Yellow Blog - Pamela Sorge

I feel that my experiences with technology definitely have a huge impact on what I feel is appropriate/inappropriate uses of technology. From my experiences, there have been teachers who have used the same types of technology but in different ways. Some ways were actually beneficial to my learning and some ways made me dread going to certain classes. For starters, I feel like I’ve had quite a few teachers who have used a television in some way to enhance instruction. My English teacher in high school used it to show us different movie versions of Romeo and Juliet after we had read the story. I feel that this was an appropriate use of technology just because she had us watch the movies after we had read and tried to understand the story ourselves, which really helped to clear up any misconceptions we may have had after reading the story since Shakespeare is sometimes hard to understand. I’ve also had teachers who used a television in inappropriate ways. My History teacher in high school would record shows from the history channel and then play these shows every Friday. He would have us take notes, but he wouldn’t check our notes to make sure we understood what we watched, nor did he discuss anything from the show after it was over. I feel like it was a complete waste of time and it felt like he used it as a way to give himself a break from lecturing since that’s all he ever did. I never learned anything from those history shows, and his class actually made me hate history because it seemed so boring the way that he lectured it. On the other hand, like I discussed in my technobiography, I’ve had a teacher who completed reversed what my high school teacher did and changed my views on history by his unique use of technology. Although this professor lectured during the entire 2-week cram course, he lectured using PowerPoint to enhance his lecture. Instead of using PowerPoint for notes, he used it to display hundreds of pictures to give some type of visual to what he was lecturing. Again, as a visual learner, this really helped me to make connections and finally understand and appreciate history. I feel like this professor’s use of PowerPoint was the best that I have seen throughout my college experiences. Most professors use PowerPoint in their lectures, but most of them don’t even know how to appropriately use PowerPoint. For example, I have had teachers whose PowerPoints consist of all words and LOTS of words. This is one thing I’ve been taught that you’re not supposed to do when using a PowerPoint for presentations, yet, most professors do this. By having a lot of words, it makes it hard for me to concentrate on what the professor is saying because I’m trying to write down whatever is written on the PowerPoint. I feel that my experiences in the past with technology, as a student, have really helped me realize what appropriate/inappropriate uses of technology are. I feel like I can learn from my teachers’ mistakes of using technology in inappropriate ways by finding ways to use these technologies in appropriate ways. Fortunately, no teacher/professor has made me despise and not want to use a type of technology. I’m definitely open to the idea of trying my own ways of using technology to enhance my instruction, regardless of whether my experiences with that piece of technology were good or bad.

There really aren’t any similarities from my technobiography and my classroom post. When I wrote my technobiography, I discussed items that I use on a daily basis, such as the computer and internet, T.V., cell phone, game consoles, PDA, iPod, and etc. For my classroom post, I talked more about overhead projectors, televisions, computers and PowerPoint. There’s probably this difference because sometimes I don’t really think of using everyday technologies that I use on a regular basis in the classroom, or because my experience with technology in the classroom really haven’t included technologies that I use on a regular basis. The only similarities were the computer and internet, and television. Honestly, I don’t really see how things I listed as being used on a regular basis could be integrated into classroom instruction. I don’t feel that cell phones, game consoles, PDAs, or iPods could really enhance classroom instruction. If they can, then that’s something new to me! However, although I didn’t really list it, I do sometimes play computer games and I’ve had teachers in the past who used computer games like Oregon Trail for instruction. I don’t really remember what I learned by playing that game.. but for a good while, we played it every time we went to our computer class in elementary school. Just like we’re currently discussing, I feel that there are software games that can really enhance instruction and allow students to have fun while learning. Maybe someday there will be ways to use the other technologies I discussed in the classroom to enhance instruction in new and intriguing ways!