Week 7 DQ 1 Due Tuesday June 9 2009 Subject line Week 7 DQ 1 Your Name Please post your reply to the following Discussion Question 1 Are there certain curricular areas in which technology is more useful than in others Explain your answer Use of technology can be useful in any area of curriculum however it is more effective in some areas more than others For example technology would be more useful in a social studies lesson than in a vocabulary lesson Using technology in a social studies lesson can help show the students what was going on at that time in history and what the people wore what the people did and how the people lived Where as if technology were used in a vocabulary lesson it really would not have that much more effect on how the lesson was taught because vocabulary is usually written so technology would not be that useful Response 2 No Technology is important in everything that we do It would be impossible to say that technology is more important to certain curricular We use technology everywhere and school is no exception While writing has improved because of word processing so has the ability to learn about anything else There are games that help with spelling and math The internet has given us the ability to do research on any subject that we choose There are virtual field trips you can see how the human heart works study the stars learn about dinosaurs People with disabilities have more opportunities available because of technology Response 3 Instructional technology is a growing field of study which uses technology as a means to solve educational challenges both in the classroom and in distance learning environments While instructional technology promises solutions to many educational problems resistance from faculty and administrators to the use of technology in the classroom is not unusual This reaction can arise from the belief or fear that the ultimate aim of instructional technology is to reduce or even remove the human element of instruction However most instructional technologists would counter that education will always require human intervention from instructors or facilitators I don t see any classroom that could not be helped with technology The main ones are probably mathematics science and biology however all classes benefit from technology Technology is only useful when it enhances teaching and learning As students progress through middle and high school technology becomes more of an everyday necessity Students in our elementary schools learn the basics of how to use technology hardware and software They have access to computers in their classrooms and in computer labs Students start by learning technology vocabulary and basic skills then learn to apply that knowledge to create interdisciplinary projects By the end of high school students have learned how to use technology as a tool for analyzing interpreting and communicating information Week 7 DQ 2 Due Thursday June 11 2009 Subject line Week 7 DQ 2 Your Name Please post your reply to the following Discussion Question 2 According to Ch 12 of the text there are barriers that prevent the implementation of technology in classrooms Based on your experiences or observations what barriers exist that are not mentioned in Ch 12 Discuss possible solutions to these barriers You may want to use the Internet to research this topic I think that some of the barriers that prevent technology classrooms are the risk of hackers and viruses In today s time the possibility of a hacker breaking into a school s network is highly possible Schools rely on computers to hold student s records test scores lessons and test A person could steal personal records answers too test or change test scores this is a serious problem and happens quite often Another problem is protecting schools network from viruses Non class or non work related surfing increases the chances that a staff member or student will visit a site using ActiveX or Java These languages can be used to create malicious codes that communicate directly with the user s machine giving hackers access to data and potentially the network Ruckman 2002 These issues can cause for school s systems to crash and cost a lot of money to fix School s can look at several solutions One is to make sure school s have a good virus protection and firewall Second is to educate students and teachers on being cautious on what sites they open or download from Ruckman 2002 Ruckman S 2002 May 1 Helping protect computer networks from the inside Education as a security tool Retrieved June 11 2009 fromhttp www allbusiness com operations 3485270 1 html References Response 2 In a classroom there are several barriers that can happen when it comes to technology Some that were not mentioned in Chapter 12 is the teaching of technology to every single teacher First of all if the teachers are low manned then how are they going to get out of class to get training on computers unless they complete an on line class Another barrier when it comes to technology is the time that will be taken to teach the students how to work on a computer and time is taken out of classroom instruction and completion of work Other barriers might be the way the classrooms are set up they may not be capable of hooking computers up Some possible solutions are bringing laptops into the class a macintosh would be a good laptop it is not widely used so viruses would be less of an issue Response 3 There are many barriers that prevent the implementation of technology in the classrooms the biggest is probably funding in addition to funding technology changes so rapidly that I think it would be difficult for a district to keep all of their schools current As schools receive funding for technology they could start by replacing or upgrading in the high schools and move the high school computers to the Jr high and the Jr computers to the grade schools I suggest this because the High school students will be entering the work force are continuing their education and will need to be familiar with the most recent technology