Being an Educator in the 21st Century

 Being an educator in the twenty-first century is very different from being an educator in previous years. With the recent developments in technology that have increased our abilities, children are becoming far more technologically savvy than most adults. As future educators, we are going to have to be experienced with the technology that our students are using and try in some way to use their knowledge of those things to our advantage. We can do this by incorporating more technology into the classroom in many ways. This can include allowing students to use computers more in class, incorporating different forms of technology into our lessons, and by allowing the students to be more creative with project ideas.

A lot of classrooms have computers in them so that students can work on some homework, however not many classrooms have enough computers so that everyone can use one in class. When you have one of those “teachable moments” like talked about in the article Write the Truth, every once in a while there are just times when you do not know the answer to a question that a student has. You will then need to find the answer to that question and if you incorporate your students and have them all help out and use different forms of research, then you will all easily find a solution to your problem. Different types of technology can be very useful in situations like this. You can use the internet, online databases, and so many other forms of technology.

If we as educators use technology in our lessons, we may be able to make our lessons more understandable to some students. As stated in Dual-Language Bookmaking, sometimes, you may have some students that do not speak the same language as everyone else. Technology helps educators make accommodations for those students so that they, too, are able to earn a great education.

If educators allow students to use technology to be more creative with their assignments, more students may enjoy school and not necessarily mind doing their schoolwork. Like the video, Pay Attention, was showing us, students are attached to their cell phones and their iPods. Maybe if educators were somehow able to make those technologies into some kind of school related assignment, students would like it and find it meaningful.

Technology is a great thing. It has come a long way in many years and we need to take advantage of it. If we are not using technology to our full advantage, we are wasting a value resource that is available to us. Students enjoy using technology in general and would love to use it in the classroom. If we make it more available to them, we will be helping them succeed as students.