Throughout my K-12 education, which was from 1990 to 2003, the world of technology changed tremendously. In the classroom, I went from watching filmstrips, to video tapes, to DVDs. I was thrilled to have a Walkman when I was in elementary school, which was upgraded to a Discman in Jr. High, and was eventually replaced with an iPod in college. At home, my family went from not having a computer at all, to sharing one bulky PC with limited functionality, to having multiple computers in the house. Our first printer used continuous stationery, and from there we had several stops along the way to a laser printer with scanning, copying, and faxing capabilities. Widespread use of the internet and e-mail really happened while I was in high school. We went from no cell phones, to one clunky cell phone with prepaid minutes for emergencies, to individual cell phones. It wasn't until I had finished my undergraduate degree in 2007 that everyone seemed to be upgrading to smart phones. Social networking didn't really become mainstream until I was in college, and it has rapidly grown from MySpace and Facebook to Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and who knows what else!
I don't consider myself to be on the cutting edge of technology by any stretch of the imagination. I'm one of the last people to finally get the "latest and greatest" piece of technology, and it's quite often after something even "later and greater" has already hit the market. In class the other day, I didn't even know that my Kindle Fire is considered to be a tablet, and I was told by a classmate that I was probably the only person who owns one and uses it exclusively for reading books. It took my boyfriend about two years to convince me to get a smart phone, which I have only had for about a year, and I probably only use it for about 10% of what it's capable of. When I began graduate school this summer, I was positively flabbergasted by the almost exclusive use of laptops by the other students during our classes. What happened to good old notebooks, folders, pens, and pencils? I'm currently struggling to make a rapid adjustment to paperless learning.
As a future high school teacher, I find technology use in the classroom intimidating and worrisome. The biggest reason for this is my lack of knowledge about what's available, how to use it myself, and how to manage my future students' use of it. How in the world can I keep control of a classroom of 30+ teenagers armed with smart phones, iPads, and whatever else is out there that I don't know about? What I'm really looking forward to in my Teaching with Technology course is to get a handle on what technology is available and how it can best be used. I don't deny the importance of using technology in the classroom for efficiency, innovation, and preparing students for a world that is filled with it, but in order to be effective at teaching with technology, I have a LOT to learn!
We belong to such a unique generation - the one that can remember when the internet was a new, awe-inspiring thing, but who were still young enough to become fully facile in its use as it came to the fore. The Millenials, who will be our students, don't remember a world pre-internet. There's definitely going to be a learning curve to understand how these kids view the world and their place in it. The good news is, you don't have to learn alone - we can all learn together!
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with your surprise about our all-digital classes. At the beginning, I thought I might use my laptop sometimes, but I still went out and bought a couple paper notebooks to prepare. I carry one with me for situations when I feel handwritten notes will be most helpful (I do remember things better when I've written them by hand!) but I've found that our classes move at such a rapid pace, contain so much information, and rely so much on Powerpoints that I find myself using the laptop more and more. It's been an adjustment for sure. My most recent classes were all science classes, and you can't really take notes by computer with those! For that reason (and I think you'll have a similar situation with math) I think my high school classroom will still be centered on paper-based learning and note taking. Hopefully we can learn the best ways to augment that with judicious use of technology.
I feel like I ma in the same boat as you about adjusting to learning with technology, I only graduated from undergrad last year but as a science major I was still used to taking all of my notes by hand. I was never one to drag my laptop around because it was heavy and more of a distraction then an asset. What worries me is that if I thought it was distracting as a 22 year old how will I manage to effectively use it in the classroom so it's not a distraction to my students!
ReplyDeleteEven now I print almost all of my readings because I don't know how to read quite as effectively on the computer as I do when I have a page I can mark with my thoughts.
However we'll all get there and its exciting seeing all of the things we are about to learn.
It's so good to know that I'm not alone in the journey toward technological literacy! I'm glad we're all here to support each other!
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