Technology in my Life (Yellow Group Blog #1)

While most of my childhood was spent using technology in the form of video games, high school made me use the computer for everything from writing papers, to building websites, or creating PowerPoint slides. Perhaps the most interesting way I saw both of these worlds combined was in my senior year of high school for a history class.

Usually, when the World War II period is reached, most teachers put on the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan or part of Pearl Harbor (which really has only one good part: the only action scene and not the two hours of Ben Affleck talking). This teacher, however, took the class down to the computer labs where we played a First Person Shooter game named Call of Duty.

The game was authentic with everything from the clothing of the soldiers, to the guns we fired with our character, and the maps we played on (which were modelled after the actual towns where battles took place over in Europe). The students were organized into teams, and we were to use the actual tactics the soldiers back then utilized to defeat the other team.

While some may argue the merits of this lesson, our class was able to take to it quickly. It was combining something I enjoyed thoroughly as a child with a subject usually confined to a dull lecture. Its something I have never forgotten, as it transcends the usual walls of what teachers and students consider to be schoolwork and learning.