What does technology look like in the classroom?

Technology in the classroom…what does this look like? I know what it looks like to me, but I was interested in hearing what it looks like to other educators. So, I did what any technology student would do – I posted something on social media asking how Teacher friends use technology in their classroom.

I got some great responses to my post and numerous conversations and/or coffee dates on the calendar. (Did I mention I can’t stand the smell of coffee? But I want to learn from others…so I shall meet for coffee.)

Take a guess at what the most common answer was. Go ahead, take a guess...

Ok, I don’t have time to wait on an email from you with your guesses so I’ll just share it: Google Classroom. I wasn’t shocked at this as the #1 response. In the county I teach in there are numerous schools that are “Google Schools.” The applications are extremely user friendly so Teachers, students, and parents can all easily interact with it. One friend said “Students can collab on a variety of assignments. Seriously, I could go on forever about how Google Apps changed my classroom.”

I’m not a Google Classroom user. (Gasp, I know!) I have always opted to use another choice that my county offers; it’s an Open Source Course Management System called VISION, a Moodle product. Honestly, I just put all that in there to sound techy…but the truth is that my Mentor recommended I use it and so I did. But this Google Classroom thing will be on my list to look into more. I’m even going to finish my course to get “Google Certified” this summer!

One Teacher Friend wrote a grant for VR sets and is using them on a World Issues project where students are writing blogs. This Teacher also uses Google Street View and Expedition apps to take “field trips" throughout the experience. (Pic of a VROne in case you are clueless on what I just said.)

An AP’s response included YouTube and Quizlet as being useful. Another friend mentioned that “YouTube should be used for more than just showing other people’s videos. You can create song lists to play as background noise in class. You can have students create commercials for projects and post them on YouTube for strangers input. There are endless ideas with YouTube.”

My favorite response to my post was this:

Did you read that? Pencil, paper, and textbooks are their top three favorite ways to use technology in the classroom. Oh…this guy is such a kidder. So I had to interrogate him for more. My sarcasm radar is usually pretty good, but it was hard on this one. When one offers pencil, paper, and textbooks as a technology answer and then refers to his style as a “blended classroom” when we talked, I didn’t know what to take from it.

In the end…my big take away is this: we’re all starting at different places in our technology knowledge. Not only that, but our willingness to learn about technology in the classroom is at different places. 

What does technology look like in the classroom? My answer is this: Technology looks like whatever the Educator is willing for it to be.

What are you willing to allow technology to be in your classroom?