ICT has played a major role in regards to my teaching strategies and what I want to be as a teacher. Throughout this course, Mike Nantais has shown me several websites, apps, and other technological assets that I will definitely be using in the classroom. Using technology in this day and age is a necessity. Children are exposed to technology on a daily basis and find it enjoyable. Why not bring technology into the classroom so they can perform work with something that interests them. Being a physical education teacher has always been the career path I wanted to go down. I have never had a change in heart with what I wanted to be. Before coming into the ICT class, I personally thought this class was going to be useless in terms of physical education as I thought to myself "How much technology can you really use in phys. ed.? Mike completely changed my outlook. Technology can be used on a daily basis. Using Youtube alone I could explain numerous aspects to sport such as how to perform a movement properly, the task we would be completing that day, along with many positive assets. Using technology can also cover many different types of learners using videos each day. It would cover the visual learner, auditory learner, and also kinesthetic as it would show the person performing the task. I could create my own videos as well instead of going onto Youtube. This is just one of the ways I would use technology. While there are many different programs I could use for my teaching, the other one that really stood out to me was Evernote. I think I could use this app in many ways whether it be a way of introducing everyone in the classroom or relaying what everyone knows about a topic we would be researching. It is just a different way of engaging the students, and personally, I think it makes classes much more enjoyable.
I think ICT has changed our world and education in both good and bad ways. ICT will bring further engagement into a world filled with technology. Students will be able to continue to use technology they have at home and find it more enjoyable. It will open up doors to new and exciting information they may have never experienced before. Technology has made finding information extremely easy, and there are now thousands of different ways to relay the information they have found in creative ways. It helps people think critically on what they want to research, the type of technology they want to use for the research, and also opens up a creative window for how they want to display their findings. Technology does not only help with research and finding facts, but I find the most important aspect is the creativity they are exposed to with technology. Communication has also never been better as people can communicate with others all over the world. For example, in a school setting, if someone is researching interesting facts on Mexican culture, it would be easy to have a small presentation, and then Skype with this person and let the class get a full on look on what an everyday Latino person goes through. this is just an example.
The only way I believe technology has stifled our society is perhaps the face to face interaction that used to be strong in the world. People are no longer wanting to meet with people face to face, its now more over text, Facebook, or Twitter that people communicate with each other. This is fine, but sometimes its better to meet people in person. This is just one small negative with communication. One can also just Skype or Facetime and it would be a face to face conversation anyway.
I think the future is looking bright for technology. It is very useful and now makes the world go round. It is scary how far technology has come already, running factories, being able to text someone thousands of miles away in seconds, it is an exciting asset to the world that will only continue to get bigger and better. I can not wait to see how big and sophisticated technology will further come.
