Reflection: Technology in Education

Looking Back

    I think going into this course I knew that there has been a continuous growth with the dependency on technology with our digital age. What I did not realize was the emergence of the importance of technology in education. Technology can be incredibly difficult and negative but it can also be something easy and significantly useful. While something may be easy for you, it may not be the same for someone else. 

    That being said, my views about technology especially in education evolved to be more understanding of people's needs for technology and their levels of learning with technology. Patience is crucial. It is important to understand as an educator that everyone has different learning styles. Technology helps to adhere to these various learning styles and enhance them which improves the student's overall experience.

Impact

    One of the biggest impacts on my view of technology in education was the vast amount of tools there are for education. The one that stood out to me the most was Kahoot!. I think the possibilities are endless with enhancing lessons and educational games with the software. I believe it is important to make learning fun and engaging, especially for younger students. Kahoot! makes that easily possible for educators and their students. Another thing I learned that impacted me was learning more in-depth about assistive technology. Accessibility technology comes in a variety of shapes and forms. To some, they are features that you let you adjust the brightness or text size on digital screens for people who may visually or hearing impaired. To others, they are structural tools such as a button to open doors or ramps for disabled people. They are everything in between these two examples. They can also be different resources to assist different types of users. 

Going Forward

    I think going forward I will do my best to look more into incorporating technology into my teen programs. Aa mentioned, few of the state library trainings I have attended put a heavy emphasis on creating programs for young adults that build on their technical and "life" skills. I would still love to do a resume 101 workshop or even host a program on how to make an effective PowerPoint, or teaching students how to use my library's online resources (especially since the majority are free and do not require a library card!) So far for fall programming I have a resume 101 and a Canva workshop planned, I am very excited for them.

via GIPHY

    This was the GIF I used at the start of the summer semester. I think it still shows how I feel about technology in my workplace in particularly. Going forward I need to definitely have more patience and think of patron interactions as learning lessons. How can I better utilize what I know to help them? How can I effectively translate what I know to the patron? What ways can I user to better enhance the learning the patron will receive from me? What can I do better to teach patrons on how to utilize different library features and resources?