Technology in the Classroom

Executive Summary

This report has been developed in response to a complaint received from a student's parent, Mrs Carew. As there were concerns expressed regarding her child's safety and progression whilst learning with technology, the School Council (the "Council") felt it was in the best interest of the school to take this complaint seriously. Throughout our research, we have found minor evidence to support this belief, yet sufficient evidence to support the positive aspects of technology in the classroom. This is shown through the children's ability to navigate their way around technology with ease and improve their metacognitive learning. It is recommended that technology remain part of the everyday classroom teaching structure.

Introduction

This report has been prepared due to the complaint received from a parent, Mrs Carew, regarding our grade 5 teacher, Mrs Smith. We, as a school, take every complaint we receive very seriously and feel it would be negligent of us to leave the questioning of our school standards unanswered.

Teaching is forever evolving and understandably parents are going to question whether the changes are for the best. After all, little technology was used in classrooms years ago, so it may be hard to see the benefits that come with these technological advances. It wasn't so long ago that overhead projectors and slides were the highest technology, so it is understandable for parents and teachers to be wary of the rapid advancements in the way teachers are presenting information to their children and students.

It is the Councils duty to research supporting information and come to a decision about whether Mr Smith's teaching methods are supportive or prohibitive to children's learning and development, both educationally and socially. We also spoke with some parents and students, and Mr Smith himself, to get a better understanding of the concerns and attributes of online learning. Not all students were asked to provide feedback regarding technology in the classroom, but through the feedback received, it is apparent that the students clearly support Mr Smith's teaching method.

There has been no questioning of Mr Smith's teaching curriculum, simply the process in which he is presenting the information. Therefore technology shall be the only focus throughout this report.

The Council has decided to research the views of professionals in the academic field overseas, as well as in Australia, as technology is the thing that connects us to the rest of the world, so it seemed appropriate to understand the views of other education systems world-wide. We shall, however, be focusing on the Australian primary school classroom, whilst including some relevant opinions outside of this area.

Analysis

To