Pros/Cons to Technology in the Classroom

I think there are many pros and cons to blogging in the classroom. Here's what I think!

Pros

• It removes the feeling of doing everything from your room. Students are encouraged to do more of their learning at home, where it is probably most comfortable for them
• Blogs may outlast the course they are teaching so students can refer back to them later on
• Students tend to think more about what they are writing when they are writing for their peers and for anybody else who sees it then for just a teacher alone.
• Students learn best from each other.
• The conversation doesn't have to end at the bell, with a blog it can just keep going.
• They required little effort to maintain on the teacher's part.
• Gets students to write more often

Cons

• May encourage students to write grammatically incorrect since most students use a more free style of writing online
• Most blogs lose steam after school hours or during the summer, so teacher wonder if they are really grabbing students attention.

Resources used:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301348.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/19/technology/circuits/19blog.html?ex=1250568000&en=33627811ca310596&ei=5090

The Role Technology Played for Me

Honestly, I don't remember much technology being used in my classrooms. We had a keyboarding class that was required of all the students while I was in high school, but other than that there wasn't much. I think the class was very helpful because otherwise I may still be typing with two fingers haha. However, that was really the only time I remember being introduced to technology in the classroom.

Most of the time I used technology for school was at home. I haven't gone to the library to get a book to write a report (unless it was required to use an actual book) in a very long time. I actually can't remember when that was. I always just went straight to the Internet. It is so much easier and I always seemed to find more information that way.

For students now, they don't know what it was like to not have some of our kinds of technology. I remember not having a cell phone and not being able to have a computer because it wasn't the norm yet for students to have their own computers. I-pods were not around either. I still even have VHS tapes and I'm only 21 so it's not like I'm that old. However, my sister is only 4 years younger that me and I don't think she is old enough to remember those things as vividly. So students now have grown up with that stuff. It is going to make things so much different for students now. They depend on these forms of technology. They don't know what it's like to not have them.

Some thoughts on myself

So this is the first time I've ever used a blog so we'll see how it goes.

I was raised in Knoxville, TN although I was born in Toledo, Ohio.

Senior year of high school I decided I wanted to come to MTSU and it was probably the best choice I had ever made. I have been allowed to grow and experiment in so many ways. I came into the program as a reluctant music education major. I didn't want to teach. I wanted to sit in an orchestra for the rest of my life, but many of the mentors in high school pushed me towards music education. It's funny to think about that now, because my mind has changed so much since then.

Now I'm a fourth year music education major and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I've even recently realized how much I enjoy teaching general music and have added a vocal/general add on to my instrumental education major. Basically what that means, is I will now be certified to teach any kind of music they have out there now. I'm very excited about it. I also think it would be cool to get into arranging music. I really enjoyed that class we had to take and I hope to be able to do it in the future. I'm getting so excited to be able to teach students soon because I want to spread the joy music has given to me on to them. However, being out in the real world is also making me very nervous.