Prompt #6

Technology has changed a lot since in the last twenty years, which is over the course of my schooling.  Our generation is lucky in that we have got to witness the technological revolution right in the peak of our development.  We got to see some of the earliest forms of current technology and how they evolved into what they are now.  I remember having the original Nintendo, no cell-phones, and thick televisions as a kid.  Now my house has Playstation 3, flat screen televisions, and everyone in the house has a cell-phone.  The same transformation has happened in my school life.  I started off in school with very little technology, as the first class I had with an old computer was third grade.  We had one computer that had the original Oregon Trail game on it that we could play during free time.  There was barely anything else that anyone could do on the computer.  In the next couple of years we got a new computer lab, and we learned how to type, use Word, Powerpoint, and what was called Spreadsheet (now Excel) at the time.  The computer lab that was new at the time is still there and it is now considered very outdated.  We had old overheads in junior high and used VCRs with very old televisions.  Once I got to high school the computer screens were flat, and we had projection screens to use.  I received my first cell-phone going into high school.  It was a flip phone with only the essential buttons on it.   I now have an iPhone that can take notes for me when I tell it to on the new Siri technology.  It stores music, has games, the internet, videos, and even a compass.  I was even allowed to use my cellphone in a class this past semester.  Now in college, I have seen many forms of technology.  In one observation of a junior high teacher, I saw him using a Smart Board to record what he was drawing on it along with another piece of technology that recorded and synced his audio with the video so students could play the entire lesson over later on the class website.  Every student had a Mac computer in the entire Junior High.  The internet is now used with regularity in many of the classes I am in to research information.  In looking at the videos and timeline in Chapter three it is important for teachers to integrate this technology into the classroom so students can use in to learn more efficiently.  It amazing me how far technology has come and how quick it has been integrated into the classroom.  I still think there are many teachers that have yet to embrace the changes though, and it is only going to keep growing.  Technology can be used in a way to help students if we embrace it, as there is so much information right at our finger tips in today's world.  I have seen it first hand as technology has evolved throughout my school career.