The Expansion of Educational Technology
I am Raegyn Fulmek and I am super eager to be in this class to expand my knowledge on educational technology that I can implement in the classroom. I currently teach a categorical class (an intervention in literacy and numeracy for students with a diagnosis) every morning and I am a learning resource teacher in the afternoons. Within my categorical classroom, technology is used every day. Currently, we are using Raz kids (reading and listening), Voice-To-Text, YouTube, Google Classroom, Prodigy, Knowledgehook and of course, Kahoot! These are just a few of the many sites that we use.
My early memories of using technology did not really exist until I reached school. In fact, we had a tv with no cable (this has been all my life). I remember having a VHS player, where we would sometimes rent VHS’s from the movie store and come home and watch those. However, aside from those, technology was not present in my house.
My experiences of using technology in K-12 were very minimal. I remember we would walk single file down to the computer lab where we would simply work on typing. Wow, what a time! In grade 6, I remember the first iPod touch came out, it was amazing!! As I approached high school, SMART boards were in every class and let me tell you, those were cool! To calibrate those, wow, sign me up! We however did not have many assignments where technology was used, like in todays world. I for sure do have memories of writing essays in the computer lab but that was the extent of my learning with technology.
Reflecting on my school experience, it was a good one! It is however crazy to see how far technology has come and the advantages it can offer. I have to say I would not change my upbringing in any way; wishing I had more technology, but as a teacher now I do see the benefits when used right. My fear moving forward is that when teachers give technology without a rhyme or a reason, that is when I might have a disagreement about technology. In my opinion, sometimes technology is too accessible that is it no longer supplementing our learning but rather, something to pass time. Nevertheless, I cannot wait to begin this journey with educational technology.
My fondest memories of standing up at the front of the class and calibrating the SMART board! See how cool it is??
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