Critical Thinking Paper

Royal Van Horn's Technology writing talks about how school systems should move away from school reforms and instead concentrate on classroom reforms. It’s very unlikely that an entire school can change with the advancements of technology and be successful because of the limited amount of money and resources it would take to keep each school system up to date with the technology changes. A single classroom in each grade level would be manageable.

"The traditional model for a high-tech school is to simply put four to six networked computers in every classroom and one on every teacher’s desk. The hidden assumption is that teachers will be flexible enough to integrate these computers into their instructional day." (Van Horne, pg 487). One the biggest problems teachers have is incorporating time into their lesson plans. Teachers in the upper elementary grades are too busy teaching the istep.

The one question I have about classroom reforms is this would could give a certain classroom benefits that other students would not receive. It's not right that one classroom gets the benefits of computers, projectors, and other technological advantages over other classrooms.

Almost every student either has a computer at home or knows how to use one. The same thing cannot be said about teachers. Some of the older generations of teachers refuse to keep up with the advances in technology. If they didn't need it when they were growing up or need it when they first started teaching then they don't think they need it now. Teachers like this who are unwilling to put forth the time and effort to learn new teaching strategies using technology are really holding back their students.

Teachers should realize how much technology could make their job much easier and more enjoyable for students to learn. They could show video clips from online to better reinforce a point, use educational games that help with RTI, the possibilities are endless.

I have seen over the years working in many different classrooms, the teachers who now how to take advantage of the technology they are provided with have more life and energy from their students and themselves in the classroom. Children don't get bored with doing the same desk work every day and they enjoy the new experiences they are learning. More teachers should take advantage of these opportunities.

Reference
Van Horn, R. (2006). Toward a New model of high-tech schoolrooms. Technology, 487, 551.