Ch. 4: The Development of American Schooling (Rethinking Education)

à How does this reading impact your thinking about technology’s role in teaching and learning?

How this reading affects my thinking about technology’s role in teacher and learning is this reading makes me realize how far education has come along. We, as future educators must continue this flow of education and learning.

           The text disappointed me when the author stated “…school will become less and less important as a venue for education.” Through the development of American schooling, this sentence applies those leaders in America’s education history such as Catherine Beecher, Horace Mann and John Joseph Hughes would be devastated to see their hard work and effort go to waste, if you will. The quality time and leadership they put into building future education will be interrupted by technological devices. To indicate that education would become less important means that the role of technology will, in time, bombard in school education. It seems frightening to me to realize that my dream of becoming and elementary teacher could possibly be altered by the role of technology in teaching and learning.

            Therefore, all future educators’ roles could be at stake. The only way to stop technology corrupting future jobs is by pursuing to adapt to technology. In the future, I believe technology will not only become an “I want” kind of a thing, but an “I need” because technology will be a necessity in the classroom. Through incorporating technology in one’s classroom will secrete a positive barrier for education.

            The following discussion on home schooling perturbed my thinking. To see a high percentage of parents that home school their children for a different reason other than the parents want to is quite alarming. I always believed that students who were home schooled were home schooled because their parents were interested in being an educator or they (the parent(s)) were home schooled when they were a child. However, on page 63 it says differently. To know that some parents are “afraid” of school for their children makes me wonder what particular educator(s) or school system disappointed the parents. Schools should be a place for the parents to trust and fully rely on the teacher to keep their child(ren) safe. Yes, students at a school can portray a negative image on other students, but that does not necessarily mean it is a bad environment. I think it is important for students to be exposed to other behaviors, which way a teacher can address the bad behavior and the other students know not to behave like that. Schools should be a safe environment for all students and parents to trust.

àWhat will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

            As a future teacher I will do two things as a direct result of this new thinking. One, I will engage myself, as a future teacher, to become more aware and knowledgeable in technology. If technology is hypothesized to disrupt the classroom setting by corrupting education, I will be the educator that takes all technology classes, so I am able to incorporate and promote technology within my classroom. The second thing I will do is make my classroom and the schools I teach at feel like a safe environment. I will try to eliminate peer pressure, bullying, drugs and promote high security of safety. Not only will I promote safety, but I will also mimic positive behavior through displaying good manners, which will teach my students how to be nice to one another. I will do all the preparing that I need to in order to advance as an educator at the elementary level