Instructional Materials

When students hear that their teacher uses a smart board in class, typically it excites students. Students love the use of technology because it helps them understand content more clearly whether it’s visually, audially, or kinesthetically. When teachers can implement different ways of teaching content, versus, reading from a textbook or simply just discussing the content, students can learn not only from the learning style they prefer, but in other ways as well.

There are many advantages to using instructional materials in the classroom. One fact, is that you can find an answer to a question (along with possibly an image/video) of whatever it is that you’re looking for right away. Like I mentioned, often, there are explanations or rationales behind what you’re looking for so an image can be attached so students understand whatever it is that you’re learning. Another advantage to using instructional materials is that it’s simply, right there. That’s right! It’s online, on the world wide web. You don’t have to wander around the classroom looking for the other encyclopedia or other textbook in regard to the subject it could be tied to, instead, all you need to do is type and search for it within a search engine and you’re bound to find your answer. Another advantage to using instructional materials in the classroom is that it covers everything (and more) that you are planning to want to teach about. Say, you want to to teach a unit about Martin Luther King and the holiday. Teachers would more likely teach about who he was, what he did for society and people, and how he changed peoples’ perspectives/lives. But, using online instructional materials, it allows you to discover even more! You can learn about his childhood, youth, where he grew up, rewards or recognitions he may have received, maybe even see footage of him that is not related to the Civil Rights movement. Aren’t online instructional materials awesome?!

However, there are downfalls to instructional material as well. Often, we plan on using certain sites to teach content and guess what……the site is down, or the link is no longer working. This can really damper a teacher’s lesson because that site (maybe it was a virtual) was something the teacher really built their lesson around. Another disadvantage to online instructional materials is…software. Often, certain sites want us to download this, or download that to be able to retrieve that information we are seeking and most of us have learned we really shouldn’t be downloading just anything off the world wide web. The last disadvantage is money and hardware. Some schools are blessed with getting funded with technology within it’s classrooms, others may not be so fortunate. Schools can teach using instructional materials using a SMART Board, or individual laptops, or Ipads. Certain schools don’t have these resources, so they aren’t receiving the same technological learning within the class, or even information, therefore still learning through direct instruction, textbooks, and or lectures.  Not that this is a bad thing, but all students should at least have the same kind of learning experiences within our classrooms and as teachers, try teach to our students different learning styles.