What I've learned...

So... this semester my eyes have really been opened to how technology can be used in the classroom. Our culminating project for my tech course is a Web Quest. I love the Web Quest. I had never before considered doing something like this or the fact that things like this even exist. I had so much fun developing my quest and I look forward to using it, and others I will make in the future, in my own classroom as well as having the ability to share my Web Quests with other like minded individuals.

In conclusion... My eyes, as I've said, have been opened. I have learned how to use new techniques and programs and how to better use those I already new of. Technology is a good thing and we could not exist to the fullest extent of our own possibilities without it.

Teaching Insights

So far, my insights into technology, as far as teaching goes, are vast. I have discovered new design techniques that will come in extremely handy in the classroom. More importantly, I have discovered that a Power Point presentation does not have to be linear. This amazes me! I am having so much fun creating Power Points that have the feel of websites. Never before did I think I was in any way qualified to design a website, and I know I have much more to learn, but it now seems like a possibility.

I think a class website is a great idea. As a Theatre and Drama teacher, I will be able to list up-coming show dates or audition dates along with audition process information. I also think it would be fun to have actor bios as part of the website. Taking this even further, my students could use the site to create their own projects. As in, instead of making the pages myself, I could have my students design them. This will be a great way to combine Drama and Technology into my classroom.

My first blog... ever...

"Here you find civilized man. Civilized man refused to adapt himself to his environment. Instead he adapted his environment to suit him. So he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery, and he put up power lines to run his labor saving devices. But somehow he didn't know when to stop; the more he improved his surroundings to make his life easier, the more complicated he made it. So now his children are sentenced to ten to fifteen years of school just to learn how to survive in this complex and hazardous habitat they were born into. And civilized man, who refused to adapt himself to his natural surroundings, now finds that he has to adapt and re-adapt himself everyday and every hour of the day to his self created environment."
From The Gods Must Be Crazy By Jamie Uys, circa 1980


So, this is my first blog and my topic is technology and its use in the classroom. I plan on teaching high school Theatre and in doing such I will be using quite a bit of a particular type of technology. In live Theatre there are lights and lightboards and sound and soundboards. There are the older boards which are all run by hand and require a technician or operator to run them at all times. There are newer computerized systems which record all the light and sound cues, but which still need a technician to switch from cue to cue. Newer still, and much more expensive, are the fully computerized models which can be timed out to run almost exclusively on there own, but those are only used with professional acting troops who perform the same show over and over with little to no timing changes each performance. This is of course a very specialized description of technology in a very specialized classroom setting, but as it will be my primary setting I felt it was fitting to discuss it here.
There are other types of Technology one can find in a more generalized classroom. Everything from the most complicated Smartboard, which I have yet to try out, to the most lowly electric pencil sharpener is a type of technology that has been created to save time and create an environment more convenient for ease of learning. Listening stations with headphones and tape decks, cd players, or even now mp3 players can be found in most elementary classrooms. Computers can be found in most classrooms from elementary right through secondary schools. And what high school student would be caught dead without his or her cellphone, pda, or psp? Technology can be found just about anywhere you look in a classroom and I don't think it will be going anywhere anytime soon.

Leah~~