Technology savvy

In the recent past, I've considered myself to be pretty good when dealing with technology. I'm always fielding questions from my mom over the phone on how to log into her facebook page that I set up for her, and how to navigate around it. I'm able to download pictures from my digital camera to my computer, scan pictures in when I have the right equipment, and make slide presentations over power point. But when I started taking these assessments, I quickly found out that maybe I'm not so technically savvy.

According to the Technology Applications Inventory, I need the most 'updating' in the domain of Information Acquisition. Being a math teacher, I never really require my students to write research papers, so when it asked me if I knew how to verify if information could have been plagiarized, I have no clue how to do that. I do wish I knew more on how to make a movie or add sound bites to presentations, but since I've never had to do it, I've never learned.

The other assessment, SETDA, really got me thinking about how up to date my current school district is compared to other school districts. One section asked the questions if teachers and students had access to updated equipment. Our school has been constantly updating our computers and Internet access since I started (5 years ago). It seems like we can never keep up, we're always modifying of updating. The next couple of questions asked if certain sub populations of the student body had access to computers at home. This really made me think. I often times hear of teachers assigning papers to be done at home, and they must be typed. Well, what if these students don't have a computer at home because they can't afford it? It really made me conscious of the assignments we give students.

From these two informal assessments, I look at technology as an entire solar system, and I've just barely discovered a few planets. There is so much more to learn, and I'm looking forward to exploring.