Technology in the Classroom

Journal 9
July 25, 2007

Technology in the Classroom---Ms. Louise A. Vogel

Today, we had a speech about technology in the classroom by Ms. Louise A. Vogel.
She is a very special teacher because she is very energetic and active. We all agreed with her that the teachers are always talking. (Ha!) She also pointed out that it is a trend that some of the teachers need to be bilingual or multilingual in the future. It’s also true in Taiwan. More and more men in Taiwan marry the women from the Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, or China. Some of their children have difficulties in speaking Chinese. The teachers in school have to deal with this problem.

Ms. Vogel is a lucky teacher, too. She is teaching s the special ESL teaching program with the most modern technology in the classroom in Arlington High School. There are 14 computers and all of her students can use the computer in class. In my class, some of the family cannot afford a computer at home, so the students need to do some assignments in school or at his (her) classmates’ home. As a result, I don’t exactly ask my students to do homework on the computer often. Louise’s high students are good at using the computer and their PowerPoint reports are fantastic. However, a few parents in my class complained that their children spent too much time on computer and became isolated from the family. Their children just enjoyed spending time with friends in the chat room on the net and did not pay attention to anything in the real life. I think that the situation will grow serious because our young generation depends on modern technology a lot. Louise also presented some websites to search for the teaching materials.

I am not a computer geek or guru and my knowledge of using the modern computer technology falls far behind the younger teachers in the class. I’m worried how I catch up with them. Perhaps to buy my own laptop is the first step. .