The Technology Impaired Teacher

I am a big fan of "The Office". So when I ran across a parody of "The Office" on youtube.com about the misuse of technology in the classroom, I knew that I had blog about it. The video essay was created by some University of Denver students as a way to give voice to their frustrations with real-life classroom situations. The parody is called "The Class". Other than in my Education Technology class, every single professor that I have had since returning to school has turned to the students in the class at least once for help with the classroom technological equipment. One even said, when a student in the class was texting on her cellphone, "I do not know why you students think that you always have to fax things on your phone during my class." Yes, he DID say that! It is not enough to just know how to work the equipment, a professor needs to know how to effectively use technology to inspire inquiry. There are so many wonderful technological tools out there that could be incorporated into the classroom to enhance the learning experience. But if a professor does not include classroom technology into their own continuing education, that professor will become much less effective and will not be able to truly reach and inspire the students. Like in the video "The Class", students look upon a technology impaired professor as being out-of-date and the professor looses their respect. As a prospective teacher, my goal is to never let myself become "that" teacher!
The image below was taken from The Career Tech Testing Center website which posted a blog entry written by K.Walsh entitled, "10 Internet Technologies that Teachers Should be Informed About".