In my last post, I discussed the need for technology in the classroom, and what Intel is doing to address the need. When discussing how schools might best produce future-ready students, I can’t help but to imagine what a future-ready classroom might look like, and more specifically how it might enhance the therapy sessions in my speech room.
The first thing that comes to mind is how technology would benefit my students that are learning the English language. In-class technology would be a great way for me to help illustrate abstract words and concepts for them, as well as academic language for my English speaking students. Concepts like gravity, social skills, and emotions would be made clearer, as they could be illustrated within the learning environment in a myriad of presentation formats best suited foreach individual student. The advent of apps has given educators access to a number of resources to help students achieve. A quick search of an app store yielded hundreds of apps geared solely toward speech therapy. Not to mention the thousands of other apps that I could utilize for class management and reinforcement. My devices allow me to access these resources created by other brilliant minds in the field, and most importantly my students access to tools that can help them be successful. Certainly, I don’t mean to say that technology has decreased the value of my role as a speech therapist. It’s actually quite the opposite! In the same way that a carpenter’s work is improved by their tools, an educator, equipped with technology, can use the best tool according to their expertise in their field.
A crucial element in learning is the ability to connect new learning to prior learning. The challenge for educators is designing lessons that connect to each students’ prior knowledge which serves as a medium for new learning. The presence of technology in our classrooms would help to add variation to our lessons that would not just be good for most, but for all students. It’s thoughts like these that get me excited about the future of technology and its role in enhancing education for Twenty-First Century learners. How are you using technology in your classroom to prepare your students for the future? I would love to learn from you!
This post is sponsored by Intel.
-Amanda
