Hello all!
I’m Stacey and welcome to my EDU 560 blog! Blogging has never been something I actively engaged in, so this is a whole new experience for me! I am very excited to try this concept and hopefully, I’ll get more comfortable with it and use this internet option more frequently.
First, I would like to give a little information on myself and how I ended up at Dominican in the Master of Arts in Teaching with a concentration in elementary education. Deciding on a major while working on my undergraduate degree was not an easy task for me. I constantly went back and forth between elementary education and speech-language pathology. I loved both fields but in the end chose speech-language pathology. I graduated from Elmhurst College with my Bachelor of Arts in speech-language pathology (SLP). For those of you who are unaware of the field, you cannot practice as a SLP without a master’s level degree. Entrance into graduate school is extremely competitive (i.e., I read an article that stated getting into graduate school for SLP was more competitive than med. school!) so therefore, a high GPA is a must. I graduated with the honors of magna cum laude (something I am very proud of!) and was accepted into the only school I wanted to go to – Northwestern University. Shortly after starting my graduate program, I came to the sad realization that my heart was not in SLP and made the tough decision to withdraw. I took some time off and really did some reflective thinking. I thought back to my undergraduate days and realized that I was happiest when I was in my elementary education program and when I was in the classroom working with a mentor teacher. It was at that point it clicked – I was going to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree in teaching. I did a little research, found schools that would help me get certified at the graduate level, and in the end, chose Dominican. It has only been the first week but my overall experience thus far (from admissions to my first two professors) has been a positive and enjoyable one. I am really looking forward to my two years here.
Technology, I feel, is a gift and curse all wrapped into one little package. I enjoy that I can “pop”onto the web and search anything and everything and get instant results but having that instant connection also has it down side. I dislike technology for that very concept. Everyone is connected and can gather information in an instant. I feel like part of life should be the waiting and anticipating or going to a library to look something up in a book (crazy idea, I know). I feel that technology gives society a means to say things that normally would not be said to someone if there was face-to-face contact; it provides a means to disguise oneself and provides a false sense of bravado.
Technology in the classroom is something that teachers cannot fight. It is something that is happening and is going to happen as it is becoming the norm in life. I do see the benefits of using technology. Technology can help make presentations more stimulating, interesting to follow, and it can allow students to become more interactive and hands on in the learning process. To me, the downside to using technology is, I feel, that students always need to be entertained. Students can no longer sit and listen to a teacher lecture or explain things without it being extremely stimulating. My thought is that life is not always exciting and one needs to be able to cope with the “boring” parts. Growing up school was not always exciting or enjoyable but I learned to cope with it and pushed through it. To me, children are not learning this life skill and the advancement in technology is somewhat to blame. Children are learning that material presented should always be stimulating and interesting and that is not always the case in life (or in school for that matter).
On a side note, and call me old fashion, but I hate the idea of no longer using real books – and by real – I mean printed on paper and bound. There is nothing like sitting and reading a book, feeling the pages, seeing the print on a piece of paper. I feel children should enjoy picking up a book, not an electronic device to sit and read (besides that staring at screens really is not good for your eyes) but this is my personal opinion. (Little tangent)
I do see the positives of technology in the classroom and I am looking forward to learning how to use it and incorporate it effectively. I think/hope this class will open my eyes to a whole new world of things that I never knew existed. This exploration of technology and multimedia as a way to express material is something I am very excited about.
Before I end this post, I’d just like to add a little personal note about myself. I am a proud aunt and love my nieces and nephews immensely – I feel they are the greatest kids in the world. I am a sports nut and love the Bulls! I will watch or listen to every game and I have been known to start yelling at the TV or radio if I do not think the game is going well. But the one thing about me that everyone should know is I absolutely love horses – I am one of those “horse crazy girls”. In my spare time, I train and ride horses. In my high school days, I competitively competed and was a riding instructor but that aspect was put on hold when I entered college. I do hope to compete again –sooner rather than later!
