As an elementary student, not much technology was used in the classroom. Teachers usually wrote notes on the dry-erase board or on an overhead projector. Once each week, we would attend a computer class that mainly focused on learning very basic typing skills and how to use the keyboard. We would play different learning games that usually incorporated math and reading. Also, there were computers in the library that we used for Accelerated Reader tests.
During my middle school years, SmartBoards were the newest technology. Teachers used these to write notes, to come up with interactive activities for the class, to show videos, and for much more. When I began middle school, one teacher per grade had a SmartBoard, but by eighth grade, all teachers had one in their classroom. I also took a class in eight grade mainly devoted to mastering typing skills. Freshman year I took another computer class that taught us how to use Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and other programs and the features along with them. SmartBoards continued to be the biggest use of technology in our school until my junior year of high school.
Pierre Rudloff. (2011). Retrieved from "SmartBoard UF55" by Pierre Rudloff - Own work. Licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SmartBoard_UF55.jpg#mediaviewer/File:SmartBoard_UF55.jpg
My senior year of high school, all high school students got MacBook Air computers to rent for the year. This allowed us to take quizzes online, to look up things in class, and to rely more on electronic curriculum than paper. This was a huge transition year for my school, and I got to see just the beginning of a technological transformation.
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(2009). Retrieved from
<ahref="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MacBook_(unibody)_1.jpg#mediaviewer/File:MacBook_(unibody)_1.jpg">MacBook (unibody) 1</a>" by self - derived work from File:MacBook (unibody).jpg. Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0" title="Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0">CC BY-SA 2.0</a> via <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/">Wikimedia Commons</a>
How I plan to integrate technology in my future classroom:
Teachers now are being trained to see technology as an integral part of the classroom. In our generation of teaching, learning will not take place without the existence of technology. In my classroom, I plan to use technology to make learning interactive for students. I also hope that new technological resources will be available to my students, so they can learn to utilize technology on their own and work in collaborative groups while I oversee and facilitate their progress. I want to facilitate the learning and lessons, but also have my students be able to independently use technology to discover information themselves, which will make the learning experience so much richer. I think technology should be used to support learning in every lesson and subject. We live in a society where new technologies are constantly introduced, and technology is a dominating factor. Students need to be exposed and prepared to take the knowledge they learn in class and apply it to the real world. If our society is going to continue progressing, then students have to be familiar with current technology, so they can use that knowledge to create the future of technology.
