Sunday, May 13, 2012

Shift in Technology

When I began teaching seven years ago, we were preparing to move into a newly constructed building. However, for the first half of the year, I was a traveling teacher moving from classroom to classroom. I didn't have access to a computer, projector or even an overhead. My desk was a rolling cart. I could use books and a chalkboard as tools for teaching. When we moved into the new building, all of a sudden I had a computer with a projector in my classroom. It was such a drastic shift for me, but I felt I didn't have the proper training in the use of all this technology. I didn't know how to use it, and therefore I didn't take full advantage of all that was in front of me. seven years later, much of the technology is beginning to fail or even become obsolete, but I feel I never even mastered that, yet something new will be coming along eventually.

3 comments:

  1. Lauren I can so identify with you! Before coming to AHS I too was a floating teacher. Although there were computers in the classrooms I travelled to they were often "locked by user" and so I had no access to them. Prior to that I had been in a school with a real language lab, so I made my own from the library computer lab, asking students to bring headphones so we could do listening activities. When I came to AHS I was SO thrilled to have such wonderful technology.

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  2. Lauren - must say that I absolutely adore the title of your blog. Brilliant! I agree that it is a daunting task to attempt to keep up with the latest technology. But then I think about MY teachers from high school and remember that they lacked the ability to run a slide projector correctly or plug in a VCR. So perhaps we are just normal?!

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  3. Great perspective Rachel! It saddens me that the technology is run down and some is obsolete and there is no clearly expressed plan for replacement and update. It was foreseeable when the building was built, but no one was willing to take a stand for cycle replacements. What about now?

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