Week One: Where do you stand at present on using new technologies in the English classroom?

Having chosen to specialise in ICT I believe it is vital to utilise the ever growing use of new technologies. Integrating new technologies into all subject areas to create intriguing stimuli and interesting lesson activities is a aim of mine once I become a primary school teacher. Primarily this opinion is based on the view that children respond to technology extremely well as it is of common interest to them. However, technology is very much a part of popular culture today, for children and adults alike, which for some people can influence opinions of whether we should introduce more technology to the classroom? This is because many parents and teachers argue that children already engage with an excessive amount of technology outside of school.

Contrastingly, my stance still remains that if children still yearn for the use of technology within the primary classroom, then why fail to acknowledge a childs eagerness to interact with technology? As you as the teacher will be providing a child with an unforgettable learning experience which they  will appreciate as they are interested from the start. I believe technology can be extremely beneficial and within the English classroom new technology usage would undoubtedly raise levels of participation and concentration. Popular cultural texts could then be introduced through the accessible and excitable use of new technologies in order to truly capture the interests of all the pupils in a class and demonstrate how a child can feel empowered to genuinely connect with a text which evokes a comfortable and familiar environment within which the children can feel confident to work in. (Lambirth, 2003)

Technology can be used in a variety of different ways, and I believe this is why the continuing research into the impact of digital technologies consistently identifies positive benefits for children's capabilities to learn. Most recently experimental research has taken place and numerous studies have shown that groups of pupils using ICT to assist with their work have made better gains in their knowledge than the groups of pupils doing the same work without the technology (Higgins, 2012). However, regardless of evidence produced research I have still not experienced any schools using a large amount of technology within their classrooms. During my school experiences I have seen an abundant use of the Interactive Whiteboard and desktop computers however, I have not seen these new technologies being used in a new intuitive and exciting format. Generally the interactive whiteboard is used as thought it were just a whiteboard. Taking this into consideration I believe my challenges for this module will be to ensure that as I gain knowledge about the increasing digital society we live in, I also will aim to use this knowledge to critically develop my understanding of how to incorporate interesting and challenging uses of technology into the English classroom. Which will help me achieve my personal goal of creating exciting and enticing lessons which encorporate the use of technology in a way that pupils have not experienced before.


Bibliography

Higgins, S., Xiao, Z., Katsipataki, M. (2012) 'The Impact of Digital Technology on Learning: A summary for the Education Endowment Foundation'

Lambirth, A. (2003) 'They get enough of that at home: Understanding aversion to popular cultures in schools' Reading 37(1) pp.9-13