Journal 1: Technology Benefits and Challenges for Teachers

 

Technology has made a significant contribution to all aspects of our daily lives, especially to education. It is undeniable that there are numerous benefits of using technology for both offline and online programs. Nevertheless, this advancement also brings several challenges for not only teachers but also students when they first access to it.

According to the Pew Research Center, 92% of teachers said that the internet has a major impact on their ability to access content, resources, and materials. I share the same point of view with those teachers because it can be easily seen that technology helps teachers have more effective lessons and create a more engaged environment. By using some tools like Powerpoint, Powtoon or Gimp, teachers can have more eye catchy and beautiful slides or videos to catch students’ attention. As a result, students will be attracted by interesting contents or well-designed slides and then they may be willing to participate in the lessons. Moreover, students seem to be extremely excited when they have chances to join some interactive games such as Quizizz, Kahoot, Blooket or Bamboozle. Therefore, using devices like a computer, tablet, or other types of technology in classrooms can help turn traditionally dull subjects into interactive and fun activities.

Working as an English teacher at a primary school, I myself find that technology plays an important role in my teaching career. I can prepare my lessons by using Powerpoint and other Office software such as Word and Excel to make tests or assessments, which saves me a lot of time compared to hand writing. Some online platforms such as Class Dojo and Google Drive are also my favor. However, I had some difficulties applying these platforms to my classroom. Our school chose Class Dojo as an official channel for teachers and parents to keep in touch so that all students’ performances will be updated on it. The matter was that some of parents are not really advanced with using their cellphone or laptop to set up this app. Thus, it took me so much time to give them instructions step by step and make sure that all students’ accounts would be successfully connected. Fortunately, after following clear steps to set up and run the app, both parents and students got used to using Class Dojo and they expressed their satisfaction of its advantages.

Nowadays, more and more schools are well-equipped with projectors, TV or and computer for educational purposes, which supports teachers a lot in their teaching. I am sure that most teachers are willing to update themselves with technology and apply it in their lessons. If there were several teachers prefer the traditional ways of teaching with blackboard and chalk, I would still respect their teaching styles. However, I would show them various benefits of using technology in teaching and learning so that they will be no longer resistant to applying technology in their classroom.