New Thoughts on how to make Technology NOT so Overwhelming!

I just finished reading and reflecting on an article (What Teachers Need to know about Technology) by a man named Yong Zhao and I took away some very valuable lessons on how not to make the use of technology not seem so overwhelming.
First of all he summarized it quite eloquently when he said that teachers need to “adapt technology instead of adopting it.” We need to be in control of the technology and not let the technology control us. The more depth of understanding we have the better we can use it effectively in our classrooms. The goal is not to learn and memorize the usage of tons of technology but to focus on a few types of technology that are applicable to the teaching you are already doing and that solve a problem for you, not create a new one. Technology should really be absorbed into what you are teaching not be the focus or distract from what you are doing.
Not all problems can be solved by using technology and one of our goals as educators is to identify which problems can be solved by using technology, what technology can be helpful, and how to use the technology in an efficient way to help solve the problem at hand. The more you apply technology into your every day teaching and the more training you receive in different areas that are applicable to the subject areas you teach, the more you will be able to manipulate the technology to meet your needs and not the other way around.
The more I reflected on my reading I began to realize that the goal is not to know every trick in the book when it comes to technology. Let’s face it that would be impossible. But instead to know what tricks are the most helpful to you and your students based on what you teach and how you teach. Knowing a few technological tools inside and out and how they enhance what you are teaching is more valuable than having tons of technology at your fingertips that you don’t use appropriately.
I know that teaching technology in isolation is not always the best use of time. Let’s face it we have so many benchmarks and GLCEs to cover in a year that it can make your head spin! But, how many times have you skipped using the word processor with your students during writing because the slow peck, peck, peck on the computer keys really slows them down and actually hinders the flow of the writing process. Have you ever wanted groups to present something in Power Point but found that teaching the technology itself took away from what you wanted your students to focus on?
Whatever happened to typing class or keyboarding skills? I think that there is a time and place for the teaching of technology in isolation. I think that there should be benchmarks developed for a spiraling of the curriculum in technology. Of course, the question is, where do we find the time? Well, that question is a tricky one. Maybe we rotate kids through in short semesters and they apply the technology they learned from the technology teacher in their own classrooms immediately after learning it on a subject they are studying. For example the class spends an hour a day for couple days on learning Power Point. The next 3 days the students apply their learning by putting together group presentations on the water cycle. Or you could have the younger students take keyboarding skills as an enrichment class before they are expected to use it in the classroom for writing.
These are just some things that I thought were relevant to what I read about today. Goodness knows I don’t have all the answers but it did get the brain thinking about some things. It really does make you look at technology a little differently and hopefully not feel so overwhelmed by it!