Week 1 Reading Reflection

Introduction Based on Personal Experiences with Technology
Growing up and experiencing what it was like to live all over the country and world (father was in the Army), I was fortunate enough to experience the transformation of technology. From the type-writer to the huge computer to the laptop. It’s amazing to me how far technology has come over the last 10-12 years. I am only 25, but I still remember playing on the large computers in 4^th grade playing Oregon Trail while having no idea what the future of technology would turn into. I also remember in 7^th grade using dial up to sign onto America Online (AOL). Now we can connect to the internet from anywhere in the matter of a few seconds and it seems like everyone we know has a computer. Throughout my experiences in schools, it’s amazing how many schools do not use technology even when it is funded by the school. Computers sitting around in storage rooms, programs not being used, this ultimately hurts the student because whether a teacher likes it or not, our society is becoming reliant on technology. I do not believe that is a good thing, but I do believe everyone including teachers should find a happy-medium when using technology in the classroom. The articles indicate what our society is turning into, we are so reliant on technology now that not only does it help us communicate virtually, it also hurts our social skills.

Article Review
Out of the two articles, I found valid points in both but I have questions for both authors. Reigeluth and Joseph explain how educators have to teach a classroom of 25-30 kids and go at the same pace when in all reality, that’s not what happens in the real world. For example, if someone on commission makes four times profit for the company another co-worker makes, they are going to be paid out differently based on their work. Table 1 is an excellent example of how much change is happening. The Industrial Age vs. Information Age shows how much different society has changed. An example of this would be restaurants. Each town only had so many restaurants their population could eat, now there are restaurants all over to the point where if somebody wants to eat elsewhere because they serve the customer the best, they can do so. This is an example of “power to the people.” This is explained by Boss being “king” compared to now the customer being “king.” Reigeluth and Joseph explain how society is undergoing massive changes beyond just technology, but focus more on technology transformation of teaching and learning.
The Postman article insists we cannot teach values using technology which I completely disagree with. There are so many good things about technology and although there are some negatives in technology, there are negatives in every aspect of education and life in general. A negative I experienced with an educator that was not technology based was an out of shape man that knew nothing about physical education teaching a class on how to stay healthy. Who is to say technology cannot assist in a students development outside of just teaching fundamentals of learning? Technology should not be based solely off what we see on the news. Negative aspects of life do not all happen using technology, there are many positive signs of human development with the use of technology.

Conclusion
The use of technology is frowned upon by many unfortunately because a large group of people believe technology consists of Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, and other social media outlets. There are some excellent educational websites out there. There are also amazing journals articles and library systems that can not only assist in the development of students, but assist in the development of an educator. An educator can learn new methods on how to get through to their students by using different teaching methods, different evaluation systems, and obtain great information through the use of technology. I disagree when I read an article that focuses heavily on the negatives when my belief is the positives are not emphasized and used to their fullest extent.