Media Technology and Teaching

Dear Reader,

Hello and welcome to my first blog post, I am so excited to have you here! My name is Riona Mahawan, but I tend to go by Rio for short. I am currently a junior at Cal State Northridge with the hopes of becoming a highschool English teacher someday.

I'd first like to address media technology in the realm of teaching. As a Gen Z student/teacher with tech savvy skills, I believe there is a great amount of power in media technology in teaching. It is an amazing tool to utilize when it comes to bridging the gap between teaching and the students of a fast progressing technological society. Its purpose should primarily focus on how it can enhance the learning experience as opposed to be utilized as a replacement. These tools cover multiple bases including engagement, inclusion, and creativity.

Engagement

Using Kahoot is by far one of the most engaging tools I've seen as both student and teacher. It allows teachers to manifest what they've taught into a fun game and the incentive for winners often grabs the students' immediate attention.

Inclusion

Tools such as text to speech creates a classroom environemnt where every student has an equal opportunity to learn. Learning is not a one size-fits all and providing different mediums of learning encourage students to learn in the way that works best for them.

Creativity

The usage of apps like Canva encourages students to explore their creative minds. It also allows teachers to explore different project outlines such as creating brochures, flyers, and presentations that are all adjustable to fit the lesson's needs.

These tools are only the tip of the iceberg and yet still provide a wide range of possibilites of creating an engaging, inclusive, and creative classroom environment. Through my experience as a student and teacher, the proper utilization of technology can foster a classroom that students want to be in.

"But students will be distracted and lose focus!"

Critics might argue that the use of technology in classrooms is ineffective because it can become a distraction or that it may cause technological dependency that strays students away from critical thinking. However, this is why creating a balance between the use of technology and traditional teaching methods is key to making the use of technology work in classrooms. Some methods I've seen include hand-written freewrites in the beginning of each class before teaching a lesson with the use of a powerpoint. This further emphasizes the concept in which technology should not be a replacement for learning, but rather a tool to enhance the learning experience.

Have you used any of these technological tools? Any other recommendations that are effective in your classrooms? Hope you all enjoyed this read, see you on the next Rio-lutionary Writing post!

- Rio