Thing #5

School 2.0, to me, is basically the school of the future.  It’s using tablets and computers as opposed to pen and paper and SmartBoards instead of overhead projectors.  It’s communicating with your child’s teacher (or student’s parents) through email and social networking sites rather than letters and phone calls.  It’s also students getting help with their homework through blogs and other aspects of the internet instead of calling the Homework Hotline or just guessing when they cannot figure it out.  Technology is an integral part of education today and there really is no choice but to embrace it and use it nor is there no reason not to do so. 

When I was in school everything was done by hand.  Papers, homework, every assignment was handwritten.  My senior year of high school we had to write a five page paper—by hand (and I graduated in 2005, so it’s not like we didn’t have the technology, it’s just that my school did not embrace it very much).  I cannot even imagine doing that today.  Technology has changed everything so much in a relatively short amount of time and it continues to change constantly.  Schools are now using everything from SmartBoards to iPads as a replacement for textbooks.  Homework is no longer done by paper and pencil in some schools, it’s done and sent to the teacher through the computer.  Technology is opening up so many doors for so many students and teachers alike.  Teachers’ lessons are no longer limited to only what they can find in a book in their local school or library.  They now have the entire world at their fingertips and are able to employ so many different teaching techniques.  Completely replacing textbooks with iPads on a 100% level may still be a few years away, but the idea of it is very intriguing.  Students will be able to gain a much better understanding of a subject by being able to be more hands on with it rather than just staring at it through a textbook.  Technology in the classroom is extremely beneficial for both student and teacher, as it provides an endless amount of opportunities to teach and to be taught.