REALITY CHECK! Facing up
to the Technological world in which I live. I find myself wearing what appears
to be a mask, the true self and the false self in terms of loving and hating
technology or more commonly known in today’s jargon as #tech. When, did it
become acceptable to use the hashtag as a method to annunciate everything? One could blame Twitter, for this improper
use or even Facebook which soon followed along, with Instagram and about probably every other social networking app. The following YouTube sums it up pretty #well!!
Social networking is
partly responsible and it now appears that through the medium of technology it
has become acceptable! This, however, is debatable and possibly, for further discussion, at a later date. Is #hashtag ruining the English language? However, I
Today, I discovered the
true meaning of ICT, for those unfamiliar with this acronym it is Information
and Communication Technology. ICT is the
second element within my PGCE (PCET) course. It encompasses a broad range of
communication, information and related technology that can be used to support
learning, teaching and assessment. The use of technology in every day life is fast
becoming much more popular than ever.
We carry technology
around with us in our pockets, it is accessible far more easier than ever
before and more often than not we pay more attention to the likes of
Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social networking than we really ought
to. It is available at our finger tips
24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, interfering with almost everything aspect
of what we do, from family life, the language we use, watching TV, attending
lectures and even going to the toilet!
Technology, acts like a
species companion, a Tamagotchi of sorts, remember those? A handheld digital pet, which you could carry
around with you in your pocket and care for.
Spending your entire time, nurturing it, through its life stages; beginning
as an egg, through its development from a baby and eventually an adult. Neglect of the Tamagotchi, would eventually result
in its death. In the same vain as using
our mobile phones, we simply cannot escape the attachment of caring for a
device in our hands!
How bizarre, that as
humans we spend so much time attending to non-sentient entities, such as an
I-Phone or I-Pad, not to be prejudice the Samsung S6 or the Samsung Galaxy tab also! These devices have become common place in the
classroom today. It was not so long ago
that the Tamagotchi, was considered a hindrance to the classroom, lessons and
schoolwork, even though there was a humanistic element to the caring of such
entities. However, these eventually
became banned from schools. Today we welcome, such devices, along with
chrome books in secondary schools, to prevent network congestion, by storing
information on the so called cloud!
These devices are now
welcomed in education today, there is an abundance of apps, creative tools, and
interactive textbooks which has and continues to transform the way we learn and
teach. Despite the hindrance to students,
the tapping of a keyboard if a laptop is used, the ability to open and view
several windows and pages such as Facebook and Twitter, also serve as
distractions, yet are now common place in the classroom.
There is a fine line of
accepting the use of technology in the learning process and there is a time and
place for its uses. Will there, one day,
be teacher less classrooms, See, Nick Morrison who suggests that maybe it is not as close as we may think. Whereby, lessons and lectures are conducted through
Skype, Ted talks, lessons stored in the cloud etc. and even possibly, not even having
to leave the home to receive an education?
Technology is transforming the classroom, and whether this is for the
greater good remains to be seen? Dr Thomas Frey, predicts that there are fundamental changes ahead and a so called new frontier in education is evident.
No doubt, as I progress on this journey of never ending technology, I will encounter a plethora of other ICT apps, designed to enhance my teaching experience.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2014/08/21/the-teacher-less-classroom-is-not-as-close-as-you-think/
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