Blog #1: Technology in Classrooms

Hi everyone! My name is Antonieta and I am in the first semester of my final year. I am an English major and I am working towards becoming a secondary school teacher. My love for teaching began in church where I began taking care of the youth and teaching them about the Bible. Although my main job was to baby sit children, teaching them how to write their name or how to play different games is what led me to go back to school and pursue teaching. I was originally going back to school to major in Child Development, but after taking an English course, I was reminded of how much I enjoyed literature in high school which led to me becoming an English major. Although I chose the creative writing route of English, taking a Mexican Literature class changed my perspective and it pulled my focus away from publishing to going into graduate school to obtain my Master's degree in Literature. 

One of my favorite books is Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo and Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. Choosing English as my major was easy because I enjoy journaling and reading. Apart from reading, I enjoy watching movies and going to concerts! Even though I am way past my childhood years, I enjoy animated movies with Shrek being my all-time favorite. One of my favorite concerts was the Harry Styles concert I attended a few years ago and the Lorde concert my friend surprised me with. 

Now to our main question: What role should technology play in teaching? Is it effective for students to use technology in a classroom? 

Although my teaching experience is minimal and I believe that technology is amazing and a great form of entertainment, as well as communication, I do believe the overuse of technology in a classroom negatively affects students. In my experience, I saw how attached children are to their mother's cellphone, rather than finding a way to entertain themselves. While technology is a good form of entertainment, pulling children away from technology is far more difficult once they have become addicted to it. We are currently witnessing the negative effects of A.I and how critical thinking skills have gone out the window. Being able to search everything on google is amazing but is also the reason why students lack the ability to form thoughts. I think technology can be used in a classroom setting as long as the time on the internet is managed and aligns to the assignment at hand. Several educational sources like Padlet, Canva and Google Classroom can help intertwine technology and lessons in order to make school fun but there must also be a way to limited distractions so that students do not go off course. While removing technology like phones, computers and tablets from a classroom setting would be amazing, it is impossible. Society has learned to function alongside technology which is why teachers must guide students into using technology as a tool rather than an answer key.