Module 6 Blog
When I first started teaching we had very little technology to use in our classroom. I remember when I was happy to get a computer and a laser disc player. Technology has come a long way and so has my use for using it. I sometimes feel lost if I do not have the technology I feel I need. Last year the school I was teaching in had all the technology I could want, but since I have changed to the middle school, I have had a hard time getting the technology to work. I feel lost without technology. In the last four years technology has become a big part of my professional life. I have also gotten to the point technology is important in my education. At one time I had to go to college and have the face-to-face learning, but as technology has evolved so have I. I believe everyone can learn this includes me, but we all learn in a different way. Once I graduated from college I never wanted to go back to college unless it was online. When I work online I put more or my time into my education. I did learn in a face-to –face environment, but one thing I can say I do not remember much about the face to face classes, except I did not want to be in them. When it comes to my online learning I feel as if I take in so much more information and I can retain what I learn because I am always using it.
I believe everyone can learn, but in saying this I also believe everyone learns in a different way. Yes, we do have some who have a better learning experience in a face-to-face classroom, but as the use of technology evolves so will the way in which we learn. Every day I hear the students do not learn the same way in which I did as students, and maybe it is true. Why? Is it because we have new learning theories such as Connectivism? Maybe so, but all learning theories are important, from Skinner to Siemens, we just have to find the one that fits us best.
Lou,
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize with you when you stated that you feel lost without technology now. I was moved from a classroom with an interactive whiteboard to a classroom with just a projector and I am definitely feeling a sense of "withdraw" without the extra technology. I think we quickly become accustomed to having technology and using it that dealing without it becomes rather difficult. I also agree with your statement that everyone learns in different ways. Even though I love online learning, I still know many of my friends who prefer going to a physical campus for their classes. I think it all comes down to learning style.
I agree that learning face to face and online has something to do with learning styles but I also believe it has to do with timing. My responsibilities include being a department chair, and adjunct professor, and a student. Due to my schedule and the burden it places on my young family I could not at this time be a student in a face to face environment. In the future when I pursue my Ph.D. it will be in a face to face setting. That time in life will be different than now. Do you think that learning styles and time of life have to do with choosing to learn online or face to face?
ReplyDeleteResponse to Micah
ReplyDeleteI feel like time has a lot to do with working on your degree. I had two children and was going to college full time, and of course I was divorced. Going to college and leaving my two young daughters at a babysitters was hard, but I knew I had to get and education in order to take care of my family. After completing college I did not want to go back until I found the online programs. I think we all have reasons for what we do and how we learn and right now this type of learning works for you and as you said later on you want to go back face to face, and for myself, I do not want to go back to face to face.
Lou,
ReplyDeleteWe are apparently contemporaries of a sort. After ten years of military service, I started teaching math in a small Catholic school here in San Antonio. My classroom had a very large blackboard and that was the level of technology I first experienced twenty-six years ago. After ten more years, I became a public school teacher, teaching science to students living in the Hispanic barrio. Now I had a green board, and overhead projector, three Macintosh computers, and a laser disk player (that no one wanted because they could not figure out its controls). Somewhere in there, I became more technology oriented, and now teach technology classes with a computer lab of thirty PCs, two flatbed scanners, a color laser printer, a projector, and (of course) the omnipresent green board. Its ironic, that I connect and service everyone's Smartboard, but don't have one for the computer classroom. That's a little side project that I'm working on with the Principal. Technology is an asset that I have learned to appreciate and thrive with. F2F is not that bad, but when given the choice, I will also stay with distance learning and the Internet.