This week we dove into what "Educational Technology" really means. First we covered a few important necessisities, such as how to use the Mac OS X (operating system) and creating a Google mail (Gmail) account. In class, we discussed the "Did You Know?" videos that feature facts about technology and the "changing media landscape." The most recent video was from 2009 and featured interesting facts such as: "The number of unique visitors to MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube every month, collectively, is 250 million" and "The mobile device will be the world's primary connection tool to the Internet in 2020." All of this change and technological development is termed "convergence."
This class in general is important to the field I plan on going into, Education, for numerous reasons. In order to be competitive and have the skills necessary for teaching, I must be able to adapt to the changing technological world. The College of Education is centered around the Mac step up, so it is important for me to learn how to operate a Mac system even though I own a PC. Also, I have come to find out that many schools and companies run their email through a Gmail type account. Personally, I have had a Gmail account for several years and find it to be useful in organizing and connecting to other web tools, such as Blogger.
The picture I posted above serves to highlight that "educational technology" is a growing idea and it is important to take notice. In order to stay in tune with the world and just day to day life, it is necessary to learn about technology and how to adapt to the constant change. In teaching, I will need to be aware of the changes in technology and students, and how they interact with each other.
Needless to say, I am excited to learn more this semester!
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