1. My MacBook Pro
2. iPad
3. BlackBerry
Olivia. Olivia is a child of the times; she enjoys expressing herself through the technology we use today. She text messages, subscribes to Myspace, and doesn't go anywhere without her trusty iPod. Most students in urban NJ districts, especially target districts, live without these luxuries. They follow music on the radio and through what they hear at home, they live without internet access, and they cannot afford cell phones. However, many upper-class suburban districts just about require every student to own their own cell phone and include internet-based research homework.
On a scale of 1 to 10... ham. Students are now using technology for convenience; instead of finding a book from the library down the road, they search the interwebs on their iKindle-reader and download an appropriate match. If they don't like the book, they can instantly choose another. If you've seen the movie Wall*E, you can see that the writers did not have to imaginate a world much different from the one we are living in now. Students can earn multiple degrees from the comfy couch.
Technology is not all bad though. Technology enhances communication, brings information to teachers and students instantly, and creates a global community that stretches from the Australian Outback to the tundra of Northern Canada.
Technology, in my opinion, has one real use; to advance learning. Technology has allowed students to study with teachers in different countries, explore foreign cities through browsing pictures, learn different languages, write their own music, read, write, and even be tutored online. Neglecting technology in your classroom is almost unheard of in 2012.
1. My MacBook Pro
Learning new information can be explained with one website: Google. Through Google, you can access literally any bit of information you could ever desire. Google acts as a gateway to YouTube, Wikipedia, and other sources of learning.
2. iPad
Learning new information is like the laptop. In addition, however, I can download apps that advance my learning and ability to do what I am required to.
3. BlackBerry
The only knowledge I acquire from this device is drama-infested dribble.
I use my phone much like the students in the videos do, however I used my computer solely for work for school and my job (with an occasional peek at Facebook... every 5 seconds). While I use my iPad for taking notes in class, I also use it for the apps I can download on it.
How are you enjoying the iPad? I'm thinking about getting one.
ReplyDeleteI think technology is not inherently good or bad. People just use it in ways that are beneficial and detrimental. Whether using technology for convenience is good or bad really depends on the corners we're cutting. For example, my sister has never cracked open an encyclopedia before. My dream is to own a set. They cost anywhere between a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars.
Even though I talked about the intimacy between the information generator and the information receiver in my post (as a good thing). There is something that remains to be said to looking something up in a physical dictionary or encyclopedia.
By looking something up on Google, you miss out on the sights. Google will give you exactly what you search for. You will rarely scan the page and catch something totally unrelated but interesting and cool at the same time. I like little seredipities like that. How else do you find out that Reaganomics, Black Panthers, and several CIA assassination plots revolve around food?
Anyway, enjoyed your post!
I agree, Technology cannot be either good or bad, but it's a tool that must be used with caution of course. It can build your career or destroy it with the click of a mouse.
ReplyDeleteI think I like Wikipedia for an encyclopedia to look things up. It's a good starting place. For instance, I'm writing about leitmotif just for fun. From the leitmotif entry on Wiki, I can click on any number of hi-lighted words (such as Richard Wagner, film music, even a few music critics) and discover things I never would have thought about. I discover new composers in that way actually, I'll look up one composer and end up finding similar composers from there.
I'm interested in your statement "technology has one real use..learning."
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with you that one of the real uses may be to learn, one you might have over looked could be business.
I feel that business is another real use of technology. I feel that the world was able to survive without entertainment before technology, and we could survive without it now. But for business, the requirements and guidelines for success in any particular career have changed and been molded around the internet and technology. Considering these changes within our world, would you consider business a real use of technology? or would you stick with just learning?
KBYE
HI SCOTLAND! :) thank you for pointing out that it's a problem for teachers to be "neglecting technology" today. I know when I was in high school I used to get really frustrated when I would try to contact a teacher through email and they couldn't even comprehend such a simple task. It made progressing in my classes very difficult. Also, I'd like to add that not only does technology in the classroom help make things easier, but people are also always talking about being "greener." Using technology also helps cut down the use of paper.
ReplyDelete