Classroom Technology

Classroom technology is becoming more abundant each school year. I believe that this will help students become more prepared for the work place and their futures. I began to see the integration of technology during my high school years. Teachers became more frequent users of the schools' computer labs, the laptop carts, and smart boards. I was upset that once my high school acquired even more of these technologies I was graduating. Upon entering Towson University, I was prepared for lectures and hand written notes; as was common in my high school. I went through a technology shock when I entered my first semester classes. It seemed as if every professor I had was a user of some sort of technology I was not extremely familiar with.

Many of my professors used PowerPoint for our notes and then used blackboard to post those notes and other assignments on. This was my first experience with a website/blog site being integrated into my curriculum. One class specifically in my first semester as a freshman used various devices of technology; my physics lab used "clickers," blackboard, blogs, the internet, and PowerPoint everyday in some form. Each day we used a small remote, a "clicker" as we fondly referred to them, that was synced to sensors on the walls of the auditorium and we used them to check into the class attendance, take polls on opinions, to answer questions, and other interactive activities. Each student was assigned one and this enabled everyone to have a voice somehow in the class. Because of the large room we were in, the PowerPoint slides that held our notes were very helpful. The professor would use these to refer to as he lectured. He even placed hyper links on the pages of the PowerPoint that connected us to examples of what he was lecturing about. This enabled my peers and I to fully understand the physics of the objects in our lessons. This professor, like many of my other professors, used blackboard and would post these PowerPoint's so that we could refer back to them when we were completing our homework or when we were preparing for tests. We also had a weekly blog to discuss the in class activity with our specified groups. The professor did this so that we were able to have group insights on the subject being taught.

This was the largest example of classroom integration of technology that I have ever experienced. I believe that it prepared me for not only my future courses but gave me ideas about how I want to run my future classes as a teacher. I am impressed by technology and I wish that more of my professors would find ways to integrate it into their lessons. This professor used technology very well because he used it to involve every student and made sure that it helped us to further understand the subject. I, as well as my fellow students, thoroughly enjoyed this course because it was unlike many of our other lecture classes.