McVee, Bailey, and Shanahan Response


First off, I loved the concept of the Gumby maneuver. It’s important for teachers to be able to stay flexible in general, but it’s especially important when dealing with technology. There’s so much that can go wrong with technology that it’s always important to have a plan B. I can think back to instances in high school when the technology wasn’t working how my teacher wanted, and it either ate up class time, or just lead to us not doing much that class period. In the future, I think it’d be smart when making lesson plans that include technology to include a back-up plan in case the technology doesn’t work how I want it to. 

I also liked the point about working with technology that frustrates or scares you. I don’t want to be the type of teacher who shies away from using technology just because they’re scared of it. There’s so many ways to incorporate technology into the classroom in beneficial ways. In the future, I hope to actively look for technology that I can incorporate into my classroom, and hopefully I won’t decide against using something just because it’s complicated. 

Lastly, my favorite quote from the entire article, “I think true literacy is having the ability to be thoughtful and purposeful when using technology, not just being able to use the technology in a technological sense.” I never really thought about tech literacy through this lens before. It’s not just about knowing how to use tech in the classroom, it’s important to know why you’re using it. Tech in the classroom should be purposeful and utilized in a way that moves your intended lesson forward, in a way that helps your students. Hopefully I can use technology this way in my future classroom. 

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