Education in the Digital Age

1. Chapman University
Education in the Digital Age
An Educated View on Technology in a Secondary School Classroom
Katie Pircher
Educating with Multiple Technologies EDUC 649
Keith Howard, Ph.D.
December 17, 2014

2. Just as I began my credential and Masters program at Chapman University,
Los Angeles Unified School District bought an iPad for every student. It was exciting
and felt like a big move in the technology direction. Myself and other prospective
teachers were left with several questions though. Does every student get one? Do
they take them home? What programs do you use? What if they don’t connect to the
internet/network? I grew up without a cell phone and didn’t have a computer in the
house until I was a tween. Internet was dial up and Facebook wasn’t a household
name until well into my college career. The students that I will be teaching never
knew a life without Wi-Fi and I think they shouldn’t be expected to separate their
world full of technology and the education they are receiving in the classroom.
During my student teaching experience, my master teacher was discouraging
of my use of technology in the classroom. She spent a lot of time explaining to me
how I should minimize the use of multimedia and always be prepared with a plan B.
Although I certainly understand why a plan B is necessary (devices always break or
aren’t charged, Internet always fails, etc.), I always felt like she was holding me back
from exploring the use of technology in an English Language Arts classroom.
Considering what I learned in my Educating with Multiple Technologies course, I
feel very prepared to enter the classroom as a full-time instructor with the
awareness of technology’s downfalls but an educated use of how to incorporate
technology in education.
In my opinion, the biggest and most important part of teaching with
technology is the connection between school and our students’ lives outside of
school. Most young adults operate frequently (my estimate is every hour or so) with

3. some sort of device. They could be texting or using social media either on their cell
phone or computer, streaming videos or shows on similar devices or listening to
music on their MP3 player. As educators, we would be missing an opportunity to
connect with our students, both on a personal and educational level, if we ignored
the digital age and all of its interwoven workings. Utilizing the technology that
grabs our students’ attention to encourage classroom engagement is a win-win, in
my opinion.
As taught in my Educating with Multiple Technologies course, as well as the
Educational Applications of Technology course, I learned about several applications
to use in the classroom. Some of those include: Weebly, Wix, SlideShare, GoogleDocs,
Prezi, Interactive Whiteboards, Edmodo, Turning Point, Voice Thread, Adobe
Connect, Portaportal, Nearpod, etc. All of these, among others, can be used in the
classroom (in my case, the secondary school classroom) to promote student
engagement both in the classroom and once they leave the walls of school.
The technology platform I found most useful from the Educating with
Multiple Technologies course is the Nearpod presentation tool. Nearpod uses mobile
devices (preferably an iPad but can also be used on smartphones) or computers to
stream instructor made presentations in real time. Nearpod encourages students to
be interactive audience members and not just information receivers. The teacher
makes an account and then “Creates” a presentation. Nearpod makes the creation
part very easy. No need to upload another document or make sure that the
compatibility matches. As you add “slides” to your presentation you can choose to
add “content” or an “activity”. The range of variation of each slide is fantastic and

4. shows when you complete your slide and present to your students. Students log into
the “session” on their iPads (through the Nearpod app) per the teachers assigned
“code” and the presentation begins. The teacher is in control of the entire
presentation from the device they’re using. The interactive part is the most
important and fantastic part of this tool. Power Points as a presentation tool can be
monotonous for students in the digital age and unless the teacher incorporates an
interactive section in the plan, a Power Point isn’t built for student interaction.
Students have a device streaming the Nearpod session in their hands, which is a
tangible interaction with the content and lesson. They will be asked to respond to
true/false, multiple choice, free response questions and to draw their answer. Even
when teachers give students note-taking graphic organizers, they have the ability to
be off task and often have to struggle through boring direct instruction. Nearpod
creates excitement when the iPad hits the desks; it promotes attentiveness because
of the spontaneous (at least to the students) response questions. The creativity in
responses is interesting for the students and helps them want to be involved in the
activity.
Another amazingly productive use of technology in the classroom is its use
with students with special needs. Teachers receive education on how to
differentiate instruction when they have students with IEP’s or 504’s in their
classrooms. In addition to the differentiation though, are programs and devices that
assist students with disabilities fully function in a general education classroom.
Part of what made the Educating with Multiple Technologies course so
accessible was the format of the blended class: classroom meeting supplemented

5. with online meetings. This made traffic, sickness, family obligations, etc. less
stressful while being a full time student. We, as graduate students, could meet all the
demands our life expected of us while learning about valuable tools to bring to our
classrooms. Adobe Connect was the program that enabled all this life-multitasking
possible. From our homes, or wherever the computer was available to us at the time,
we could sign into class and virtually see, hear and collaborate with class members
and our teacher. We could experience the same kind of teaching and learning as one
would gain in a classroom, except every individual involved was situated in a
different location (as long as the Internet connection was working properly and our
computer programs were up to date).
I easily transfer the education I received with Adobe Connect to one I can
give my students under circumstances when they are not in the classroom for an
extended period of time. In high school, students become more and more
responsible for their own educational experience and can be less dependent on
others’ making sure they are receiving the information they need to pass or
graduate. If a student is absent, due to sickness, a death in the family or another
extenuating circumstance, I can inform that student of the option to participate in
class on a platform like Adobe Connect. In this situation than, the student misses
zero direct instruction and information the rest of the class received, can stay up to
date with assignments and deadlines and feel a sense of relief when integrating back
into the classroom.
Using technology is unpredictable. In a classroom, teachers carefully plan out
every minute of every day so that unpredictable events don’t happen. Part of being a

6. good teacher is when the teacher is “with-it”; meaning, the teacher moves the class
along at a pace that keeps the students alert but doesn’t overwhelm them. The
teacher makes sure he/she leaves enough time for students to think about the
answer and then respond but not too much time where the students get frustrated
or bored. Even when technology works and provides the support desired from the
instructor, there are moments of pause; moments when videos need to load or wires
needs to be switched.
While we were using the Nearpod application in the Educating with Multiple
Technologies course, for example, several of the iPads froze as the application was
opening. In the Masters course classroom we were set up with several computers
and several extra iPads, so those without working iPads could quickly shift onto a
computer to access the same material. In any of the high school classrooms that I’ve
been in, this excess of devices hasn’t been available; so, if a teacher ends up with five
out of the twenty-five (if they’re lucky) iPads not connecting to the program, he/she
will have to quickly group students up or change the course of the lesson. This lag
time leaves several minutes where students can become distracted, float off task or
loose the respect of the lesson and or instructor.
Of course I have to mention that more times than desired, technology fails to
work properly. The Internet may be down or the Wi-Fi won’t connect fully, which
can drastically change the course of the lesson that was depending on multimedia.
Naturally, any qualified instructor would have a plan B in this case, however the
plan B may not be as great as the plan that included technology. This double-lesson-
plan (one with technology and one without just in-case the technology fails) day

7. isn’t attractive and is a lot of extra work for already overloaded teachers. This
instance alone can deter teachers from using technology in their curriculum or
lesson plans.
As mentioned previously, LAUSD purchased iPads for all of their students;
however, not many other districts have set aside the resources to do the same. In
fact, not many other schools even have working computers in every class or a
computer lab (or two) with camera and microphone connections. It is very difficult,
especially in Southern California, to incorporate technology into the teaching
curriculum if we do not provide the resources for students who may not have access
to them otherwise. Most of our school districts do not have the funds they need or
want in order to produce campuses that maintain upkeep and up-to-date systems,
let alone the capital to purchase computers or iPads for every student, working
computers in every classroom and the education teachers need in order to use
technology properly in their classrooms.
In my opinion, we have reached a point in the digital age when more
opportunities are missed in education by not utilizing technology than by ignoring it
in the classroom completely. Considering I am comfortable with multi-media tools
and regularly use technology in my daily life, as well as with both teaching and
learning, I plan on using technology as an educational aid in my classroom. As a
student, I enjoyed the access of education through various forms of technology; as a
teacher, I enjoy incorporating it into my lessons, activities and assessments. I will
carefully spend the time preparing and practicing the tools my students will need to
successfully participate in class with different devices or online applications and

8. believe my students will be better prepared for higher education, their future
careers or professional lives as well as personal and adult experiences by using
technology and learning the skills of how to be responsible digital citizens.
The biggest piece of advice I can give teachers who are unsure about the use
of technology in their classrooms is to educate them first! There are so many
fantastic enhancements that technology can add to classroom instruction but there
are even more “crash-and-burn” moments that can occur if the educator is
untrained on what technological program to use and when. Learning about what
programs are out there and how they work can be done by taking a course,
participating in professional development that highlights the use of technology or
researching and practicing on your own.
Once the unsure educator learns some valuable tools and programs to
enhance learning, my advice would be to use it before you loose it! Program and
their details change and update frequently, and if we are not staying up-to-date with
how to use them and what is available we will quickly fall behind. Although we will
probably never be as savvy as our students in figuring out how to use mobile
devices and fixing technology problems, the goal is to present content in ways that
both impresses them with our knowledge in the world of technology and
encourages them to explore other forms on their own.