Views of Technology
Over
the past two years, my views of technology have changed tremendously. Entering
the masters program, I was completely unaware of the technologies that existed
as well as those that are available for individuals to use. When I started in
the program all I really knew was the essentials such as email, Microsoft
applications, searching the web, etc.
Through the courses and technology modules, I have learned so many new
forms of technology and web resources that I had never heard of.
Before
the start of the program, I only used technology in the classroom and on a
personal level, only when I had to. I did not incorporate it much into my
teaching and refused to explore new things and ideas. I did not see the need
for using technology nor did I understand its importance. Yet overtime, I began
to open up and explore the resources that are available to me, with the purpose
of assisting and aiding my students into becoming more well-rounded and familiar
with technology, that they would soon be faced with in the future.
The
first year in the program, I experienced and learned what Zotero was and how it
can be applied. I also learned about hardware programs and software programs
that are on the computer. In one of the technology modules, we explored many
programs on the computer and I found this to be very helpful. I was able to
take away with me a whole new world that was found on my very own laptop that I
never knew was there. I began
trying to incorporate some of the programs that I had heard of into my classes.
Although it was a struggle to get through the glitches that occasionally
occurred, I kept treading and pushed my way through it. In the end the students
began to expect, explore, and rely on certain forms of technology that was being
used in the class.
In
the second year of the masters program, I took what I had learned previously
and added new resources to the list.
I began to investigate and explore data with the assistance and use of
Excel. We took information from our unit that we had taught our students and
created graphs, found averages, and interpreted data in several different ways
to represent our findings. From the use of Google Docs, I created a perception
survey that was then altered in Google Docs and graphs were created to outline
the results. Before this point, I had never used Google Docs and never looked
into Excel that much.
This
past spring semester, I learned what a wiki was and learned how to blog. In
class, we created a resources wiki that deemed to be very beneficial for me and
for the school I work at. I created a resource wiki for PBIS that is being
implemented into the school district soon. I am able to share it with other
teachers on the committee and will be able to use it in the future as a
resource. As far as blogs are concerned, I have created two different blogs for
the courses I was taking and found them to be beneficial. This particular
semester, I felt like I learned a tremendous amount about technology and other
resources that exist and I feel comfortable with implementing them into future
classes.
Overall
I feel that technology has definitely evolved over time for me personally. I have
learned a great deal about technology as well as pertinent resources that could
be very beneficial in the classroom and for students to use. I plan on
implementing more technological resources into my mathematics classes and
getting students to explore the possibilities and capabilities that the
resources present.
