This 20% Project was very eye opening for me in the sense that I rarely thought about whether technology benefitted or hindered a student's ability to learn in the classroom. As I have said many times, I am somewhat new to the world of technology and did not grow up fully immersed in it, especially in school. Now that times have changed dramatically since I was in elementary and middle school, I can see why the integration of technology is so important in today's society. The biggest thing I learned was that you cannot hide from technology and you cannot keep your kids away from it no matter how hard you try. We are in an era where cellphones and computers are the main gadgets that revolve around everyone's lives some way or another. Using technology in education will slowly be the main tool if it is not already. Whether students learn better or not is still being studied, but it is not the technology that takes away from education it is the child who does not know how to use the technology properly in order to gain the full advantages of it. If a child is not willing to learn, no matter what tools are used, that child will not live up to their full potential. I found more articles, videos, and websites that supported the integration of technology because it is so common in today's world that there is no escaping it.
My target audience was directed towards teachers and parents who were curious about whether they wanted their kids to be in a classroom where technology was readily used. I chose to create a website that could show case convincing evidence and examples that could persuade them to consider using technology in their curriculum. I was able to easily show statistics, videos, websites, and apps, that supported the use of technology. This way the audience could see all the elements presented without have to go to different links and outlets; the information is all in one place. The link to my website is here!
I was fortunate enough to not experience any challenges during this project. I was able to find multiple media and journal articles that went deeply into this subject and many supported the use of technology. I was more concerned about how I was going to present the material I learned and gathered so that people would be attracted and convinced by it. I believe I made the right choice by creating a website to showcase all my information.