Reflection

Reflection

I consider myself to relatively proficient in the use of technology as an educator.  I take the use of technology in my classroom in a professional manner.  I work with my students to create guidelines on how new technology will be used in my classroom.  The open discussion results in an excepted classroom structure for technology.  I also work with the school to eliminate loop holes in our security to prevent any illegal use of our technology.  Before I introduce a new technology to my students I make sure that it work for my intended lesson in the appropriate way.  Then when introducing students to the technology I model the use in activities with the entire class.  For example, we use several LoggerPro probes that measure a variety of units in our chemistry labs and I demonstrate the proper use of each instrument with a mini activity.  In order to stay ahead in my knowledge of technology I do many different kinds of research.  I talk with educators in the local area, work with local area educational agencies, and do a great deal of reading on new technologies.  In doing so, I am maintaining a relatively high proficiency for the use of education technology.

                In working on this assignment, I started reflecting on how I learned to incorporate the use of more technology in my classroom.  An example I have used in this class involves using wikis where students make content pages about material used in class.  These pages can include material from class and resources gathered from the internet.  Then I can have these wikis shared with current students and future students as resources for material outside of the classroom.  I would implement the use of roles as a primary tool for designating work and loads.  I would also organize team meetings with specific agendas to keep students on task and up to speed.  Communication is the largest issue and as long as students can keep in touch with their cohorts things should go smoothly.  Just this change alone incorporates many of the skills highlighted by the 21^st Century Curriculum.

Another activity that I'm am proposing to my students is using blogs and RSS feeds to develop discussions about subjects in Science.  I used to do this activity with students where they would find articles and television shows that interested them in some aspect of science.  They would then develop a short presentation to introduce their interest to the class.  The downside was sacrificing large amounts of classroom time to have these discussions and presentations.  With the ability to blog and follow each others' postings, I can have this serve as a activity outside the classroom where students can debate and discuss their findings without using in-class time.  It can be used as a scaffolding activity that was illustrated in Richardson's text about blogging (Richardson, 2010). I can then monitor student progress, give suggestions, and promote discussion by posting to individual blogs.  I can also use what students have learned and posted to relate to content covered in class. 

            There still areas that I need to improve my technology proficiencies.  One would be using technology to organize my teaching.  Towards the end of this last school year I began using a website called Edmodo.  The site functions a lot like Facebook, but is centered around education.  I have found that I can use this site to send out assignments, contact students, and create a class calendar.  I can use this to organize my classes where students can find information easily.  My goal is to learn how to implement these various technologies with few negative consequences.

There has been a dramatic shift in the paradigm of education to incorporate new technologies.  Many institutions are trying to bring many new technologies into the classroom.  The focus of this approach to create the "anytime/anywhere learning scenario" discussed by David Thornburg in this week's video series (Laureate, 2008).  I have used this approach for students via posting instructional videos and audio recordings for my students.  The shear amount of learning information available to students is outstanding.  We just need to make sure that students and teachers have the skills to harness these resources for the benefit of the classroom.  We need to be able to use technology effectively and teach our students to use it responsibly.  If these ideas are followed, technology can be a game changer for many learners.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008).  Technology and Society [DVD].  Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society.  Baltimore, MD.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. (3rd ed.). Corwin Press.