By Guest Author Matt Zajechowski

Education has changed dramatically over the years. Gone are the days of carrying a bookbag filled with loose leaf paper, pencils, and textbooks. Today, students are much more likely to walk into a classroom with a tablet under their arms and schedule Skype meetings with their professors instead of stopping by office hours.

Tecnology in EducatonAnd while changes in education and technology affect students, they also affect people preparing to enter the educational workforce. Those seeking a career in education can set themselves apart from other job candidates by learning the latest education and technology teaching techniques and demonstrating their understanding of technology’s new place in the classroom.

If you’re preparing to become a teacher, here are a few things you can do to show a potential employer your mastery of education and technology.

Find the right tools for your students to use

It can be tempting to use technology for technology’s sake, but that should be avoided. Instead, look for the best technology tool that will enhance and support their learning. A college class may benefit from having group discussion forums, whereas a middle school class could enjoy having virtual pen pals across the country that they Skype with occasionally.

Introduce only one technology tool at a time

Don’t overwhelm your classroom with technology. Start with a well-developed lesson and choose one appropriate and effective technology tool to use with it. Using one tool at a time will be more effective in enhancing and deepening your students’ learning. Remember, technology should be the third component of lesson planning, after deciding what you want your students to remember over the long-term and what curriculum standards need to be measured; then, you can consider which technology to include in your lesson.

Learn how to evaluate technology and its usefulness in your classroom

You’ll inevitably test out technology that may not end up being perfectly suited for your classroom’s purposes and your lessons, so you’ll need to know how to efficiently assess your technology tools in order to apply them correctly to your lessons.

Use technology to engage your students

There are a wide variety of creative ways that your students can interact with technology. Your students can use Skype to interview professionals across the country, creating a collaborative environment that’s not bound by distance. College students, meanwhile, may appreciate programs such as OpenStax College, which creates digital textbooks for the nation’s most popular classes, or other programs that allow students to get their books without paying hundreds of dollars.

If you’re interested in using technology in your classroom, here are a few ways you can start:

  • Share classroom material online so that students can access homework, schedules, and notes no matter where they are.
  • Use social media to engage students, whether it’s by sharing articles on a class Pinterest board or using Twitter to interact with a “guest speaker.”
  • Flip your classroom so that your students view lectures and take notes at home, using class time for discussion, group activities, creative projects, and assignments.
  • Teaching with technology isn’t a bonus skill in potential teaching hires anymore- it’s an essential requirement. Impress your future employers and give your students a leg up by utilizing engaging technology in the classroom.

Please share how you are using technology in your classroom or work in the comments section, below.


Matt Zajechowski is an outreach manager for Digital Third Coast, an internet marketing firm based in Chicago, IL . Matt was a key player in the research and development of a study for MidAmerica Nazarene University that addresses the importance of technology in education today. You can connect with Matt on Twitter.


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