Do the benefits of teaching with technology outweigh the challenges?

There are tremendous benefits of using the Internet for instruction, as search engines make research faster and more accessible, and interactive software makes individual learning more engaging and fun. However, this requires that teachers add instructing students on how to properly use the technology to their existing job of teaching the subject matter.


In his blog “Free Technology for Teachers,” Richard Byrne demonstrated that teaching about the Internet could be seamlessly integrated into teaching the subject matter. Byrne shared an exercise where his students had to compare the information on Wikipedia to that in their textbooks, thus instructing the students on how they could evaluate the site as a source.


However, there is also the potential for technology interfering with students’ learning their subject matter. Another teacher blogger, Hadley Ferguson, described in her blog, “Middle School Matrix,” how her assignment to make a movie about the subject matter resulted in so much distraction that learning was compromised. However, while the assignment will be tweaked, she still intends to keep the movie project as part of her instruction.


Ferguson’s experience reminded me that technology based lessons, are just like traditional lessons in that they will have to be evaluated for their effectiveness in teaching the material. Though it might take a lot of sifting through various websites to find the right one to use with my class, I would have to do the same searching and evaluating of paper sources.


I think it is important to keep in mind, that while technology-based teaching presents new challenges, it doesn’t necessarily present more challenges than traditional methods. The added benefit of creating technologically competent students is all the incentive I need to dig in and learn how to use the technology safely and effectively so I can help my students do the same.