Advanced Creative Writing Post #5: Technology

So for this blog post, I am writing about technology. Since I wasn't given a particular focus on what exactly to blog about pertaining to technology, I am going to blog about technology in schools and in the classroom.



Since I have been in school (from 1997 to present day), the technology in schools has dramatically increased. In the last few years alone the use of computers has sky-rocketed. Schools have gone from having the occasional computer in the library to having carts of laptops that teachers and students can use. You can even check a laptop out at the library now. The technological age of education is coming into full swing. I still remember when classrooms used chalkboards, man did I hate those (it's a texture thing with the chalk). And then they were upgraded to white boards. I actually own a white board myself. It hangs in my room and is one of the most useful things I own :). Anyways, most teachers still use white boards, but the global learners have once again upped the ante. Seeing as the global learners are attempting to really introduce twenty-first century technology into twenty-first century education (seems like common sense to me), the newest board is the smartboard. This is not only a digital white board, it is an interactive interface for all kinds of programs that allow teachers to reach in new directions when teaching. One of my personal favorites about the white boards is a physics program. The user can draw objects and what not and deploy the program and real-life physics take effect. Besides, it saves on things like chalk, markers, and the like. Even right now I am participating in a new-wave technology that has entered the classroom: blogging. Blogging is now an easy and effective way for students to all see the same information, to share ideas on an accessible interface, and it really reduces the time for a teacher to look at it and give feedback (less emails/papers and the ability to address more than one student at a time). In fact, while I was in my Epistemology class last year, I participated in live blogging. This is a blog that literally takes place in real time and when the session is over it logs it all. It's kind of like having a computerized class discussion, except your students can be anywhere. I participated from home once or twice :). Technology is coming a long way in classrooms. The ability to find practically limitless information on the internet and to be able to express things with far more than pencil and paper has really increased the livelyhood of education, in my personal opinion.