In general, I found the
survey results to be similar to what I expected. Like most teachers surveyed, I
agree “search engines have conditioned students to expect to be able to find
information quickly and easily.” This condition, called the “Google effect”, is
making it harder for teachers to actually get their students to retain
information. This can be counterproductive for students because they begin
relying on transactive memory, more so than explicit memory.
Being a millennial who has
grown up with ever-changing technology, I am very comfortable using different
forms of technology. I think this will benefit my teaching abilities, as
technologies become more and more prevalent in the classroom. I use different
platforms of technology when TAing, because it allows the students to learn the
information different ways. I need to improve on my reluctance to use
technology in certain circumstances. I have found that sometimes it helps if
students use more analog methods of learning, like pen and paper or opening a
book, but this all depends on the student.
Based on my experiences throughout
high school I found the teacher responses to be fairly accurate. My
high school is in a fairly affluent area, but the director of technology
believed in a more traditional method of teaching and learning thus was a bit
behind the curve on many things. For example, the campus was outfitted with
Wi-Fi just two years ago. I did not seem to have a problem with this, but I
think more integrated technology would have improved learning, especially in
traditionally harder subjects such as math and science.
