Technology in the Classroom

During our final class meeting, Dr. McCoy mentioned the importance of technology in our final course statement. I tried to imagine how we would have accomplished the same goal without the use of technology and realized how difficult it would have been. Technology has grown tremendously in the past few years and while it has been implemented in some classes, I have had many professors that ban computers in lecture claiming that they are distracting to other students. Though they do have that potential, computers are powerful tools that can make for a positive learning experience. During our class collaborations, Google Docs allowed us to work together efficiently during our final project. Geneseo Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education (GLOBE) identifies the importance of digital literacy explaining what it can be used for, “To work in information-rich and digital environments; to identify when information and data are needed to support claims; to search effectively and efficiently for relevant information, evidence, and data” (GLOBE). With technology, we were able to locate articles, work together on the document, and edit the project all at the same time. I located an article that provides information about the positive and negative effects of using Google Docs as a tool for collaborative writing, similar to what we did in class. One of the negative aspects identified was the decrease in verbal communication due to individual students focused on writing, but our class did not have this problem because we assigned one scribe per group. Jim Trostle identified that, “New technology, like Google Docs, allows group discussion to be accompanied and documented by group writing, leading to new forms of group conversation, attention to text production, and learning in the classroom” (2014). His claim correlates with the digital literacy learning outcome outline in GLOBE. This final course statement encompassed the positive aspects of utilizing technology in the classroom.

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