Effects of Technology

The Keller Plan (Reflection)

As I was reading the article on using The Keller Plan the first thing that struck me was how long ago F.S. Keller actually implemented his new way of teaching; early 1960’s. I have to admit that I was not aware of this. As I continued to read about The Keller Plan I felt like I was reading about a teaching strategy implemented in recent years. I am a firm believer in the effectiveness of the key elements of the system: “Clear educational objectives, small learning modules with associated achievement tests and immediate feedback, student self-pacing, positive reinforcement, and student emphasis on doing rather than listening.” (Davis and Ragsdell p. 2) I learn better in this type of instructional environment and I like to instruct students in this type of learning environment, although I do not get the opportunity to utilize it very often. I have a problem trying to spread my assistance across the classroom when each student is working on a different part of the lesson. As the article mentioned, assistants were recommended and the only assistants I have are the students in the class. I do allow students to assist other students if they are ahead in the lesson. Without some sort of software assistance, I also have difficulty preparing enough assessment material and getting it evaluated and returned to the students to allow students to test and retest until they master the material so they can move on. I would love to have access to software where I could streamline my curriculum into a self-paced course. I definitely think that test scores would go up.

Karen Hughes

Posted at 01:31PM Jan 18, 2009 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[0]

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool? (Part 7)

How wonderful is technology? We no longer need a paper map to help us navigate to new destinations. We now have GPS (Global Positioning Systems) which guide us to almost any destination we desire. In the rare event our desired destination is not known by our GPS device we now have Google Earth which gives us an aerial view which we can use to determine our route. This is exactly what my brother did a couple of week ago. He needed to use his GPS device to help him travel to the school where his son was playing a basketball game. The school was located in a very rural area of North Carolina. His GPS device did not recognize the destination address, so he decided to try Google Earth. By using the aerial view displayed by Google Earth he was able to drive directly to the school without a problem. The moral of this story is, “Isn’t technology wonderful?”

Posted at 10:03AM Dec 01, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[0]

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool? (Part 6)

Today it dawned on me once again that we would be in a real mess without our technology that we love so much. How many of you can recite friends phone numbers? How about your immediate families’ phone numbers? I am guilty!! I needed to write down my daughter’s cell phone number today and I had to check my cell phone. I felt terrible! What decent mother could forget her daughter’s cell phone number? Then I began to think, how many phone numbers do most families have? (home, cell for each family member, work for all working family members, school for school age family members …) No wonder I “temporarily” forgot my daughter’s cell number! Looking from my perspective, I need technology to keep me organized. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to give up my gadgets!

Posted at 08:15PM Nov 30, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[0]

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool? (Part 5)

All along I have been posing the question, "How do you think students would react if all of a sudden they did not have technology, especially cell phones?" Well I actually experienced this for myself this past week and I was shocked how dependent I have become. I had to drive to a neighboring town, forty-five minutes away for a meeting. I was a few miles down the road when I realized that I had left my cell phone at home. I guess it was like having no access to water and craving it for the first time ever. I constantly caught myself reaching for my cell phone before realizing that I did not have it. I actually started experiencing a feeling that I had to rush home in case someone needed to reach me. I even tried to reason with myself that it has not been too many years since I traveled all of the time without a cell phone and I got along just fine. My reaction to this situation really surprised me because I am not your typical cell phone user. I carry my call phone in my purse and only take it out if I need to use it. I also use texting very seldom. I was very surprised how comforting just knowing that I have my cell phone if I need or want to use it. I can not imagine how an individual would react that is use to texting or talking "all" of the time. I guess technology has become more of a lifestyle than I realized.

Posted at 08:18PM Oct 26, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[0]

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool? (Part 4)

Sometimes I feel like I am riding the fence on this topic. Last week I had decided that we pretty much had no choice but to accept technology as a lifestyle. After taking some time to absorb the material in ?The World is Flat,? by Thomas Friedman I am leaning back toward the importance of using technology as a tool. Friedman, states that the citizens of the US must develop higher lever skills in order to be competitive in our global economy. He mentions over and over how the lower end, mostly service jobs, have already been outsourced and we must educate our students to develop higher level skills. Because of this fact I believe that technology needs to be thought of as a supporting device to assisting students with the development of higher-end specialized skills. It is our analytical skills that we need to be honing, not just our ability to use technology. If we do not develop students who are critical thinkers and good problem solvers the world will just become flatter and the US will be drastically moved down the list of leading nations.

Posted at 02:02PM Oct 19, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[1]

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool? (Part 3)

After reading The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, I decided that we as a member of society must accept technology as a lifestyle if we do not want to be left behind by the rest of the world. Technology, specifically the Internet, is one of the major "flatteners" of the world. If we want to be a competitive nation in today's global market we must embrace the skills made possible through technology. I am admitting that technology is here to stay and that it will become a major part of our everyday life, but I still think we need to keep in mind that it is a tool assisting "Globalization 3.0" not the actual process. I can not help feeling that we are going to become a non-personable world. Business will be conducted via the Internet with no face-to-face contact. I guess I am a people person, but this sounds so mechanical.  

Posted at 08:44PM Oct 12, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[2]

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool? (Part 2)

My daughter turned 13 on Sept. 27th. What did she want for her birthday? Texting! My husband and I had blocked texting on her cell phone up to this point. All she wanted was to have a couple of friends spend the night with her on her birthday and to get texting on her phone. As noted in my original post I have a deep concern how texting is affecting individuals ability to communicate face-to-face. My husband and I talked it over and decided to grant her the wish of texting. After dinner we took the girls to the mall shopping, which in the past meant going from store to store looking at everything in the stores. As we moved from store to store I could not help noticing all three girls standing in the stores texting on their phones; rather than shopping. I could not believe my eyes. This was my daughter who before receiving her birthday wish would rather shop as to eat. I almost panicked, but my husband convinced me that the newness would wear off. I am not convinced that it will. I have students in my classes who have used texting so much they can text with their phone in their pocket. We also watched a news cast at school a couple of weeks ago from a doctor warning about the dangers of ?text walking.? He stated that he was seeing at least one patient a week with an injury resulting from texting while walking. He told about an individual who stepped off a sidewalk into traffic resulting in death. So once again I ask, Is technology a lifestyle or a tool?

Posted at 08:12PM Oct 04, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[2]

Are we using technology as a lifestyle rather than a tool?

I will be the first to admit that I love technology and the many gadgets which have developed from innovations in technology. My concern is the influence technology is having on individuals. An example is texting. Students are so used to texting that it has affected their writing skills without them even realizing it. I had a student tell me that he failed an English paper because he wrote like he was texting. When he received his grade he could not understand what the problem was. The teacher had to explain to him that using texting abbreviations was incorrect grammar, spelling, and absolutely inacceptable when writing a paper. The student stated that he was shocked at this explanation, and I was shocked that a student would write an English paper and include texting abbreviations in it. I also worry that technology is changing our ability to communicate face-to-face with each other. I often observe students at lunch sitting outside on a bench and there is no conversation taking place between the students because each student is either talking on their cell phone or texting someone. What happened to talking face-to-face with friends? I still like to see the smiles of my family and friends and if the smile is not there I know something is wrong. Non-verbal communication is so important and is becoming extinct with the use of todays technology. It seems to me that we are not using technology as a tool, but rather we live for technology. Can you imagine the reaction if cell phone service and Internet service were interrupted for a long period of time? I think the younger generation would definitely panic. We would probably be surprised how dependant we have all become.

Karen Hughes

Posted at 09:56PM Sep 19, 2008 by Karen Hughes in General  |  Comments[8]