The Integration of Technology in the Classroom

Written by:

Endang Asrini Arifiati

1507042025

Todays, technology has become inseparable part of our lives as a must-have tools. Not only at home, schools are now realizing the fact that technology in the classroom has become an essential. Integrating technology in the classroom has been proven to increase students' motivation as well as to build the skills. Technology integration in daily classroom practices includes the use of technology resources like computers, mobile devices, digital cameras, social media platforms and networks, software applications, etc. The successful technology integration is achieved when the technology is used routine and transparent, accessible and readily available for the task at hand, supporting the curricular objectives, and helping the students to  reach their learning goals effectively.

Technology integration refers to the use of technology to support planned and structured activities in school environment. Dockstader (1999) defined technology integration as the use of computers effectively and efficiently in the general content areas to allow students to learn how to apply computer skills in meaningful ways. The effective integration of technology is when the use of technology in the classroom is integrated with real-life learning. As technology is not only about computer, National Forum on Education Statistics (2002) stated that technology integration is the incorporation of technology resources and technology-based practices into the daily routines, work and management of schools. Specifically, Hamilton (2007) said that when classroom teachers use technology to introduce, reinforce, extend, enrich, asses, and remediate student mastery of curricula targets is what technology integration actually meant.

There some creative ways the teacher can do to bring technology into the classroom.

• Have students create multimedia presentation
Power point is one of media for presentation. Students can share their ideas and learning with others in the class. They can put images, sound, graphics and others to make the slideshow more interesting and attractive.
• Give students weekly online assignment
As students are familiar with surfing in the internet, it will be challenging to ask them doing assignments online. They can do it by blogging or just publishing the assignment in the social media. It is not only familiarize the students with technology, but also the teacher.
• Do an email exchange
An email exchange can be called as a modern version of penmanship, letter writing for  penpals. It will be valuable if students can exchange email about school matters with students in another school, city, state or even country.
• Take a movie of the students
Making a movie of students' performance will be useful for students to provide the teacher an opportunity to model behavior and learning for other students. The tools to be employed can be video recorder or mobile devices.
• Recording students' reading
Students may make use of recorder or even mobile phone during this activity. This is intended to make students aware of their fluency, pronunciation and also expression. it will be an exciting activity since students are able to hear their own voice and to do self correction.
• Create a class webpage
For independent learning purpose, the teacher may create a class webpage which contain material, announcement, photos, downloadable worksheet and so on. It is intended to provide students accessible material for learning.
• Publish students' work
After having students worked with the multimedia tools, the teacher should publish their works in a webpage or others to document their works. Whenever students need the material, they can simply open and read it anywhere with their gadget. No more to bring note wherever they go. Is it cool?

Bibliography

Docstader, Jolene. 1999. Teachers of the 21st century know the what, why, and how of technology integration. T H E Journal, Jan99, Vol. 26 Issue 6, p73, 2p. ISSN: 0192-592X

National Forum on Education Statistics. 2002. Technology in Schools, Suggestion, Tools and Guideliness for Assesing Technology in Elementary and Secondary Education. NCES 2003313

Hamilton, Boni. 2007. IT's Elementary! Integrating Technology in the Primary Grades.ISTE ® (International Society for Technology in Education)

Haynes, Kim. 12 Easy Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom, Even for Technophobic Teachers. Retrieved from the URL http://www.teachhub.com/12-easy-ways-use-technology-your-classroom-even-technophobic-teachers on January 5th, 2017

Heather. 2014. 10 Ways to Integrate Technology into Your Classroom. Retrieved from the URL http://www.earlychildhoodeducationzone.com/10-ways-to-integrate-technology-into-your-classroom/ on January 5th, 2017