Final

Final Exam

After reading the report "How Teachers Are Using Technology at Home and in Their Classrooms" we were asked to do our own research.

The topic that came to mind is Technology in the Classroom.

• How has technology improved classrooms?
• Technology and classroom and improve*

Using EBSCOhost i searched: classroom and technology and improve*

• I also limited the search to full text scholarly (peer reviewed) journals.
• I expanded my search by applying related words and searching within the full text.
• I found i needed to make more limitations.
• I also eliminated all articles published before 2005.
• I then narrowed it by geography to the United States.
• Citation:
• Hicks, Stephanie Diamond. "Technology In Today's Classroom: Are You A Tech-Savvy Teacher?." Clearing House 84.5 (2011): 188-191. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 June 2013.

After evaluating  "Technology In Today's Classroom: Are You A Tech-Savvy Teacher?" with ASPECT i found:

• Authority (I find this to be the most important aspect)
• I found out that the author ,Stephanie Diamond Hicks, doesn't have anything else published and is affiliated with Fyffe High School of Fyffe, AL. Although she is not listed in the schools staff directory. The publisher, Clearing House, publishes many scholarly journals across a global network. According to their website, which renames them Taylor & Francis Group, they are "Taylor & Francis Group publishes more than 1,700 journals and over 3,600 new books each year." They have been publishing out of London since 1798.
• Although the author has not written anything else her ties to a school indicate personal experience and her well established publisher lends an air of credibility.
• Sources (second most important)
• There are 12 cited references for the article. 9 of which are other articles and 3 of which are books.
• The references are relevant to the topic she is discussing and most likely good sources of information as they are in the same database i am using.
• Purpose (this is my least important aspect because if i didn't like the purpose i wouldn't use it)
• The article is directed at teachers to show the benefits of technology with encouraging tips to muddle through.
• Evenness (this aspect is less important because if it didn't cover much i wouldn't use it)
• covers the anti technology along with tech savvy perspective. 
• Coverage (an important aspect but i feel some of the aspects overlap and this is one)
• The article covers plenty for my purposes and uses older sources only to borrow their wording.
• Timeliness (very important aspect but searches make it easy to narrow to your criteria )
• The article was published in September of 2011, So fairly recently.
• Bottom Line
• I found the source relevant, reliable, and thought provoking.

Review

     The article talks about the struggle between the teachers who grew up with very little technology and thier students who were born with a computer at their fingertips. Many teachers are afraid that their lack of experience with technology would hinder their ability to govern the classroom if this weakness was exposed. This may be a problem in the school systems ability to give training to their staff that grows with the times. I have always found teachers of the northwest to be excited about the new tools technology provides, it would be a shame to miss those opportunities because of fear.

     Later it demonstrates how technology may actually increase one's ability to multitask. Separating children into 2 different rooms, one with toys and one without, they had the different groups watch the same program. Despite the fact that the children with the toys did actively watch less of the program, tests show that they retained the same amount of information as the group without distracting stimuli. I personally love to watch Netflix while i nurture some of my Sims. This desire to be stimulated by multiple thing may make more traditional methods of teaching inefficient and obsolete.

     The article goes on to demonstrate how technology in the class room can benefit everyone. Teachers can track and record far faster on a computer than with a pen and pencil. It also notes that Virginia schools that have 2 technology personnel for every 1000 students have shown an increase in standardized test scores. Teachers that allow students to demonstrate their technological know-how will most likely feel more like an asset to the classroom. I find this true for my self and i also learn more with hands on work.

Thanks,

Melissa