Although I think that I am not that old, the rate in which technology is growing sure makes me feel ancient. I grew up in a world of VHS and tape decks…not sure what that means? Google it! It’s amazing how in the world of education, the internet is it. It’s the place you go to for any information, clothes or boredom cures.
When I was in secondary school, the internet was frowned upon and quite frankly underutilized. But now the internet and technology has soared passed my technical graphing calculator and set me on a new path towards understanding, and utilizing it to teach students…although I feel that the students will always know more about technology than I will.
Since the most technical aspect of my secondary education was the overhead project – I am going to examine an exciting class that introduced myself and others (in my same outdated sense of technology) to the new technologies of teaching! Thanks Dr. Cole! The first class in this masters program was learning how to write a specific lesson plan – THE DRL, but Dr. Cole took this class to new areas by structuring a lesson around technologies teachers can utilize (if they have it of course!)
In this class we learned the magical powers of the Promethean Board, Smart Board and Document Cameras. For those us a little outdated…this technology was simply mesmerizing. We learned to use the Smart boards features to facilitate interactive learning from math to science. We were all attentive and participating. Because we were interacting with the medium as well as with our teachers and classmates there was no time for nodding off. It kept me engaged in the topics because there were more than text-book readings to learn from, teachers used YouTube videos, flash cards, games to help us learn and connect with the content.
Although I am VERY new to this technology, its creativity and effectiveness is surely addictive…and I am glad to here that I will be placed in a county that has Smart Boards in their schools!
LET’S GET READY TO TEEEAAACCCCHHHH!!!
Getting Wired... 
It was fun reading your blog because you personalized the assignment and I could literally hear your voice in my head as I was reading. Dr. Cole’s class definitely gave us old people a technology update 🙂 I cannot wait to utilize the new technology (SmartBoard, Promethian Board, etc.) in my classroom as well. Teaching will be more fun and and the technology will keep the students engaged in the lessons!!