Blog #1: The Role of Media Technology in Teaching

Hi, there! My name is Aida Husakovic and I am a second-semester student teacher. 

Media technology has undoubtedly changed the way educators deliver instruction. Rather than relying mainly on a whiteboard and hard copies of instructional materials, technology such as interactive games and presentations contributes meaningfully to the learning experience of students. While a part of me is saddened to see just how much time students spend looking at their iPads in an eighty-nine minute class period, I believe using technology appropriately is an important life skill for students to learn in the classroom. 

Currently, I teach seventh grade ELA and ELD and have seen firsthand the increase in engagement when I use Kahoot or Blooket to review information or PearDeck for students to follow along, answer questions, or complete sentence stems as I teach a lesson. It is much more effective and wise to check for understanding throughout a lesson than to simply lecture at students, hoping they are absorbing the information I am conveying, because teachers should hold themselves accountable for what their students do not yet comprehend and find a different way to reteach the material. With such short attention spans, students also need to be held accountable for identifying what they do and don’t need more support with in order to be able to master the content.

However, my concern, especially for English learners, is the over-reliance on technology to complete assignments and practice their language skills. Many of my students, despite doing daily grammar warm-ups on Google Slides, continue to make mistakes in their writing, such as not capitalizing “I” or putting a period at the end of a sentence. Writing, along with reading, speaking, and listening, are the four domains of the ELPAC, which they must pass in order to reclassify. It would be worthwhile to consider the benefit of having students, whether or not they are ELs, write by hand to acquire and strengthen language skills, as doing so aids their comprehension and development of metacognition. Although media technology can make learning more efficient, videos, iPads, and educational games cannot replace the role of the teacher; technology is simply a tool teachers should use to enhance their instruction.