Technology in the Classroom as Technology Advances,

¶ … Technology in the Classroom

As technology advances, teachers are able to implement tools to adapt and communicate with their students and provide an ease in the learning environment. Teachers are capable of connecting with their students by using tools such as social networks, websites, promethean boards, digital gaming, text messaging, and email communication in. This allows teachers to connect and interact with students and parents to answer questions, provide tutorials, and alert or inform about grades, missing assignments, homework, and other unanswered questions.

Social networks and other websites formulate students to experience an ease when communicating with their teachers by interacting with them on a personal level in a casual environment. Those students confused with a homework assignment may be able to confirm the homework assignment, view tutorials, and ask and answer questions with the teacher and friends through a social network or other website. Teachers will be able to contact their students through the social network sites or websites in order to assign homework, make reminders, or communicate with their students to ensure that they are able to understand their assignments.

Promethean boards have become an advanced technology based of a traditional tool in the classroom: The chalkboard. The promethean board progressed from a chalkboard to an overhead, a dry erase board, and finally to a promethean board, and has always been a primary instrument for the teacher and the student. For students that are visual learners or slow at writing notes, the board will continue to be an effective, interactive tool. For teachers, the board has been used to display lectures, pictures, and their own personal notes (PrometheanWorld.com, 2011).

Digital gaming has been demonstrated to be purposeful, goal-oriented, and rule based (Klopfer, Osterweil, Groff, & Haas, 2009), and has continued to grow as a symbol of American culture. It is not uncommon for an eighth grade boy to play up to twenty three hours and girls to play twelve hours of games per week. However, digital gaming is often used as a source of entertainment rather than a source of education, which is one of its downfalls. If students could spend as much time on digital gaming homework as one would on entertainment, their educational experience could greatly improve.

Text messaging will benefit the teacher, the student, and the parents. Grades and missing assignments may be texted to the student and to the parents as a means of ensuring that the student is taking full advantage of their educational experience. Texting grades, missing assignments, or other concerns allow for efficiency and ease in resolving an issue and improving a student's learning environment as much as possible.