Technology advancements that are evolving support educators in meeting the needs of many of their 21st century learners. Educators are able to open students minds to new and unchartered learning reaching far across the globe with the click of a key. Technology allows for students to connect with the world and help better prepare them for successful, life-long learning. Technology, while a valuable and needed tool for learning, brings a new set of challenges for those same educators and their varied learners that can quickly access information and connect to the world. I work at Paul VI high school and our school recently initiated a school wide laptop program for students. The laptops allow for many opportunities for students to have more
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My job is to help them reach their greatest potential, examine their curriculum and I “... proceed to implement necessary changes for instructional improvement, and, thus, concludes a complete cycle of learning and instruction among his or her students” (Shimabukuro, 2005, p.126). In my unique position I work in small groups with students whose learning needs require specialized instruction and I support them by helping them learn how to learn. My students all have laptops that they bring to my office and we use every day all throughout the day. This has provided me with a significant amount of time to work with students and see how they are learning. What I have discovered is that e-texts may be convenient and cost effective, but they are a struggle for many students to actually use for learning no matter their learning style or needs. I have seen that students lack the skills and prior exposure to access the e-texts properly. They are able to click a search button, type in a subject and all of the information is immediately available to them and they can answer a definition question with out even having to find the …show more content…
Many students are not familiar with online textbooks and the abundance of tools that are needed to work when using the e-texts. The students were becoming overwhelmed with not only the decoding of words, but also at the many maps, visuals, icons, and embedded information. It was over stimulating. I wondered if this was just something that I was observing or if this was a school wide issue. After observing students struggle to navigate, understand what they read, and find information as well as speaking with several teachers, I came to the conclusion that this was a school wide concern. The classroom teachers expressed that were seeing the same student behaviors, a lack of reading, a lack of understanding concepts and they are concerned that students were not learning because they are not actually reading the
My job is to help them reach their greatest potential, examine their curriculum and I “... proceed to implement necessary changes for instructional improvement, and, thus, concludes a complete cycle of learning and instruction among his or her students” (Shimabukuro, 2005, p.126). In my unique position I work in small groups with students whose learning needs require specialized instruction and I support them by helping them learn how to learn. My students all have laptops that they bring to my office and we use every day all throughout the day. This has provided me with a significant amount of time to work with students and see how they are learning. What I have discovered is that e-texts may be convenient and cost effective, but they are a struggle for many students to actually use for learning no matter their learning style or needs. I have seen that students lack the skills and prior exposure to access the e-texts properly. They are able to click a search button, type in a subject and all of the information is immediately available to them and they can answer a definition question with out even having to find the …show more content…
Many students are not familiar with online textbooks and the abundance of tools that are needed to work when using the e-texts. The students were becoming overwhelmed with not only the decoding of words, but also at the many maps, visuals, icons, and embedded information. It was over stimulating. I wondered if this was just something that I was observing or if this was a school wide issue. After observing students struggle to navigate, understand what they read, and find information as well as speaking with several teachers, I came to the conclusion that this was a school wide concern. The classroom teachers expressed that were seeing the same student behaviors, a lack of reading, a lack of understanding concepts and they are concerned that students were not learning because they are not actually reading the