What Influences Has Technology Made on the Classroom Environment?

This is a guest post by Charlotte Watson. If you are interested in writing for Social Web Q and A, check out our guidelines for guest posts.

I remember the old days of chalkboards in the classroom, then came whiteboards and overhead projectors. They were an exciting addition at the time but since then technology has moved on and revolutionized the classroom environment even further. For one, many classrooms now have interactive whiteboards that provide a new and exciting feature to re-engage pupils in learning.

Using interactive whiteboards saves the time it used to take for teachers to copy things out onto a chalk or whiteboard, which means more time can be spent learning. When lesson planning, materials can be created and then used straight away in class. Materials can also be updated and reused for other levels or year after year, ensuring teachers can dedicate more time to pupils and education.

There were quite a few pupils in my classes in school and I remember the ones who were quicker at working getting frustrated and restless waiting for the others to catch up. With the introduction of technology in the classroom, students can work at their own pace and have more material available when they finish. This frees up teachers time so they can help pupils rather than constantly be setting them work.

With all the advances in technology it is only right that schools embrace them and use it to their advantage when teaching children. Introducing technology into the classroom is helping schools to move with the times. Children today are extremely IT literate, and bringing this into the classroom is helping to keep them become engaged with learning.

Technology makes learning a much more interactive process and therefore aids children in committing things to memory. Learning can be made fun by playing interactive games, and there is no need for pupils to be isolated as they can play multi-player. Not all  children enjoy having to go to school so by making learning fun through technology they may be more willing.

Using technology can mean that there is easy access to educational materials in the form of DVDs, music, television, pictures, maps and a whole variety or other useful resources. There’s no longer a need for the old television on a trolley with the video player underneath or the static tape player. It also means that these mediums can present the materials in the most effective way possible. Geography on an interactive map suddenly becomes a lot more interesting than the posters of days past.

Staring at a whiteboard all day used to make me bored pretty easily. It is well known that providing children with interactive learning materials, with colourful images, will be much more effective and engaging than the repetitive task of reading from textbooks.

How useful do you think technology in classrooms is?

Post contributed by Charlotte Watson for Promethean World.  Charlotte is a frequent contributor to numerous sites which deal with burgeoning classroom technology such as interactive whiteboard technology.