Chapter 10 did a good job of discussing what the role of teachers will be as technology becomes a more widely used resource in the classroom. The Big Skills the author mentioned really tied everything we learned in previous chapters to what it means for our students and using the resources in our classrooms. By incorporating technology into the classroom, students will have a purpose for writing and will have a larger audience than just their teacher. Instead of writing their research paper for their teacher to read and grade, they could put their research paper on their wiki and have a very large audience who could potentially read it and give the student feedback. Students today have so much more "knowledge" available to them then even I had 15 years ago! I remember using Encyclopedias in elementary school to write my research paper and physically having to go to the library to find books on my topic. Today, if you ask students what an encyclopedia is, most probably would not know. They know the internet is the place to go to find information.
As a future teacher, I think it's important to know what our role is to help our students use technology that is available to them. As technology changes, so does education. If education doesn't progress with technology, people will look to other places (internet and online schools) to get their education. I think by using technology in the classroom, you are benefiting your students and yourself. Your students will hopefully be more excited in learning since they have grown up with technology and it has become a large part of their life.
After reading the Epilogue, it is amazing all that Tom did in such a short amount of time. Technology is a great tool and when you take advantage of all it has to offer, it can be a great timesaver and a great resource. But the first step is to get started. After reading this book I know so much more about the technology available and am interested in trying what is out there and by the time I'm ready to teach, I will be familiar with some of the technology resources and can incorporate them into my classroom.
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