The Human Calculator Technology Autobiography

Teaching with technology has the potential to increase the different ways in which individual students and entire classrooms have the opportunity to learn. I have found that students are more willing to learn when technology is part of a lesson because it spurs their interest from the traditional view of learning from a textbook. I believe that technology is a very useful tool in teaching students who are becoming increasingly different with a multitude of learning styles.

My experience as a student using computers and technology, was very limited in that a traditional view of teaching was considered the best way for students to learn. The most technology that I was given were scientific calculators, overhead projectors, and keyboarding lessons. I had to teach myself the different uses of technology as they pertained to learning, and branch out from textbook instruction to maximize my learning experience. Now, as a teacher, I try to use technology regularly in my instruction whether it be a graphing calculator exercise or Microsoft Excel project. Further as a user, I use College Live Text to create my lesson plans and laptop projectors to present games and activities as learning materials.

I do have the belief that technology should be absent sometimes for the better learning of the student. As a math teacher, I do not allow calculators for certain assignments that require the students to think critically since they will latch on to the calculator for an easy answer to a simple problem, instead of working it out for themselves. I believe that sometimes technology must be set aside in order for the students to think for themselves, but be present when the help is truly needed. I believe that computers in the classroom is a positive idea when the students have proper direction and assignments that show the need for a computer in the classroom, whether it be a written report, research project, spreadsheets, or presentations.

Computers should most definitely play a role in the K-12 education of students, since they offer such a wide range of differentiated instruction for the student. Computers provide different resources for the teacher that can meet the learning needs of different individual students. Now in such great availability, students are coming into the schools with a knowledge of how to use a computer and the educational system can use that as an advantage to connect what the students know about computers to what they need to learn in school.