Integrating Technology in Education

This is it. My last post for this course. I really did not know what to expect when this course started, but now even though I do not really use a lot of technology currently as a teacher's assistant, I have a greater appreciation of how I can use these resources in the future as a school librarian.  Technology, I have no doubt will continue to grow and evolve in years to come. The reality is that we all must adapt to it and adapt to what children are learning. As I see my own children learning, they are learning technology faster than I keep up with. What can I do to change that? Educate myself and immerse myself in resources like this course has provided for me in these eight weeks.  I am going to be openly honest, there were many resources that I had to teach myself to use. I used resources online such as YouTube to provide guidance on how to use a tool for an assignment. I learn technology by playing with it as badly as it sounds. I am not a technology expert by any means....

It seems like everyone in the world, carries a phone in hand either at home, school, or in a work environment as technology advances each day. The question is though, how much is it being used and is it benefiting one’s mental health? According to Common Sense Media, in the 2023 Constant Companion Report , students use about 126 minutes (about 2 hours) of their school day on social media.   Image Source : Commonsensemedia.org I found the graph above interesting, and it made me wonder what kind of policies schools have in place with the use of cell phones during the school day. I know in the school district I work at, the current policy for students is phones are not used during school hours and put away in a backpack. At the high school where my children attend, they are a little more flexible with use depending on the class . Some teachers let students quietly listen to music while working on assignments or use their phone to participate in an activity. These uses of the pho...