Technology and Me

Step One: My three most influential communication technologies:
Myspace
Skype
Video Games

Step Two: Olivia's Story
As a teacher, it is very important to know what resources your students do and do not have available to them. Although Olivia did not own her own computer, she would find any means necessary to engage in her favorite online activities such as customizing and communicating via her Myspace page. As Olivia's teacher, I would find this very important information, because I can incorporate it into the lesson. Problem solving can be presented to her in a manner that will relate to Myspace customization. When you customize a Myspace, you're essentially fine-tuning every variable and setting; trying to get the boarder to line up perfectly or the picture to be exactly where you want it. This isn't far from any Physics problem; each variable needs to be fine tuned in order to output the correct solution. Olivia knows how to isolate each of these variables and successfully solve these problems, and it would be up to me to show her that.

Step Three: Using Technology to Learn
In this video, these students were taking advantage of more modern technology such as twitter, email, cell phone cameras, and video games. Some of these technologies, such as iPods, headphones, music-production, and Macbooks can be used for entertainment purposes. When I was in High School, music was one of the most influential and important things in my life; I would wake up and put my iPod on, and go to sleep with my favorite album on. For these students, the amount of availability for musical entertainment is truly amazing. I would love to integrate this technology in my classroom, as long as my students have the available technology.

As for Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, these sites are really iffy when it comes to education. There are many ways in which they enhance the learning experience by providing students more pathways towards learning and sharing information. However, the downside is that these websites are SERIOUS time-wasters. Speaking from personal experience, Facebook is not something you want to have during finals week.

Step Four: How Technology has shaped my life

When I was growing up, it was all about Myspace. One of the most important features of Myspace is the vast customization options available to users. This allowed every profile to be unique and tailored specifically to the owner, which gave a sort of "personality" to each page; one that reflected the user. Much like Olivia in the video "Olivia's Story", I became absolutely fascinated by the customization aspect of Myspace. It wasn't long before I was creating and adapting coding to other people's Myspaces, including a few pages for some local bands that my friends had created. I was essentially "The guy" to go to if you wanted your Myspace to have a fancy background and some special effects.

All of my experience on Myspace was working with coding and music rather than for social networking. This gave me that "tinkering" edge that I needed to succeed in Mathematics and Physics. I do believe that all of that time spent programming, coding, and adjusting all of the profiles has provided me the type of thinking and technique that has given me such an advantage in the classroom, both as a student and a teacher.

Skype is becoming an increasingly popular way to audio or video chat with friends. Although Facebook and Twitter have made it extremely easy to communicate with my classmates, peers, and family members, I still prefer the personalized touches of voice, video, or in person conversations; everything else seems a bit cheap, like I am barely even communicating with this person. I have used Skype for many reasons: catching up with a friend I haven't seen or talked to in a while, sending files, coming up with plans for the night, and for voice chat while playing video games. These are very similar to the reasons that the students have used their versions of communication via the internet.

All of my life I have always played video games. It was always such a big part of my life, I would play by myself or with my friends, sisters, and/or cousins. I used to love being stuck inside on a rainy day with my cousin and playing whichever video game we were obsessed with at the time. It was more than just "something to do" but rather something that provided us entertainment, thinking, and strategy development. Unlike in the video, where the one student described that he likes to "go back" and redo something such as kicking a soccer ball when he misses, I am not a big fan of that. I much rather prefer the games that are unforgiving; i.e. you make a mistake, you face the consequences and pay for it. I believe that this type of game makes the player learn faster in order to avoid more consequences.


Technology has given me education and social skills that have helped shaped me as a person. Without it, I am not sure that I would be on the same path that I am today, a path that I am very passionate about.