Technology Autobiography

Like most others my number one most influential communication technology is my cell phone. I use it constantly to stay in contact with my family, friends, co-workers, and employers. Without my cell phone I am virtually cut off from my own network of people that I am in constant contact with…and that is not an ideal situation. I never had an opportunity to learn with a cell phone until my college years. Mostly because I did not receive a cell phone until my freshman year of high school, and that phone did not have any “smart phone” capabilities. After having my first smart phone in college I used it to look up basic information and research topics every now and then. However, I left most of the heavy research and learning for my computer.

As I grew up, every year I was introduced to more ways to learn using a computer. These lessons were conducted using the basic office applications such Miscrosoft Word, Powerpoint, Excell, and Publisher. As I grew older, learning material through the use of a computer involved researching various topics and writing longer documents, and presenting elaborate presentations. Finally as I progressed into my final stage of education, I found that the most important way that I learn using the computer is researching my craft. I research dance on a daily basis. I obviously find it quite interesting and strive to learn as much about it as possible. I watch videos of successful dancers, choreographers, and teachers. As well as read interviews on online forums and autobiographies. I also use the computer for my dance needs. These include making performance reels, cutting and editing videos and music, and many other aspects of dance. I never thought about it until now, but using the computer has influenced how I am able to teach myself certain tasks. In learning how to operate these complicated applications on the computer, I have taught myself that importance of following directions and teaching yourself a skill that will benefit you on more than one occation.

My third most influencial device would be my ipod and applications that are both on my ipod as well as my iphone. I use my ipod in two very different ways. One is simply based on entertainment value, such as listening to music and checking what my peers are up to using applications like instagram, twitter, and facebook. The other reason would be for work. I am a dancer/choreographer/ teacher who needs to have a constant supply of music for my students to dance to in class. Also when I am choreographing to a piece of music I am listening to the music and learning about different instruments and meters that can occur both in that song as well as in music in general.

 I was surprised when I thought about the fact that my most used technological device is the one device that I do not really learn a lot from. I learn much more from my laptop, however that is listed as my second most used device. Does that mean that I spend to much time using a device that doesn’t provide an educational benefit? I guess that the best answer for that question would be  asking another question, “how important is an educational benefit from your devices?”  Yes, I use my cell phone the most out of all of my devices, but when the time comes I put the phone down and teach myself or learn from others. Furthermore, are math, history, science, and English the only forms of education. There are so many more topics of education that are not covered in the classroom as well as found through research. Finding out information about others and how society operates is priceless material that anyone could benefit from learning about.  I found myself having a lot in common with the people in the video because it seemed as though they use their devices to support their interests and basic needs in life, which is exactly what I do. I may not use these devices as much as they do, because my learning is a physical lesson that is taught using physical movement as opposed to research on a computer. Although we may have different topics that we are researching, and are interested in, we all use our technological devices to help us continue to learn ever more information about our craft.