Final Entry for EDU 610

The importance of incorporating the use of technology into the classroom of the 21st Century cannot be overstated. Considering how pervasive technology has become in everyone's lives, to not include technology in the classroom would be regressive and counterintuitive.

For students, technology allows for greater engagement, collaboration, and ownership. Additionally, given technology's ever-increasing, omnipresent nature, it is absolutely imperative that students gain as many technological skills as possible. These skills will only become more important as technology continues to expand and improve. Technological skills must also stay current in order to meet demands.

For teachers, today's technology opens up a whole range of new teaching methods never before available. From the ability to collaborate globally to the ability to have the world available at your fingertips; technology allows educators boundless creativity in writing and delivering lesson plans.

As to the challenges to technology in the classroom, there are many. The globally interactive nature of the Web 2.0 presents issues with regard to student safety and preventing "unsavory elements" access to students. And educators must be fluent in the use of technology in order to not only maintain classroom management, but also effectively communicate a lesson plan.

Personally, my entire attitude toward technology has changed during the course of this class. I no longer view the Internet and all of the latest gadgets as a means of separating people from their "real" lives. I now view these things as a conduit to the world around. This is not to say that my previous concerns were unfounded. With the use of technology comes responsibility. Part of that responsibility includes a weariness to pitfalls and the knowledge of how to avoid them. To continue to believe, as I previously did, that technology is inherently negative is to distance myself from what is now a global community.