Type I and Type II Technology

Type I applications of technology are those used to maintain the traditional ways of using technology in the classroom, where type II applications use modern or more advanced ways of teaching and using technology in the classroom.

Examples of Type I Applications: In middle school, everything I learned in my computer class came from a program on a floppy disk which showed us the proper ways to use the keyboard. We only used the Internet once or twice when the librarian came in to teach our class. One program we had to perfect in middle school was Paint. We spent weeks upon weeks designing houses on Paint that students today would probably laugh at us for. A great example of Type I application is though working as a tutor in a middle school, I have noticed that almost all of the classes are integrating the use of technology. However the students are reverting to old habits and constantly use search engines such as Google to complete assignments, rather than using other websites or computer programs to find the answers.

Examples of Type II Applications: The technology teacher at a local middle school goes through a tutorial with all of the seventh grade students using their new Mac laptops. These programs included iMovie, Garage Band, and many others that the students had never used before in their education. Another example of a Type II application occurred during my freshman year of high school (2001) when we learned how to create our own website, which was pretty new for us at the time. One great example of Type II technology is the use of a Smart Board in the classroom. I have been fortunate to have observed an English teacher who had perfected the use of it in her class, and the kids loved when she used the Smart Board.

Maddux, C.D., & Johnson D.L. (2005). Type II applications of technology in education: new and better ways of teaching and learning. Computers in the Schools, 22, 1-5.

My MEL Experiences

• Student/Teacher Relationship: One positive student/teacher relationship that stands out the most for me was with my high school Spanish teacher. She always had us doing activities to keep us busy, such as learning and performing Spanish songs in front of the whole class, but we were also keeping up with the subject material. My teacher had positive attitude and an enjoyable personality, so much so that I ended up becoming secretary of the Spanish club because of her.
• Helping Students Succeed: Some of my greatest memories of my middle school years occurred in my eighth grade science class. It was her first year teaching at the middle school, so she expected a lot out of her students and had not given up on teaching like some of my other teachers. She expected high quality work from all of us, and it was clear that she respected her students as well.
• Hands-On: My Spanish teacher is also great example for hands-on activities which she used in her classroom. Some of these activities included: playing Scrabble in Spanish, learning the Samba and salsa dances, writing and performing in our own movie- in Spanish of course, and painting based on the works of Picasso or Dali.
• Connections: Throughout middle school and most of my high school years I always thought of history as one of those subjects that you just had to memorize because it no longer relates to our lives today. However, once I had a U.S. History and Government class with Mr. Wagner, my opinion changed. He was very good at comparing his history lessons to our lives or to current events taking place around the country. Apparently history tends to repeat itself.
• Context: During my first semester of college, I had my first negative experience with a Sociology professor. He never made a connection between his lessons and the real world. He never explained or taught us how this subject would be useful for us, and by the end of the semester I did not remember one thing from the class.

Learning Style Inventory Results

Style Scores

Visual	10
Social	16
Physical	12
Aural	13
Verbal	11
Solitary	11
Logical	16

I believe these learning style results from learning-styles-online.com represent my style of learning very well. In previous surveys, I scored the highest in the logical and social learning styles, so there is no surprise to me that they are here as well. The rest of my scores are fairly close in number, which probably means that I use a variety of learning styles, but logical and social are often the dominant ones.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

The one concept that stood out to me in chapter two of Fires in the Bathroom is under the heading: Do students need to like a teacher? I think Lauraliz explains it best when she compares her funny and easily distracted Spanish teacher to her global studies teacher. He is very serious and strict, but he is a great teacher who really cares about his students, and Lauraliz learned more from her global studies teacher because he stuck to the subject at hand.
This part of the reading “jumped out” at me because it is something I can relate to. In high school and also in college, it seems as though students flock towards teachers who are friendly, fun, and do not assign a lot of work. However, in most situations, you do not learn very much from those classes. Teachers who stick to the subject and who can find a way to make the class interesting will keep students engaged in the subject. In my opinion students do not need another friend from a teacher so sticking to the job title, teacher, will help many more students throughout their education.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

One of the key concepts in chapter one of Fires in the Bathroom that “jumped out” at me was to connect academic work to students’ interests. Vance believes that: “one of the only ways people learn something alien is to relate it to their own experience” (13). This is an idea that I can relate to because in high school I always appreciated teachers who would relate their lessons to my life in a way that makes it much easier to understand, or would allow us to use our personal interests in creating a project.
By connecting academic work to students’ interests, teachers can get to know their students by relating lesson plans to the lives of their students. I believe it can also help students understand concepts that they may not have understood otherwise. Connecting academic work to students’ interests may require a bit of creativity from the teacher, but it could spark a classroom discussion or group activity work once students understand the topic.