TIE 300

 Okay, please bear with me. I swear I have a point to this long story.

Ah…the 90’s, the glorious decade of my childhood. At the time computers were emerging as not only a part of business but as a new home essential. I remember getting our first desktop computer back in 1999 when I was in 5^th grade. It was a really crusty, clunky, windows 98 computer that my brother in law got me because he got ‘a good deal’ and my own parents couldn’t afford to get us one. So there I was, this young little girl excited about running a Crayola disk program where I could “magically” color in fun pictures. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. We still had no Internet, but I thought computers were the best invention. I was in love.

Since that sweet age I’ve been a tech addict. My co-workers call me a “techie” because I’m always on some sort of gadget. I was also almost always the tech teacher in my family. For example, just a few months back my sister asked me, “How do you copy and paste?” I laughed of course, but that wasn’t too nice of me. I grew up learning and evolving with technology. People older than me haven’t had that luxury.

Now, remember that I said I WAS the tech teacher of the family and I have a reason for using past tense. I got my first job last year at a CPS school last year and I was so excited because I could finally afford to buy myself a MacBook air. I never owned any apple product because they are so expensive but I finally got one, but I was so confused! Everything was different from a Windows computer. How did I get get on the Internet? What’s a screen shot? How do I get full screen? I had to turn to my 12 year old nieces who attend an all Macbook school. They’ve become the new teachers because I was old school and didn’t know all this new stuff.

My nieces doing school work.

So, this brings me to my point: I thought I knew everything about computers, and programs, and the Internet but I really don’t. Throughout the past 10 weeks I’ve learned about so many different awesome tools that have given me so many ideas on how to incorporate more technology into the classroom. It’s given me the courage to teach with technology when before I wasn’t sure if I could. For the first time in my life I became the lost student that didn’t know how to be an expert at all the different tools that were introduced to me. It’s shown me how resources are out there right under my nose, and how to teach and learn in a new fresh way.

I see now that technology surrounds and consumes a lot of our education, but in a good way! We are preparing students for a world powered by these tools and the skills that they acquire.  

I think I can!

Funny Times Toon

Truth. When you are first introduced to a new form of technology it is pretty intimidating. Its this expensive looking thing that you are scared to press on too roughly, you don’t want to double click too often, and you really don’t want to mess up the system. After a while you begin to feel more confident about it but when someone comes around to use your new gadget you can get pretty nervous. We all have stages we go through when it comes to using technology.

Could you imagine the pure confusion some educators went through in the 1980s when Apple decided “Hey, we should see how teachers adjust to and use our computers if we put them in their classrooms”?  I’m sure that for a lot of those test teachers the sheer panic was very evident on their poor faces. According to Apple there were different levels of a teachers involvement with technology.

1.     Entry-This when a new form of technology is introduced to the ‘user’. Basically unknown.
2.     Adoption-User begins to learn device and feels okay using technology but still stumbles with its use.
3.     Adaptation-User begins to incorporate into daily life and feels comfortable with technology.                    
4.     Appropriation-User begins to find other ways to incorporate technology into daily life for both personal and business matters.
5.     Innovation-Technology is used as a way to better parts of our lives but is not the sole tool used. User uses much more sophisticated gadgets and tools because of the purposes it must fulfill.

I am 100 %Confident!!

Personally in my technology‘career’ I feel that I am at the appropriation stage. I am extremely comfortable using different forms of technology and I know how to explore the Internet without fail. I’ve been growing up with technology though, so perhaps this comfort I feel shouldn’t come as a surprise. Since I was in grammar school I learned the basics of a computer. In high school I learned how to type while keeping my fingers on the ‘home keys’ and not looking down at my hands. My computer tech teacher in high school Mr . Tucker, used to put these shoe boxes over our hands and timed how quickly we could type the words could, should, would, etc. over and over until he called time.

…Okay, I lied. Lets knock that down to 80% confident.

I feel comfortable because I’ve been taught the basics but I’m still trying to figure out how to use technology that is still fairly new. For example: Prezi. I think that Prezi is an awesome presentation tool and I’ve wanted to learn how to use it for a very long time. So finally the opportunity has shown itself, but I am struggling a bit with all the different ways to edit. I am a child of powerpoint. I can make my titles fly into the screen with awesome car wreck sound effects. But powerpoint is so basic and boring now and I want to better the way I educate people that means upgrading to Prezi. I personally thought that Prezi was a really difficult site to manage but I just dove in and made some mistakes. Deleted my entire presentation twice but then I figured it out.  When it comes to technology you need to take risks and not be intimidadted by the system in front of you. That is why I believe younger children do so well with phones, tablets, and computers. They are so excited about what they are doing that they don’t think too much. They press buttons, get frustrated, ask for help, and just explore until they finally realize that they are masters at their device. Everyone needs to just take those risks and be brave. Our world is moving too fast to be intimidated or scared about technology. If you don’t take those risks then you will really be left behind.

 Thanks for reading! 

Until next time!! 

Education and Technology

As an educator you need to be informed about every aspect of the world growing around us. From the type of music our students are listening to, the T.V. shows that consume them, and the technology that fascinates them every hour of every day. We are a society that thrives off of the technology around us. I mean, how amazing is it that nowadays we can watch tv, check our email, listen to and store music, take videos and pictures, plus make phone calls ALL on the same device?! It’s pretty awesome!

Students today are living in a world that is vastly different from their parents and my own. I am 24 but I can remember the first “tech class” I ever had. Our school got computers when I was in 4^th or 5^th grade and our teacher made us all go on a computer that had the most simplistic spelling game ever! It was basically a black screen with teal, pink, and yellow stick figures and letters. I loved it! I enjoyed learning how to spell new words on the computer and typing away on the keyboard. I laugh thinking about it now because today’s generation would have hated that game since their technology is so much more exciting and realistic.  

Students today LOVE using technology in the classroom because they are constantly exposed to it and they know how to use it. They are brave and confident in their abilities so they seem to retain more of the information provided to them.  There are schools here in Illinois that have entire classrooms based off of the use of computers or tablets. Unfortunately, not all schools have that luxury so, most buildings contain a computer lab or classroom that house the majority of computers that the entire school must share. This is a challenge in trying to incorporate technology into any teachers’ curriculum.

Recently in class we were discussing the different challenges educators, and schools face when trying to obtain a bare minimum ‘functioning’ technology. Money, teachers, the upkeep, and much more prevent a lot of schools from reaching this goal. That’s why it was surprising for me to see the results in the graph below from ‘Project Tomorrow Speak Up’ survey that shows how Parents, Principals, and District administrators want to add the use of technology in the classroom as a portion of what teachers are evaluated by.

Project Tomorrow SpeakUp Survey

I don’t think the use of technology should be used as a major factor in a teacher’s evaluation, but a small component. Perhaps under classroom management or instruction, but definitely not as a solo part of a teacher’s evaluation. If every classroom was well equipped and every teacher had the same technological knowledge or capabilities then I would say “have at it principals and district administrators!” but since that’s not the case I don’t think that it should be a huge portion of a teachers evaluation.

For younger teachers that have grown with technology we probably feel that it is expected of us to use a form of technology in our classrooms because that’s how we’ve developed new ways for our students to learn and new ways for us to teach. But I do feel that for teachers that are used to a specific way of teaching, incorporating technology in the classroom may be a really difficult adjustment that they may not like. At the end of the day though, a good teacher will make accommodations for his or her students and provide new and improved ways of teaching in the classroom.  

Welcome to my blog!

Hello! My name is Jacqueline and welcome to my Tech Blog.

I’m a second year student at NLU and my major is Elementary Education. I absolutely love my field of study because I’ve always enjoyed working with children and learning from them when the opportunity presents itself. My hope is to work with middle school level children someday because I think that is the best age to work with. I currently work with middle school students at a CPS school and even though I receive some attitudes throughout the week I also have a lot of fun with our students too!

My parents only received an education up to the third grade in Mexico, so they always reminded me that having a good education is everything. Their parents could not afford to continue their schooling so at the ages of 9 and 10 they worked on the fields with their families. I believe I owe it to myself and them to have an education that I’m proud of. I don’t really know when I decided I wanted to become an educator. I think it’s just something I always knew that I wanted to do. I love teaching people and seeing them get that awesome “a-ha!” moment because it instills this confidence in them. It makes them believe in themselves so that they could do anything they set out to do in life.

After the 'Run or Dye' 5k this summer.

'Hedgie'

In my spare time I am pretty much like any other girl in her twenties. I go out with friends, spend hours lost in books, and of course dote on my pets (I have a dog and hedgehog).

 I enjoy crafting, occasionally run 5k's, and obviously spending time reconnecting with friends and family through social media sites. I seriously love the internet. I don't even know how people lived without it before. That's why I am pretty excited to learn new ways to incorporate technology in both my personal and professional life. Hopefully I will be able to share all that I learn here on this blog for you. Until next time!

Elvis