As the start of a new semester ensues, I am excited to start off by taking a
technology course. I've seen children as young as 4 years old, playing
games with an I-pad, and eager to learn more. I would like to keep up
with technology and continue to use the latest material for class work.
From the age of cassette players to MP3's, from large videos to YouTube, all of
this new technology can be used in a classroom.
I've been in classes where the professors did not know how to turn on the
projection screen, or had trouble looking for a specific video clip on YouTube.
This takes away not only time but motivation to even pay attention in class.
I felt like I needed to reread the course material on my own time because I was
so distracted by the technical difficulties the professor had. I do not
want to be this kind of educator. I aspire to be an educator who is on
top of technology and even impress the students with the material I use to
teach. This will allow me to have their undivided attention while I make
learning more interesting and fun for them.
In chapter 1 of Transforming Learning..., I've realized that the generations
that we will soon be teaching will have more technology exposure than we
have. To think that "adolescents live media-saturated lives,
spending an average of nearly 6 and a half hours a day with media" (pg 3, Maloy)".
This number was shocking. Clearly technology and media are heavily
included in the younger generation's daily routines. If this is an
evident interest in their lifestyle, why not incorporate it with their learning
in school?
For this class, I aspire to learn many interesting and advanced methods of
teaching with the use of technology. Being a person who is very dependent
on her laptop and iphone, I can't imagine coming up with teaching material and
lesson plans without the use of technology.
I agree completely agree with you. I was also shocked to read that an average tennager spends that much time on media. However when you think about it, it's not just teeenagers but also adults. Just walk down a street and you see people with headphones on, talking on the phone, tapping on their phone either text messaging, or looking something up on the internet. Techonogly has effected us so badly that people have the urge or need to text when driving and the government has to make a law to ban texting when driving. So techonogly is having such an effect on us that we need to stay on top with it and be in control of it.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, I also get distracted and unmotivated when professors do not know how to use technology in their classrooms in front of their students. Professors expect us to be knowledgable about everything we use when we go out into the teaching field. It makes me a bit frustrated when they come to a classroom unprepared in the sense that they do not know how to use a computer, switch the display from the computer to the DVD player, or cannot get the speakers working. Imagine if this happened to a teacher in a classroom full of young students - the students would get also distracted and miss crucial instructional time.
ReplyDelete- Therese
Therese-I am glad to see that others have experience that frustration as I have regarding having professors who do not know how to use the technology in the classrooms. In addition, I also agree with the attention span of younger children, lack of technology skills may turn the classroom into chaos- especially if we don't have the children entertained or occupied with a task.
ReplyDeleteH-Sin-- I agree, with the dependence of technology it seems that youngsters in fact do not know when to stop. Hopefully as future educators, we will be able to teach limitations and reasonable technology usage to the youth.
I myself am also excited about this class. It is looking to be very informative and exciting. I was also shocked about that media stat... but looking back on my work, kids in first grade have cell phones and are texting like crazy. I did not get my first phone till i was a sr in high school. I did not have a tv in my room until i was in college. I think technology has became to much for some people lives.
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