really great tool to have in a classroom or if they are in fact just replacing paper.

Bomer, R. (2011). Building adolescent literacy in today's English

classrooms (p. 57). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.