Wrapping Up the Semester

I suppose if I were to attempt to characterize myself at the beginning of the semester, I would apply the term obstinate. I had determined that technology had no place in the classroom for a myriad of reasons. The first reason was that I felt that due to inequalities among my students, technology could not be used in homework, as I do not want to widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in my class. However, over the course of the semester, I came to realize that while I still may avoid requiring all my students to use technology at home, I can still use it in the classroom. I can use a myriad of teaching techniques that utilize technology in order to aid in instructing and support my lesson. I can also use technology in group projects, as I can assign students with high technology skills into a group with lower technology users in hopes they will learn. I can also group students homogeneously and then make myself available to them for additional support, as well as individualize the assessment.

Me: obstinate

My other objections lies at the other end of the spectrum. Many students have abilities in the realm of technology, but lack other kinds of skills. This is still my belief in many ways. I do feel that students need more time spent on social skills, pragmatic language skills, receptive and expressive command of English, as a solid base of knowledge through which they learn critical thinking. Students need these things more than they need computer skills. However, computer skills can, in fact, aid these endeavors, and perhaps do so in a way that is more interesting.

I do not ever see myself using a great deal of technology in the classroom. Not really. I want to expand their horizons and experience things they could never experience otherwise. I want them to listen to jazz music and dance the jitterbug, sample buttermilk, make cheese, sew, and recite speeches from the most famous and most influential voices in our history. I want to help tie them in to a deep a rich culture and give them a reservoir from which to draw when their own experiences fail them; they can pull from the struggles of history to help solve their own problems. Technology may aid in this, but it will never be an end of itself, simply a convenient means to it.

A deep reservoir