Reflecting on the Research

Research about the effects of teaching and learning with technology is definitely needed, and this is even clearer after reading “A Meta-analysis of the Effectiveness of Teaching and Learning with Technology on Student Outcomes”. Other things that are clear? 1) The extensive presence of technology in our students’ lives is not going away. 2) Because of this, students need to learn how to be effective users of technology. 3) Educators need to effectively integrate technology into their teaching.

Some of the observations and conclusions that stood out to me were that classrooms that spent more time using technology had more engaged students and spent more time on task. These classrooms also afforded the teachers more opportunities to provide individualized instruction to students. In today’s educational climate and with the current focus on RtI, how can educators choose not to integrate technology into their teaching?

The reasons that teachers find it difficult to integrate technology are plentiful and understandable. There are so many demands, so may initiatives, so little funding, and so many new technologies on such a frequent basis…how can teachers possibly keep up with all of that and be experts in their content areas? As a library media specialist, I need to provide support for teachers in this technology integration. I need to make sure that teachers clearly understand the role I can play in their classrooms and in their own technology learning. In this era of ever-shrinking education budgets, district and community decision makers need to realize that specialists like librarians are needed more than ever to provide this kind of support to teachers and to students.