Can technology make learning not only easier, but fun?

Over the past week I have had countless conversations with administrators, teachers, tech experts and my students about the integration of technology into our classrooms. The overwhelming consensus is that while everyone is excited about the direction our school is moving toward with technology integration, there is much apprehension about what it will look like. I've found out that if I want to become instantaneously popular, all I have to do is drop an explosive technological catchphrase and teachers will flock like moths to a flame. Just yesterday I witnessed or was involved in five heated technology-based conversations.

This isn't something that is effecting a few individuals- it is and will continue to effect the way we all educate- there is no escaping it. For me, this inability to escape was even more evident in our assignment for this week: creating a technology-based lesson plan. While I couldn't contain my excitement for incorporating Webspiration into my lesson plan, I also was a bit overwhelmed. By creating a lesson plan centering around this technology, I began to realize just how difficult it is now to incorporate technology into the classroom.

The lesson plan I created requires at least 3 or 4 visits to the computer lab, and countless hours where students would be doing individual work on the computer. With something as simple as creating a technology-based lesson plan, it has become all the more evident to me just how necessary it is to begin moving in the 1:1 direction.

I am also beginning to get a sense of how this is going to work out on a day-to-day basis. Whereas before I began to see technology as eliminating a need for class meetings, as much of the information can be done online, I now begin to see it simply enhancing and enriching the time already spent together. Currently, I have to devote much of my class time to taking quizzes, doing reflections, and giving presentations- things which can be done online. One of my big questions has been, what will I do with the extra time I will have when much of this is done online? The answer presented itself this week with the Lesson Plan. Now, instead of spending a class period trying to show the students how to use web 2.0 tools like Webspiration, I can take a week and actually guide them through the process. Not only can this enrich my students' learning in this manner, but I also see them having more fun with this type of work. It seems plausible that now with technology integration in the classroom, learning can become fun for the modern student. What a concept!