Assignment #2

Kirsten Ellard


CAT 200

Assignment 1

Dr. Lewis

8/24/10





Experience Helping in Schools





When I was in high school, I was required to do 100 hours of community service in order to graduate. Lucky me, my best friend’s mother was a kindergarten teacher, so I was able to assist her in the classroom after school to help her and her students with anything they asked. Of course at the kindergarten age, the students were more preoccupied with making crafts and using their imaginations. However, the classroom had 5 computers in the back of it that had multiple games on them to acclimate the child to using technology at a young age. Although the computers were not the “latest and greatest”, they still educated the students on the basic skills when it comes to computers: turning them on, finding various programs on the computer, using the program appropriately, and so forth.

When assisting the kindergarteners with their technological adventures, I began to think of my own as a student. I have typed all of my papers since I was in the 4th grade. Completed numerous assignments and projects, as well as emailed teachers on more than one occasion. I was able to come to the conclusion that education and technology are one in the same: you can’t have one without the other. With the advancements in technology our current world has, it is impossible to keep them from the integrating with education. I am now at the point in my academic career that I use educational technology every day. I am able to pull up my student e-mail address, homework assignments, e-Learning, and many other things all on my cell phone. I am able to bring the classroom with me where ever I go.

Knowing that educational technology is ready for us to use at any point in the day, the student and teacher must remember that there is a time and a place for this technology to be used. In every syllabus I have received since attending the University of Alabama, it has said in bold, italics, or some other type of noticeable font that cell phones are to be turned off and put away during class. Clearly, the technology used within the classroom at this point in my academic career is approved only by the teacher. However, when I leave the classroom, it is my job to use as many educational technological outlets I can get my hands on. It is quite ironic to me that teachers encourage the use of so many outlets, yet limit us as students while we are in their classroom. Although I don’t understand it right now, I’m sure I will once I have my own room full of students texting away and doing everything they can to avoid my lecture.