¿Tech Savvy?

Teaching has always been the path I desired to take. As a young girl I'd go into work with my father and sit in on some of his classes, and even a few of his colleagues' classes as well. My father teaches Math and Computer Talent in Coney Island. With that in mind, it's safe to say I'm not foreign to the use of technology in classrooms. As soon as the latest new "toy" is available for purchase, he jumps on it as a new means to educate his students. Living with him is much like living in one of his classrooms, due to his desire to keep us up to speed as well. I can certainly learn more, and am assured that there's much more out there than what he's taken the time to show my family and I. With a father so "gung-ho" about technology, its difficult to not feel the same. I never experienced life without it, so I can't say with confidence, that I don't appreciate it. I certainly find it absurd when a 9 or 10 year old owns an iPhone, but I find it extremely beneficial that communication has been made much easier via the evolution of the internet and other computer software. I do believe society has lost touch with a more personal form of communication. Unfortunately, as a child growing up in the "Internet Age," I witnessed some teachers who were enthusiastic about infusing their lesson plans with a bit of technology, while also witnessing those who refused to accept it. Some situations we've all become quite familiar with are: "When I was your age we used typewriters, papers were handwritten, calculators are for the lazy, go to the library and don't base everything off of google." As a history major, I relied heavily on Web-based databases for much of my research. Powerpoint Presentations were of great commonality, and Blackboard was either avoided, or "worshipped religiously."  "Classrooms now have access to millions of digitized documents. Students have the opportunity to use these documents as historians and scholars do: analyzing and evaluating information; interpreting snapshots of a given person, place, or event; and synthesizing their findings...Technology can now help.
 " (Allen, Dutt-Doner). According to the video "Learning to Change-Change to Learn," today's children have been taught to use technology for simple survival, yet they are banned in many schools from using many of these technological forms. Integrating technology into the classroom, will not only make children more enthusiastic about learning, but will also provide them with more in the end. "That's the new 21st century set of literacies, and it looks a lot different than the model most of us were raised on." It's about understanding change, comprehending it, harnessing it, and ultimately accepting that "the new" may not be so bad.  So yet again, while I do agree with some of these points my former teachers and professors have made, I do believe integrating technology into a classroom setting will certainly hold great benefit. I do not however, believe that we should rely SOLELY on technology in these settings.

December 2005/January 2006 | Volume 63 | Number 4 Learning in the Digital Age Pages 66-71. Fakes on Technology: Using Digitized Documents in the Classroom