Time To Catch Up With Technology

Coming from a work to get by, lower middle class family, I was a little late on technology. I did not get my first cell phone until I was seventeen(a cheap flip phone, not the cool Razor phones). My first experience with high speed internet was after I graduated high school so I had to go to the local library to research and type papers. I do not own any Apple products beside a scratched and out dated iPod that cost me $80 at a pawn shop. All this being said to said to say that I am not at all technology savvy because growing up I just simply could not afford it. Now that I am out of high school with a decent job it is a little different; I do own a smartphone and a laptop but I use it for the simplest of things.. So what does that mean as an aspiring teacher? Do I understand that some students do not have access to certain tools and technology for learning because of the cost(Maloy, p.5)? Well yeah because I was one of those students.

Part of the requirements for some of my teaching classes was to venture out into schools and do some observation hours, basically just sitting in a class and taking notes on how a teacher teaches. In a gifted 7th grade Language Arts class I noticed that every student had a Chromebook. I asked the teacher about it and she said that was how the class lessons and assignments work, not just for her class but for all the student classes. They were not so far into technology that textbooks were considered primitive. One student could not get her Chromebook to work properly so she was set with the old fashioned textbook, paper, and pencil process. Even the teacher had a Chromebook to actually see in real time the students working on their projects. I have also seen, in my school observations, that many teachers and professors are using smart boards to work out their lessons. In college I have briefly used the Socrative app to take quizzes. There are countless tools to be utilized in the classroom(p.9) I think we have only breached the surface.

With all this technology that seems to be taking the lead for tools in a classroom it looks like I have some learning to do. I basically only use my phone for its intended uses and for social media or note-taking purposes. If I have a laptop that has Microsoft Word and some sort of web browser(beside Internet Explorer) then I am satisfied. My mindset is of one that says if it works, it works but my knowledge of technology is very limited. If learning how to use the countless tools and apps teachers use to help students learn then I myself have to start learning, given some time(Maloy, p.14). I mean that is why they have teaching courses to teach teachers how to teach with the new teaching tools right?

This is something I found that I think could really help, in regards to the use of a Chromebook
Four Ways to Use a Chromebook

If I'm going to learn how to use a Smartboard I have to start somewhere. Plus the speaker's voice is British

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.