Beliefs about Technology and Learning

What are your beliefs about teaching and learning with technology? Describe how technology has supported learning in classrooms you have observed.
I believe that technology provides students with more opportunities and resources for learning than they have had in the past. With the click of a mouse students can ask any question that comes to mind and a wide variety of information and answers will pop up on their screen within a few seconds. I believe that technology, specifically the internet is creating a global community. People are now becoming citizens of the world not just a citizen of their small community. With technology we are exposed to other cultures, international studies, and beliefs. As we begin to rely on technology more and more people can no longer afford to ignore its value and uses in everyday life. Instead of a luxury, technology has now become a necessity.
Although technology has become an amazingly infinite resource for students in their studies it also has the potential to make certain tasks more difficult. We have all encountered a time when we have had an important assignment due and our computer has crashed, or our printer suddenly won’t work. Another difficulty I have encountered when trying to use the internet for research purposes is that there is simply too much information available and not enough time or skill to sift through it all.
In some classrooms I have observed, especially in the higher grades, technology has been an excellent resource. One important resource I have observed students taking advantage of are online databases that contain a wide array of peer-reviewed articles. In this way the students were able to decipher between legitimate information and random unsupported information that is available on the web. I have also seen technology such as an ELMO which allows teachers to display information and videos to all their students at the same time.
Although technology can sometimes be tricky and time consuming it is important to understand that it is constantly being updated and improved in an effort to make our lives easier. It is our jobs as teachers to stay current in an effort to bring better resources to our students and facilitate their learning.