Ramblings

Teaching with technology.
I want to balk prior to investigation. After all, when I was in school we had erasers we had to clap at the end of the day, chalk dust filled the air. Watching a movie meant a crusty VCR cart was rolled into the classroom. I know the world is changing, I watch my teenage son watch tv, listen to music and write a paper on the computer, all at the same time. Maybe I am jealous. I look at all the possible cool new gadgets are out there, waiting for use and remember copying history notes from the blackboard into my notebook. Snooze. Learning wasn't really fun. It can be fun, not only because of technology though. Books, a product of the printing press, a very useful technology, have changed my life. They transport me to other worlds. Now my Kindle awaits, filled with Shakespeare, Boccaccio and Dante, saving me the trouble and backache from hauling a bag of books around. Technology does has its uses. Maybe as a skeptic I need to explore in the familiar places, the comfortable places, the literature-filled spaces, stick one toe in, maybe run my hand through the current just for a feel. Because once the investigation begins...


Teaching with technology part 2, August 23, 2012.
A mere two weeks after the original rambling, my mind is being swayed. Yes, I am heading to the dark side, or the light side perhaps. After I had a few small successes (meaning I didn't blow anything up, and my computer is still in one piece) I can almost say (not all the way as that would be too easy a conversion) that I would use technology in the classroom. Starting with the flipcam I experimented with last week. It was fun and easy and I figured it out. I figured it out. I am not ready to take on the daunting Prezi quite yet, but maybe someday. As we learned in the Teaching with Technology class, we shouldn't just use technology for technology's sake. Its should augment the lesson. It should be organic, an extension, mush as the arm is an extension to the body. I could survive in the world without it (my arm,) but it makes it easier to eat ice cream.  In my classroom this past year I used video and PowerPoint to augment my lessons and to provide a visual to my lecture. But what would it have looked like if the kids were responsible for creating the visuals for the class. Would they have learned mitosis and meiosis if they were in charge of creating a video for their peers? It isn't just about me using technology as a teacher, it is about the students using the technology to create so that they, therefore, learn. It's out there, today I think maybe I can go in waist deep.

2 comments:

  1. I like the honesty in this post! At times, I, too, feel more comfortable grabbing a pen and a pad of paper instead of my laptop. But teaching with technology has its advantages, mainly because this generation of students has NO idea what it's like to copy notes from the blackboard. That's another activity idea: teach the same lesson--with and without technology--and then survey your students to see how much information they retain from each lesson.

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    1. I really like that idea, teaching a lesson in a few ways...thanks

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