Reflection # 1

What? In a class the other day, the professor played an old, made for television documentary on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Although the information was interesting, I was easily distracted by the bad quality of the film. You see, the professor has this film recorded on VHS from many years ago, and the tape is full of cracks and lines running across the screen. Sometimes, the sound even cut out completely for as much as 15 seconds. Then, a few days later, I was in a DIFFERENT class, and that professor played part of  the same film for us making a very different point. However, this second professor found the documentary on Netflix streaming and had previously loaded the video. As I watched the film for the second time, I realized just how much of it I had missed the first time because of the bad quality, and how much better the second professor's approach was. So what? I realized that it is not enough to use technology in a classroom, but a teacher must use technology effectively in order to captivate students and truly make their point. It may be a good idea to have a vhs copy of the film as a back up, but it loses its effectiveness when the technology is not negotiated in a relatively seamless manner. Now what? I, as a future teacher, am becoming aware of the necessity of negotiating technology as an old friend, not just a tool to be implemented (to use a cheesy analogy). I will consider, before I use tech in my classes, if I have the skills and familiarity to make it relevant and accessible to my students, thinking ahead to what might go wrong, or if tech could possibly hinder learning.