A considered view of technology integration

I have always held the belief that, like most things, the advantage of technology is not that you use it, but how you use it. This course has served to reinforce and better inform that view. Though we learned about and used a number tools that can be implemented in the classroom to engage, inform, and involve students in a more active and interested manner, we also learned that the effective use of these tools is dependent upon how teachers apply them in the classroom, and how they are incorporated into lesson design. Too often high-tech tools are used in the classroom to merely replace low-tech tools. A computer with a word processor can replace a pencil and paper, but it can also be so much more. Using technology in the classroom is not the same as replacing the old with the new. True technology integration is the result of an assessment by educators about how technology can be used in the classroom to augment lesson efficacy, enhance students' learning experience, provide high-quality education to students, and promote higher level learning outcomes. The teacher's role in this process is to utilize the myriad tools and techniques that technology can provide in a manner that compliments and heightens lessons rather than overshadowing them. Technology must be regarded as a means to an end, rather than an end in and of itself. The effective education of students must always be the goal, and lesson design, with and without advanced technology, must reflect that goal. Yet, when students are regarded as the end, high-technology can become a powerful tool in the classroom. WebQuests, interactive whiteboards, handheld devices, class blogs, social media tools, computers, websites, and myriad internet 2.0 tools can all be incorporated into the classroom and lesson design meaningfully when student learning is the ultimate goal of technology in the classroom.