Red Group

When I look back at my technobiography, and think back to my career as a student I can only feel limited by what technology had to offer me. When taking classes that offered technology as a main component I always fell behind because I did not have the technology at home like other students did. It made me feel dumb. In school we often used videos, Powerpoint, or Publisher to supplement lessons once I made the transition to public school. Public school offered more to me when using computers. Teacher and librarians were always around to help when we had questions with software. Teachers, knowing not all students had access to these programs at home made all of the projects classwork assignments. You always had the option to take it home, but usually everything was finished in the school's computer lab.

Video was most likely the best material we were able to use. In 9th grade we got to watch video's on Shakespearean English and slang. We got to compare literature to visual interpretations. We had Beowulf narrated to us, and were able to watch Macbeth staged while following along in the text. We also got to create a video soap opera as our response to the Civil War in American history. Even in college, my professor was able to show us video clips of accurate stagings of Greek drama, masks and stage position all accurate to when the plays were first staged. Video clips were probably the most effective way of SUPPLEMENTING my education.

I all caps supplementing for a reason. Because that's all I think technology should be, a supplement and tool to make the teacher's point get across to a broad range of students.Power point lectures only bore students and allow them to tune out because all the information has been put down for them. 

Oh yeah. Read a book.

As an English teacher, its acceptable for me to say that. Maybe it's old fashioned with the rise of new media, or maybe I'm just strange. The smell of the pages of a book is such a strong experiance to me. I want my students to appreciate the roots of the literature that they have to read. Modern translations, visual interpretations, and audio readings can only help them. But it shouldn't take the place of the text. By looking at the text, it's easier to teach literary devices and to interpret them. You'll also get in in the proper context, not an edited for television version adapted by so and so on such and such's novel. It's not a bad thing to hold the canon sacred.

While I enjoy all the technology I have, I believe it is not always appropriate in the school setting. A student with no learning disabilites does not need to take notes on a laptop while a child with dyslexia would. Technology is situationally appropriate. Maybe there should be a technology class. It would teach students how to use the technology they have in the school setting. Like how to use Word to type papers, and Powerpoint for projects. There could be lessons on how to use the internet properly when researching. Classes on online safety. Students can explore graphic design and movie making. Instead of setting up the whole lesson reward system that i was faced with that only caused distractions. This class could help students use technology professionally. Maybe then, teachers will feel more comfortable using technology when they know students won't abuse it.

Red Group: Influences on Good/Bad Uses of Technology

After reviewing my post about technology in the classroom, I think there are many positive, or appropriate, uses of technology in the classroom. However, there are some bad, or inappropriate, uses of technology in the classroom as well. Technology is useful in the classroom because it provides additional sources of learning for students. Technology, such as laptops, the internet, powerpoint presentations, blackboard, etc, helps to enhance students' learning environment by making useful resources more readily available to aid and enrich the learning process. For example, as mentioned  in my previous post, blackboard helped me become more organized and prepared for class, in addition to providing supplemental information to make the subject matter more clear and to provoke more thought and discussion about various topics. Another example of an appropriate use of technology is the use of powerpoint presentations by students and professors. Powerpoint presentations are useful because they help visual learners by giving the professors the option to teach students with videos and/or pictures. Students can also give presentations in a more organized way. 

Despite the appropriate uses of technology, there are also some inappropriate uses of technology. Technology gives students the option of conducting research via the internet, and, although this contributes to the learning process, it opens the door to plagiarism by allowing students to copy the work of someone else's without truly learning the information. Laptops can also be very useful in the classroom, but it is often easy for students to misuse their laptops during class time. For example, instead of taking notes on his/her laptop, a student may choose to surf the web or chat with friends using instant messenger or Facebook. Lastly, spell check can cause students to overlook grammatical errors and lead to less proof reading and more reliance on the actual word processor. 

My reaction to the technology integration scenario was mainly influenced by professors and the classroom. It was influenced by professors because in college I was introduced to blackboard and powerpoint and was given the option of taking my laptop to class. From classroom experiences, I learned that blackboard and powerpoint were positive uses of technology. On the other hand, I learned that laptops could sometimes be distracting during class and hinder the learning process. Also, from personal experiences I have learned that plagiarizing can be easy to do and it is often easy to rely on spell check too much.  

Red Group - Appropriate/Inappropriate Uses of Technology

I truly believe that my attitudes about and experiences with technology in my life have shaped what I consider to be appropriate/inappropriate uses of technology in the classroom. As mentioned in my classroom blog, I have had many run-ins with inappropriate use of technology in the classroom. For me, repetitive misuse of technology makes me not only inclined not to use it in my academic and personal life, but it also makes me weary of using it in my own classroom. For example, based on my own experiences, I believe that PowerPoint is not used in an appropriate manner in the classroom nine times out of ten. Typically, I see PowerPoint being used as a replacement for the teacher. The teacher will display a PowerPoint presentation and then will either just read directly from the notes or just tell the students to write down the information and leave it at that. I never want my personal experiences to take anything away from my students, but I cannot help to think that there will be moments where I will not want to incorporate a particular piece of technology into the lesson because I remember the inappropriate use of the technology when I was in school.

As I stated in my technobiography, I grew up without the luxury of watching television or movies all day. It was instilled in me at a young age that you cannot get anything productive out of sitting in front of a television all day. This mindset stayed with me as I grew older and I always felt uncomfortable watching television or a movie in the classroom because I never felt that it was appropriate to incorporate such technology into a learning environment. I feel very reluctant even now to incorporate television and movies into my own classroom even though I do believe that it can have potential benefits because I just cannot shake that mindset that was instilled in me at such an early age. I really think that my upbringing has and will continue to shape the way in which I view the integration of technology into the classroom. My unique upbringing is such an important part of who I have become today and it can only be expected that some of my upbringing will correlate into how I use technology in my classroom.

I certainly think that there are appropriate ways to integrate different pieces of technology into the classroom, but we as teachers need to recognize how to incorporate this technology in a way that enhances the students' learning. I think that spellcheck and laptops and PowerPoint are all terrific programs that tremendously have the ability to do good in the classroom. There are, however, always going to be pitfalls in every piece of technology. Spellcheck is a great way for students to correct their grammatical errors, but students do not realize that they need to go back and check their work because spellcheck will not detect every single mistake. Laptops allow students to take the learning from the computer lab right to the classroom. Laptops allow students to explore so many different aspects of the world. There is the concern, however, that students will use the laptops in a way that is not appropriate. Students can access websites that are not conducive to the classroom environment and they can easily get off-task. PowerPoint is a great way for students, especially visual learners, to take in information, but very often, teachers try to use PowerPoint as a replacement for actual teaching. It is so easy for teachers to incorporate technology into the curriculum, but it becomes very easy for that technology to be used in an inappropriate manner. I think that for any teacher, their own personal experiences with technology will influence how they incorporate technology into the curriculum for their students.

Classroom Technology Integration

In 10th grade I went to the computer lab with my World Civilizations class. I had to do a research assignment on a historical topic of our choice. I chose Louis XIV. We had to find reputable websites online and reference them as sources. Once we gathered all our research we had to make a PowerPoint presentation or write a paper. The schools computers certainly were not fast, but they were sufficient to get the job done. The teacher had to devote some time to keeping order and helping the kids that had less experience with computers.
This is an effective application of technology because kids learn to make presentations and papers which are skills they will use in the future. They also learn how to use the Internet as a source of information and reference it in a bibliography. This would also help the kids learn to use computers and type.
The technology catered to the students preferences because if they preferred to not do a presentation, they could write a paper. This application allowed kids to accrue experience with computers, while studying a historical topic in depth.

Technology in the Classroom

Since we live in a technological society that is only increasing in its use of technology, I believe that the use of technology in the classroom is not only worthwhile, but needed. Not everyone has a computer in their home and teaching students how to use a computer or other technology (e-readings, web videos, etc.) is a useful tool.
Using a powerpoint slide show can help emphasize the teacher's lesson plans or using a web page that has math games, language arts games can help build skills needed in those subject areas.
As someone who uses the internet for various life needs such as online banking, shopping, communicating, research, directions and trip planning, it would be helpful to teach these added skills in the classroom. By teaching students to use Word, they already have a skill that can be used in the workforce. By teaching how to find internet sites can spurn added research into an area of interest or give the struggling student tutorials by having them play games based on a subject area.
If a teacher has a web page, parents can check on assignments due, upcoming tests and easily communicate concerns with the teacher rather than play phone tag. Technology in the classroom is not only useful, but required in this day and age.

Technology in the classroom is a very important learning tool that should be used to the advantage of both the teacher and the students to learn easier. There were many times that technology was used to help me learn. One of these times was when my first teacher used a power point presentation with videos feeds and with music and pictures. The subject being taught was Introduction to Computers. Basically it was a class needed to first get your Associates Degree. It was on the second week and we were learning the beginning of computers and how they evolved to the way they are today. Each slide had pictures, data, and videos to help me understand more about computers. If the teacher just put up an outline on the overhead and just briefly talked about the subject I really do not think I would have even stayed awake. The other students all enjoyed it as well as when I looked around the classroom each student was awake and paying attention. I believe that this was a great way to integrate technology into the classroom because it definetely got me interested. Also in this same class the teacher did have a blog and made each student write a blog post of what they learned from the beginning of the computer age and then what the computer is like in present and what we think the computer will be like in the future.
So this was a very goo way for the teacher to integrate technology into the classroom to better the learning environment and make a subject such as basis of computers actually seem interesting to each student in the class and then have each student discuss likes/dislikes and then predictions.

Technology in the Classroom

When technology is used in the classroom it can be either a positive or a negative.  The positive side of it would have to be that students these days need a fast paced learning environment to compliment their fast paced lives.  So when technology is used to keep the class moving and it keeps the information flowing at a high rate that the students are used to, then in my eyes you have used technology in the classroom to its full potential.  On the other hand, I think that technology takes away the "old school" aspect of actually working to find the answer.  The internet and other information retrieval tools can get you the answer within seconds and all a student has to do is either copy and paste it to their work or just copy the answer down.  What happened to actually looking for an answer and learning the topic instead of just skimming the text for the answer and throwing it into your work?

I do like the idea of using powerpoint presentations.  I had a professor at a community college that used this technology and it helped everyone in the classroom.  She had a powerpoint presentation for each lecture and gave us the complete presentation stapled together so we could follow along and notes where we thought appropriate.  The only catch was that only the people that attended class that day got every piece of information; the students who skipped or missed class did not get everything that was involved with that topic or lecture.  So she used technology to her full advantage.  She still had that old school feel by making students come to class and use their books and follow along with what was happening in class, while also using the technology in the appropriate way.

Technology In The Classroom

Technology is in its most natural form when being used for leisure or as a gateway to producibility. Technology in the classroom has become a valuable tool that is, however, often misused or overused. Instead of asking students to complete an assignment on a computer, where they are free to roam cyber-space when the teacher is not looking, ask them each to document how they used this resource in completing the assignment as well. This allows the student to confront the resourcefulness of the computer/internet and respect its capabilities as well as completing the assigned task.

A number of teachers can often overuse technology in the classroom. These instructors instead let the computer take on their role as leader of the class. Even if their students feel comfortable with this shifting of power because of their gravitation towards technology, it must not occur. It is a dangerous path that can be realized only through the overuse of technology.

iPods for music classes
Touch screen Blackboards for various classrooms
A computer lab for computer technology-based courses

All appropriate uses of technology that can do wonders for the student as well as the teacher and their proscribed lesson plan.

Classroom Tech.

Technology has become a large part of the classroom. I can't think of many classes I've taken at Towson where the professor did not use some type of technology as a visual aid. I am a history major and in almost all my classes the professor would have a powerpoint slideshow ready to go along with his or her lecture for the day. Having this tool helped me learn better because I could see what the teacher was talking about rather than just hear it. Seeing the lecture on the board made it easier for me to remember the information. The other students in the class felt the same way. I can also remember having a history class where the teacher did not use a powerpoint to aid the lecture and I remember my classmates complaining. That just goes to show how big technology has become in the classroom. Students are use to it and expect it.

I believe that using technology like powerpoint to help aid lectures is a very useful tool. It improves learning and becomes a guide for the students during a lecture. It also helps visual learners remember the information better. Overall it is a great way to integrate technology into the classroom and should be used by teachers in any subject, not just history.

My Technobiography

I become facinated with Technology over the past 5 years. I knew that it was something that I wanted to be apart of for a very long time especially when i started to work with a special group of children. I work with kids who are blind and some are even disabled. One of my students asked me a very important question one day, she said "Ms Shanika is technology a need or a want" It was very hard for me to answer that question right away. It puzzled me and I had to really think hard. For some blind kids their technology is indeed basic a necessity. I know when we think of needs we think of water and other things that we need for basic survival. For the visually impaired technology is how they survive. If they don't have there braille writers or other assistive technologies they are unable to do basic things such as read and learn. To me that is a need for them not a want. I guess you can be the judge yourself.

All I know is that the visially impaired have a harder time doing basic things like grocery shopping or finding the right store that they need. I want to be apart of making software or equipment that allows them to be just as independent as a person with vision. Imagine going into a store and having to shop with the lights off with no way of knowing what is what. Well, this is how they have to shop. Nothing is brailled,nor is it auditory for them to hear. It should be a way that the world should be adapted so that independent student who are blind can walk into a grocery store and shop without having to solicit helt. Believe it or not some of them do not want the help. However, they have to ask for the help because there is no technology for them to shop independently. To develop a technology for the blind is my passion and I hope to see advanced technology for them in the near future.

Technology in the Classroom

I think that technology in the classroom can be very effective if you used in the correct way, however if it is used improperly I believe it can infact be a hinderance to the classroom. The most popular use of technology in a classroom from my experience is power point. Power point is just like every other technology is an aid and supplement for the class but it can't replace the teacher. For example if a teacher relies only on a power point and only reads from it, that is not an effective use of technology because it is not helping students to just have them copy from the slides, however if the teacher decides to put two of three key terms on a slide so that the students can see the main points and then take notes of the elaboration that the teacher says on each term they have to use their own words to take notes and should therefor be more effective.

This is true for all technology. If a teacher uses technology to supplement and engage the students it can be helpful. A very effective thing I have seen teachers do is to show a tv show or a clip from a tv show that is popular with the students to explain what they are talking about. For example I have seen teachers show things from the simpsions and southpark for use in science, history or political science classes. This was effective because the students actually want to watch it and then having a discusion afterwards on what was actually true from what we saw on tv is way more engaging then just listening to a teacher talk at you.

Technology in the Sociology Classroom

Sociology was one of the classes I took the first semester I returned to college after a 10 year hiatus. My sociology professor at CCBC-Essex was very big on integrating technology into the classroom. She also taught online, so she integrated WebCt/Blackboard into all of her face to face classes as well. She did not "lecture" very often. She preferred to set up panel discussions and let us choose sides to debate a current sociological issue. While I had trouble finding my voice in class at first to express my opinions, I had no trouble doing so in the required WebCt discussions.
We were assigned alot of group work in this class. After the Professor presented the first 5 chapters in the textbook, student groups had to work together to present the following 10 chapters in groups of 5. We had to make it interesting and engage our classmates. My group incorporated video clips from the "Godfather" and "Varsity Blues" to demonstrate ascribed status roles.
For our final project, the groups had to present a social issue. My group tackled Arranged Marriages in India. With the help of You-Tube, instead of blandly listing the facets of the wedding ceremony itself, we showed a video clip featuring dancing, music, and cultural traditions. We recorded an interview and showed it to the class. We presented the facts and figures through powerpoint instead of monotonously speaking. Using technology actually made it easier to work as a group, since we kept in touch through Blackboard, posting our information gathered.
While this was really my first experience creating PowerPoint presentations, I quickly learned how engaging they can be versus writing on a chalkboard.