Green Group

As stated in both my technobiography and most recent blog post, technology has been a pretty important part of my life. From using it for fun, to communication with friends I have not seen in years, to it's usefulness in a classroom, technology has been around me since I was a child.
I have seen that technology has its pros and cons in and out of a classroom.
Being able to have colorful and informative powerpoints and interesting videos in a classroom has definitely made learning more effective for me. I have seen it used in many useful ways. From learning to use Microsoft office applications to the "drill and practice" software I used in high school to teach special needs students typing, technology has had it's benefits. I have a hard time imagining school life without the use of computers or PowerPoint's. This semester I am taking a music course where our professor uses his ipod to let us listen to samples of music from each time period we learn about. There is also a cd given with the course for students to take home. The ipod and cd make the material less dry and is incredibly helpful when learning about tempo or meter, because one can actually hear the difference between a piece of music in "4-4" time and "2-4" time.
However, I have had experiences where technology was not helpful at all. Some teachers would put videos on during class that were, supposedly, related to the subject; but really had nothing to do with what we were learning. Most of the time, if movies were on, I would fall asleep or work on other assignments. I've had negative experiences with teachers who use powerpoint ineffectively because they simply read from the paragraphs on the screen, making the class very dry. Classrooms that have computers for every student with access to the Internet can be negative as well if there is no one watching what the students are doing on the computers.
To summarize, technology can be very effective in a classroom if used properly and appropriately. However, if the technology is a video used to distract the class or a poorly prepared powerpoint, it can have negative consequences for the student. They will not learn the material or feel any interest to do so.
- Laura Miranda