EME 2040 - Reflection 9

My EME 2040 professor as taught my classmates and I many ways in which we can take usage of technology for advantage for when we are teaching our very own students in our classes. I have learned that technology can be utilized in the process of instructional delivery for something very important that I would like to call, visual learning. Many people and I would agree that students learn better when they are visually being shown and taught instead of just the regular basic speaking lecture. With images and videos from the computer being projected on a large screen for students to view together as an audience, they have a better idea of what the subject matter might be. It also grabs their attention a lot better than just the typical Peanuts cartoon teacher’s “wah wah wah.” I use this metaphor because I think this light hearted cartoon perfectly depicts that one boring teacher that every child has had to experience throughout their education. In the cartoon, you only hear the teacher repeatedly making the sound “wah wah wah.” It shows that the students aren’t even paying attention. Even the character Lucy, who seemed to be so energetic most of the time, was always put to sleep by this type of teaching. In my EME 2040 class we have prepared lesson plans, and we were able to use a website called learn360. Learn360 has so many useful instructional videos. They practically have a video on every and any lesson to show students. Showing these videos as an opening to the lesson gives the students a good idea and teaches them overall about the subject before the teacher even gets to give her own lecturing about it. Technology may be used for students to do research in class or as homework. This teaches children to broaden their horizons and explore not only in the class but even at home online. Today students can communicate with other children from all around the world with the use of internet. They can get a feel of cultures from around the world and have e-mail pen pals. I learned about this when we were studying telecollaborative learning. Students can see how living and school is all around the world. Today, you can even take a very educational virtual tour anywhere you want in the world. I believe the internet and technology is a beautiful thing. We have so much information and any language right at the tips of our fingers for whenever we need it! Many people didn’t have this a while ago, and I imagine when I am teaching my class that I’m going to put emphasis on taking advantage of the great things we are able to do with computers today. I want to teach my students to appreciate what they have and to use it for good and research when they are curious about something.