Blog Reflection 2

I believe that Lori has captured the exact feeling that I had while doing the assignment. I was unbelievably frustrated with trying to embed my mapping. There is an interesting paradox between the justification for the extensive use of technology being that students want immediate results and the never-ending process of gaining a working understanding of the programs. While working on the idea map, I was in the same situation my students will be. I will be giving them assignments. Due to time constraints, I will not always be able to explain the advantages of mastering the skills they are learning and how later this will enrich their lives. The students often see the exercise as arbitrarily drawn up by the teacher in accordance with whatever belief he or she has. They want to finish the assignment and return to aspects of their lives they deem important. While working on the assignment, I simply want to finish this project and move along with my life. I fear that students will have the same reaction. No matter how we present education, like ourselves when we were younger, students see this as a chore and not a life-altering positive experience. On the other hand, there is the final result of feeling a sense of accomplishment in having done something for the first time. Thought the amount of time spent trying to complete the task may detract from other interests, everyone enjoys the feeling of completion. It is also incredibly important that our students face less of the anxiety some of us feel right now in using new technology. We grew up with transparencies, blackboards, notebooks and cassette tapes. We can still remember when we gawked at touch screens and tiny cellphones even if they did not have smart features, and let us not forget the magic of caller identification. How one week of instruction has changed my entire approach to searching for information on the web is a rather odd question. I believe that things change gradually and old habits die hard. It is my hope that after this class, I will have moved into a position where I make better use of technology in designing lessons and activities. The question raised in my mind is whether as a potential high school social studies teacher, I am expected to chuck the textbook, forget about the content and use my subject as a mere input for the expansion of technology courses. I am slightly opposed to the idea of discarding the emphasis on critical thinking skill for practical computer skills. If we want systems operators who merely follow protocol, then this is exactly what I will have to do.