Ch 7 What Should Teachers Know About Technology and its Impact on School

By Lezlee Villalobos


The use of technology in the classroom has gained attention as an issue in education. As our society continues to embrace new forms of communication, networking, and computer technologies, our schools are scrambling to keep up. Technology is not new to education, in the early 1800s; a technological innovation was introduced to classroom that would prove to have a profound impact of teaching. During the nineteenth century, however, classroom structure began evolve from a one-room orientation to the graded classrooms we know today. The twentieth century brought a variety of technological devices that helped teachers use pictures in the classroom. In the 1980s, when microcomputers became affordable, many software products were introduced to drill students on basic skills, and some educational visionaries predicted the end of classroom instruction and the end of the teaching profession as we know it. Of course, it never did the use of technology helps with the instructional process.


Students can use computers not just for drill, but also in ways that promote creativity, collaboration, and higher-order thinking. Schools are being pressured to use technology in classrooms for parents, students, teachers, businesses, global competition, governmental agencies and digital divide. Technologies can help teachers change their role from dispensers of information to facilitators of students’ learning. The placement of technology within the educational setting affects how it can be used. Technology can be use in all subjects helping the student’s learning and also it helps students with special needs. Integrating technology means bringing the tools of technology into daily learning and teaching activities. These tools can help change the classroom from a teacher-centered to a more cooperative and student-centered environment. Issues involving equity, teacher education, infrastructure, and budgeting will need careful consideration as technological tools become more and more integrated into classroom instruction.