Technology
plays a vital role in Olivia’s life in both her school work and day-to-day
activities. She, like most students,
relies on technology as a source of communication, information and
entertainment. Her cell phone and access
to a computer allow her to stay in touch with her friends via phone calls,
texting, instant messaging, email and social networking. This is rather similar to the kind of
relationship to technology the students I will be teaching will have. It is important to recognize these uses of
technology as they can affect the way my students communicate with me as well
as each other. It is reasonable to
imagine that students would use social networking (such as setting up a private
group on Facebook) as a means of correspondence when working together on a
project. Olivia shares that she often
spends four to five hours at a time on the computer. It is encouraging to hear that much of that
time is spent looking up facts and researching things she is unfamiliar with. She is also always finding new ways to
customize her Myspace page. Olivia is clearly
curious and uses her access to the internet to learn more. If more students are equally curious and
resourceful (which I imagine they are, living in the information age), it would
be important to utilize that drive and strategy in the classroom. Finally, Olivia has an iPod that she is
almost never without. As a music
educator, ease of sharing music from teacher to student and vice versa is
valuable.
The
students in the video “Learning to Change, Changing to Learn” are all beyond
familiar with multiple forms of technology.
Like Olivia, these technologies all play an integral part in these
students’ lives; in some cases, it is a major part of their identities. It is interesting to note that the students
in this video provide the links between technology and their school experiences
themselves. For example, the connecting gaming
with coordination and communication or the use of the camera on a cell phone
for school projects. To summarize one of
the student’s thoughts: their access to potentially endless information means
they have to refine their decision making skills. Also, once again these students are problem
solving using the resources they have at their disposal.
The three
most influential communications technologies in my life are my cell phone, iPod
touch and my laptop. I would have to say
that a combination of these three devices takes up a large majority of the ways
that I learn new information. My cell
phone is ranked first because it is the one device that I always have on my person. It is quick and efficient mobile
communication. I also keep my calendar
on my phone. This is one facet of the
device that I do not think the students are quite as reliant on as I am. Next, my iPod is equally portable and has a
32 Gb capacity. It allows me to carry essentially
all of the music I could need on any given day.
Also, as long as I have a wireless connection, it allows me the ability
to look things up with ease, check my email, Facebook and more. I believe that the students featured in these
videos would also use an iPod similarly although they may not be as invested in
the ability to check multiple email addresses.
Finally, my laptop is a combination of my other communication
technologies and then some. With a
decent computer and internet connection, anyone has access to an endless means
of creation and consumption and seemingly endless content.
