My most influential communication technologies:
- Social networking
- Cell phones
- You tube
I think in general teachers need to use prior knowledge and experiences to teach new skills and concepts. A student’s relationship to technology is a good indicator of how easily they will learn new programs and skills on computers, as well as if you can use technology as a teaching-tool or device to empower the student’s education to be more independent. In Olivia's example, technology gives her self confidence from her web editing skills, and comfort.
I think all three technologies have impacted learning for me in everyday life. With social networking, I find that I can be involved in events around the world by people, news organizations, celebrities, wikileaks, etc. With new features like the Google + “hangout”, I’ve been able to have conferences with my friends over video chat. That’s huge. I’ve even had a trumpet lesson with my teacher via Facetime.
Cell phones are the ultimate portable studying device – when I need to know the answer to something in a class, or I’m curious to know more about something my professor said off-hand, I reach for my iPhone and use google. I read NPR and Al Jazeera every morning before classes from my iPhone. I’ve even put my schedule and PDFs on the iBook application because I always lose my papers anyways.
YouTube is a culture in itself. For example, the YouTube remix is becoming a quick staple in our culture. Videos are posted, and then edited with other materials as a response to the original video. It’s creative and is a way for us to use old materials to make something new. I use it to discover new music by using the related video section, and use it to discover new production techniques for when I compose electronic music.
There is a similarity to how I use those technologies and how the students represented in the videos do. I find that in both cases technology has made information more readily available to students than before. The needs of students can be met outside the classroom by online video workshops, and as one student put it, it’s not about the technology itself that is so amazing but how people experiment and implement it into their activities. I think students often feel alienated or frustrated by teachers’ lack of comfort and experience with the technologies they use.
