Tech Fund-Raising

Please Note: This is a fictional blog. Please do not respond to it.

Greetings to you all, and thank you for taking a moment to learn about the effort the PTSA and I are making to raise funds to support the addition of technological resources to your child’s classroom. I hope that by reading this, you will understand how important these resources are for your child’s education and why we are trying so hard to acquire them.

Let me begin by saying that I understand that many parents may be concerned that technology distracts students from learning. It is true that as educators we must often fight against the use of cell phones and i-pods in class; that many teenagers spend more time on social networking sites than they do on their homework; and that the internet can be responsible for exposure to potentially harmful content. But it is also true that, when used properly and effectively, technology can be a powerful learning tool. It can provide us with methods of teaching and learning that we would not otherwise be able to provide, in the ways of both direct instruction and interactive learning. Let me take a moment to explain.

Behaviorist theorist B. F. Skinner advocated a concept called operant conditioning in the mid twentieth century which advocates that stimulus-response connections shape behavior. According to Skinner, “instruction must provide the right stimuli and reinforcement to achieve desired learning responses” (Roblyer and Doering, 2007). Computer programs can provide exactly these kinds of exercises for students to become proficient in a certain subject areas.

Other theorists advocate a constructivist model of learning, based more on cooperative learning which stresses development of global problem solving skills, group collaboration, and addressing what Howard Gardner refers to as Multiple Intelligences, the theory that individuals respond differently to methods of learning depending on their innate intelligence (linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical etc.). Technological resources support the multiples intelligences of students by offering a variety of multimedia approaches to the same content area.

I am proposing three technology-based activities which incorporate both of these learning theories; first, I would like to make software available to students to drill rote skills such as conjugating verbs. This way, students would be able to work at their own pace and would receive immediate feedback. Second, I would like students to have access to websites which contain games, songs with accompanying lyrics, and podcasts to support the learning of concepts covered in class. Lastly, I would like students to be able to create school e-mail accounts and establish a sort of “buddy-system” with other members of their classes, which would serve the purpose of keeping up with material they miss when they are absent, as well as allow them to collaborate remotely on group projects, which would also be easier to do if they had (limited) access to the internet and word-processing software in class.

I hope this post has been informative and that you are now as excited as I am to take advantage of all the beneficial opportunities technology can afford our students! Please feel free to post comments, questions, or suggestions.

Madame Pummer