Technology is the all of the tools that are made for the necessities of people. With the help of scientists, engineers and other productive people; it is made some machines or applications for usage of people. Generally, technology aims make our lives easier. For example; vehicles that are used in transportation is being faster with the development of technology, the communication vehicles are better than the past, machines and robots make the jobs of people like mixing, cooking, washing etc. However, some technological improvements cannot be beneficial for human life. For instance; weapons, atom bomb, and harmful chemical substances. All the improvements in technology influence many areas positively or negatively. Education is one of these areas and technology made many contributions to education. In that point, it is very important how to use technology in education. According to me, it is vital to have technological knowledge in addition to pedagogical and content knowledge for all teachers. With the knowledge of these three areas, teachers will make decisions, choices, and changes in their instruction according to their classroom environment and needs. Thus, they can make easier learning and they can use time efficiently. For example, teachers were drawing shapes to blackboard in the past, but now they can use some computer programs to draw and show relations. Also, there are many abstract concepts in mathematics and it was difficult to show them to students with various and concrete manipulative. However, now there are many applications in computers that can help teachers to show a relation more concrete. The first example is about using technology, but the second one is more about integrating technology to instruction because first one just makes easier teachers' job and saves time, but the second one makes contribution to learning directly. Teachers can use both of them in their instruction according to their necessities. However, the most important point is to use or integrate technology in instruction, when it is better and more beneficial than the old type of teaching.
To use technology effectively in class, teachers firstly should have three areas' knowledge that I mentioned above. Also, while planning an instruction, they should consider whether the technological tools will motivate children, contribute learning of students, save time or not. Additionally, if they will choose an application, they should be careful about ethics and simple usage of the application. For instance, Facebook is beneficial for sharing ideas and communication, but it has many irrelevant and spam contents. On the other hand, it shouldn't be forgotten that the aim is teaching a certain topic, so it shouldn't be focused on just 'I should use technology', so when it is not necessary, we shouldn't use it. Some teachers can have difficulties with technology because it can require some computer and program using skills. Also, sometimes it can be unexpected problems in technological tools in class and teachers may not solve them. Additionally, it can be expensive to access technological tools. In my experiments of school years, my teachers weren't integrating technology to their instructions. Only, they were using power point and projector. I do not want to be like them. I want to use and integrate most suitable technology in my class and I want to be careful about all of the points that I mentioned above.
This assignment provided me reviewing what I think about integration of technology to education. Also, I thought that I should learn all of the beneficial technological tools to select and use in my teaching. Moreover, I learnt that it is very important how to use technology in class. Furthermore, first time I thought what technology is. This assignment may be given to make our ideas about this topic clearer.
