Response to Chapter 8 Reading

While reading Chapter * of the Educause text, there were several pieces of data that come to no surprise to me. Data shows that “one study found in spite of the fact that 99 percent of K-12 schools have Internet access, as do most classrooms (87 percent), these resources are rarely used effectively.” This does not surprise me at all. Some of the older teachers have several resources of technology to use during teaching at their fingertips but they never use it. They are afraid to try new things and feel as though they cannot use technology. That is even seen in some of the classes at Albright. Some of the older teachers do not use technology even though several forms of it are present in the classroom, such as an elmo, projector, smart board, etc. Instead they use the smart board to write on as if it were just a simple white board. They do not know how to use the smart board and have not taken the time to try it so they sick to the traditional way of teaching which some may refer to as “lecturing.” Learning how to use the available technology should be a teacher’s top priority. This how teachers can capture the attention of their students and keep them engaged. These days, all students live for technology whether that is the internet, video games, ipod, cell phones, etc. So teachers should keep up with the pace of technology and become acquainted with it. Technology isn’t going to go away so it is better to use learn how to use it and make life easier.

I found it very surprising that only 38 percent of college students reported using the internet for work in classes instead it was used as a form of communicating. I agree that I use the internet a lot for communicating but I am always on the internet during research for my classes. I did my undergraduate work at Albright College and access to the internet was a necessity because professors were always giving us information to research or websites to visit or standards to download.  There is something seriously wrong that only 38 percent of college students reported using the internet for school work. That just seems so unreal to me especially because I use the internet for every single course I am taking right now for research and classwork.

If I were giving a similar survey, I would want to know which websites are most often used by students. How much time is spent using technology each day.