Blog #1: Technology in the Classroom

My generation was born at an exciting time right after computers had become more commonplace in the average home and as smartphones went from a cool gadget to a necessity for everyone as young as 11 or 12. I can recall as I've gone through school the way technology in the classroom has evolved from large overhead projectors and thick TVs rolled in on a cart to the various interactive games that we can play as a class from our own individual devices. I also served a mission right during COVID-19. With our primary purpose being to meet and engage with people while a worldwide pandemic isolated us and made face-to-face contact unavailable, we turned to technology. I became very familiar with different social medias, like Facebook and Instagram, as well as computer software including Adobe and Microsoft Office. On returning to school, I developed an interest in computer science and took classes on the Python and Java computer languages.

In this class I hope to take all of those prior experiences with technology and channel them into my future teaching. I am excited to learn what other resources are out there that I have not discovered yet. I also am aware of some of the disadvantages of using technology and things that could go wrong, so I am eager to hear from Mrs. Marshall's experiences and advice about both how to prevent these problems as well as how to react to them. This is an exciting time to be studying to become a teacher because of all of the resources I have available to me. This will provide my students more opportunities to be actively engaged throughout the learning process.