Do you think that technology will help teachers to be more effective and efficient at their jobs?

Question

Do you think that technology will help teachers to be more effective and efficient at their jobs?

Answer 1

Yes of course. Face it, technology is entering our classrooms whether we like it or not. Thus we must embrace it and use it wisely. I am a mathematics teacher and the new CAS technology allows students to further explore and understanding mathematics....not just how to find the answer to a question by following some procedure by pen and paper skills. Of course pen and paper skills are still important and are ESSENTIAL, but think about it, even though students can arrive at the right answer using the methods they have learnt in class, do they really understand what they have found? Thats where technology comes in and students are given the opportunity to see and experience the graphs, values, symbolic stuff and can experience manipulations. Plus it makes maths much more fun and engaging for students. Used appropriately in practice, technology is extremely effective. And teachers will become more effective and efficient with their jobs as they guide students to further understand the maths they are learning (or whatever they are learning).

Answer 2

No. I think they are becoming lazier because of technology. They rely on it too much.

Answer 3

I think it will, but it might take a little time. A lot of it really depends on how teachers decide to use it. Not all of today's teachers grew up with technology, so it might be tougher for them to get used to it and take full advantage of it in the classroom. But as today's tech-savvy students become tomorrow's teachers and educators, I think you'll see more integration of the Internet and computer-based lessons, as well as more creative uses of developing technology.

Below you'll find a couple of links. One is an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about conflicting viewpoints on your question and the lack of conclusive evidence either way. The second one is a piece I recently wrote on interactive whiteboards and how teachers and students can work together to make the most of them. It's a good question, and I'm optimistic that technology will help in the long-run.