Working in New
Jersey, teachers get to teach students from all walks
of life. They can be well off or barely
making ends meet. They can be a
wholesome family or a broken one. They
can be new to this country or be generations in. It is our job as a teacher to meet them where
they are at and help them to get to the level they are striving for. By watching this little segment into
Olivia’s life, we can see she is well versed in technology, even though she
doesn’t have immediate access to it. I
feel like this generation lives side by side with technology. Even if they don’t have access to it, they
figure out how it works never the less.
This is something we as teachers have to look for. Students are experimental. If they do not know how to use a piece of
technology, they will normally play around with it until they get some insight
into it. If that doesn’t work they will
ask the teacher for some help. It is
important to take out of this video that Olivia knows how to fiddle around with
whatever piece of technology she has her hands on.
Technology
was really coming into its age while we were growing up. I remember my dad telling me about the first
computer and how it took up a whole room. Now we have mini computers that we
can use as cell phones. The computer was
the first piece of technology that really revolutionized this generation. We could do so many things on it. As a child, I played games and didn’t really
use it for anything special. As I got
older, and the internet was invented, I started to realize what the computer
could really do. I was able to search
for information and type papers, and write programs. The list goes on and on. The computer made learning easier. It made researching information a lot faster
than looking in a library for it. The
computer also has brought about some bad things as well. From a students perspective, I normally
procrastinate on the computer by going on social networking cites or looking up
random information that doesn’t pertain to the assignment I am working on.
A projector
and a calculator are just two forms of technology that I use on a day to day
basis as a math major. In math classes,
as well as many other classes I have taken, the professor uses the projector to
teach the class the lesson for the day.
Using Powerpoint is a great example for the use of a projector. This is an easy way for teachers to get down
quick little facts that they can give the students and also help themselves
stay on track during their lesson. A
calculator is a given. Calculators have
made complex math equations as easy as adding two numbers together. Something that has come about with projectors
that may be seen as a negative is that sometimes the projector just doesn’t
want to work, no matter how much one messes around with it. Something negative regarding calculators is
that students can become too reliant on them, or play the games that originally
came with the software. I know I played
“Block Dude” during some of my math classes in high school to pass the time,
until I deleted it from my calculator.
I believe
students use these same technologies on a day to day basis in the
classroom. The computer is a form of
technology that students will use in the classroom as well as at home to
complete assignments, research information, as well as use it for social
networking. One of the students said
that experimenting with technology makes it technology. Whenever I get a new piece of technology I
need to experiment with it until I get it.
These students do the same. When
a student is confronted with any of the three examples of technologies I find
to be important, they fiddle around with it and find out what each can do. We use these pieces of technology in the same
ways. I use these three important pieces
of technology more for academic reasons, while younger students would use it
for more social reasons.
