My Technology Experiences

At my high school, technology was not necessarily unused, but it was not readily available, either. Most teachers had a SMART board in their classroom as well as a desktop computer, but they all seemed to use the SMART board as a glorified white board or chalk board. Computers were used to check email, display videos or webpages on the SMART board, and for grade entering. Every classroom was still equipped with a TV that only received that school’s broadcasting channel. My experience may be biased and limited, though, because I took a standard honors curriculum and did not delve into the tech-prep programs such as computer-aided design and broadcasting my school offered. As for personal technology, students were not allowed to use cell phones, laptops, iPods, or anything more advanced than a TI-84 calculator while on school grounds. For most students who were in a standard, non-vocational track, our hands only touched a computer once we went home or on the sheer occasion of having to find a book in the school’s library. One particular teacher who taught sociology, economics, psychology, and a myriad of other social sciences pioneered using wikis, blogs, group chats, Google Drive, and other “newer” forms of technology. Our class as a whole was very turned off by these forms of technology because we were all very diverse in our proficiency with these things and our teacher was not very on point in her explanation of how to go about using these new concepts. She ended up taking most of the grades having to do with anything computer-based off our final grades because so many students did poorly, but when we asked her how to do something, often times she didn’t even know. I am very afraid that this will affect me negatively because I am afraid that my students will not grasp how to use new forms of technology, or, even worse, that I will be behind the times as my sociology teacher was and will end up failing my students. I am determined, though, to try to keep up with this ever-evolving technological age by using what I am learning in this class to my advantage.