RE: Belief About Technology

I am like any other student; I use my cell phone and computer daily. I wouldn’t call myself a technology buff because most of the time I need help figuring out new applications on the computer. I do use them though, and I would say I use them a lot. I talk on the phone several times a day and usually send a few text messages. I don’t necessarily e-mail everyday but I do get on the internet. It surprised me to think that students spend so much money on book and sometimes don’t even use them. For some classes that’s true for me to, sometimes finding the information on the internet is more convenient and easier to understand. To type something take much less time then to write it out. I’ve been in big lecture classes where people take their lap tops to class to take notes and instead spend the whole class on Facebook or playing games. I know if I took my computer to class I would do the same thing.

Like I said before, typing something is much faster than writing it out. Sometimes even text messaging or IMing someone is faster than calling. I find it easier to email a teacher my question instead of ask it in class sometimes. It’s so convenient because usually when I’m tackling the assignment later, I need some things clarified. I can just send an email out and in no time, I can complete the assignment no problem. Computers make learning faster because they offer many choices for every kind of student. Using things that kids are already interested in, like Myspace or text messaging, to get kids enthusiastic about learning make sense. These programs help students get involved with other students easily and they can have online discussions about what they’ve learned.

The assignment about kids sending text message to kid in other countries seems a little ahead of it’s time. Yes, the majority of students love text messaging, I know I do, but not everyone does. Not everyone has text messaging included in their plan and to have it as an assignment where it counts as credit does not seem fair. Also I don’t agree with kids sending messages in “text format”. Spelling things with numbers or abbreviating is not proper grammar and isn’t that another lesson we’re teaching our students. When I was in high school I think I would’ve answered the same way is someone asked me if I thought my classes were important. I feel like at that age, you don’t generally know what you want to do. It isn’t until college that you really start taking classes specifically for your major, and that’s when you see how important they are. In high school missing classes wasn’t a big deal and you could easily makeup the work, but there is so much information given in a college course that missing a class can take a while to make up.