How are teachers meant to teach something they don't understand themselves? Let alone when technology comes into the equation, too many times I have been sat in a class and the teacher can't quite figure out why the speakers aren't working, or why the presentation isn't loading, when nine times out of ten this issue could've been solved in under a minute.
Jamieson- Proctor and Finger (2008) have stated that the confidence from the teacher can have a heavy impact of the uptake of technology from the children, so the less confident the teacher is, the pupils won't want to use that technology. They won't understand it and therefore are we just setting up for generations of confusion? (Lee and Finger, 2010)
By using the technology this gives the children more power in their learning, they become more engaged and work collaboratively with others in the class. (Hramiak and Hudson, 2011) Churchill (2009) states that ICT can add possibilities for the lesson that you can't normally do in the average classroom. (Shabeeb and Akkary, 2013) Teaching with technology that you don't understand or you don't consider the learner styles, this will be ineffective and possibly reverse the effect of 'teaching'. The children may not learn, but instead get confused and therefore not want to use the information in case of getting it wrong.
Introducing brand new technology can be expensive and then those staff members will need to be trained to use it, this can also rack up the expenditure, so I can understand why some schools might want to stick to the 'normal' method of teaching. However, by using technology the children use at home, they can then feel more comfortable and able to use it, especially when the teacher has gained the knowledge of the learner styles in the classroom. For example Gamification. This is where you use games such as Minecraft and fifa in the classroom to help with subjects like maths or English language. Gamification is the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service:
‘gamification is exciting because it promises to make the hard stuff in life fun’
By ensuring that the teachers are competent enough and confident enough then they can use the technology to emphasis other points made. (Mirzajani et al., 2016)
References:
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Lee, M. and Finger, G. (2010) Developing a Networked school community: A guide to Realising the vision. Aust Council for Ed Research.
Mirzajani, H., Mahmud, R., Fauzi Mohd Ayub, A. and Wong, S.L. (2016) ‘Teachers’ acceptance of ICT and its integration in the classroom’, Quality Assurance in Education, 24(1), pp. 26–40. doi: 10.1108/qae-06-2014-0025
I can also relate to your experiences within the classroom, when the teacher is unable to use the technology. It did not only affect myself and my peers but also the teacher as well, as it would hinder the lesson and affect both of our learning.
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