Week 1 Journal Entry for EDU352

Without a doubt, I think that the Internet has been the most significant development in our (recent) world regarding the changes we have experienced due to technology. Because of the Internet, our world has become increasingly flat and people from all over the world can interact and connect through classrooms, social media, and even the workplace. The Internet has even affected classrooms in a sense by bringing the ability to research current news and events in "real-time", and to even connect with the past in ways like never before.

However, while this is not a recent development, I would also have to consider both the invention of paper and the printing press to be among other key developments in the changes our world has experienced due to technology. With first the invention of paper, followed by the invention of the printing press, things were able to be not only written out and preserved indefinitely (or at least for as long as the paper was not lost or destroyed), but also the printing press allowed for writings to be mass-produced and distributed. This allowed for a larger quantity of people to be educated than ever before in everything from the arts, to religion, to mathematics, to current news events, to even the latest gossip.

I must admit that I smiled while watching the video "The History of Educational Technology" and the clip of the overhead projector came on because that was pretty much the extent of my experience with technology in the classroom for me while growing up. I do remember a basic computer class in High School, but my experience was so different than my own children's for example, who not only have computers in every classroom, but they are connected to the Internet, as well as being in classrooms with interactive SmartBoards. In fact, my daughter's High School just finished assigning each and every student a personal laptop to be used for school!

I would definitely have to say that technology has increased my learning due to the fact that information is so handily and readily available because of the Internet. Not that the information is always 100% accurate or reliable, I can at least Google, for example, as a starting point to find what I am looking for. Just last night, for instance, while watching a movie with my husband and son, I became a little lost in the plot so I searched for the movie on IMDB.com and read a brief plot description in order to help me make sense of a few of the details I was confused about. Another example is that it is because of technology that I am only a year away from attaining my BA from Ashford University in Education Studies. Technology has made it possible for me to still be a stay-at-home mother, first and foremost, to live in another country, yet still attend college and work towards my degree and my goal of becoming an elementary school teacher.