Looking in to the crystal ball...

The video presentation this week left me with some negative feelings about the future! Information is doubling itself faster then most can keep up and the video made the past seem irrelevant. I prefer to take a wiser and more positive outlook for the future of education. When I was 10 years old, my mom spent her entire paycheck on the newest thing, a microwave! Yes, I know I am showing my age here but this was THE exciting new way to cook at the time. We went to several cooking classes where the chef assured us that the microwave was going to eradicate the oven and stove from the kitchen! Although the food was delicious, I was skeptical about the future of the microwave. When we look at what microwaves are used for now, this story even makes more of a point. Just because something is new and innovative, does not mean that everything used before it is irrelevant. We most go forward with this type of an idea in mind to be prude about our choices and firm in our resolve to do the best we can for our students concerning technology.

In a perfect world, I think it would be great for all classrooms to have a smart board and a set of laptops along with Internet access. These two pieces of hardware can make integrating technology easier and more efficient since modification of the classroom is not necessary and students can even share a laptop if the classroom numbers are large. Otherwise, the key to really integrating technology in the classroom is professional development to match the hardware. A student in our class said her district bought a large number of IPads. That is awesome but only if they pair it up with the proper training. It is irresponsible in numerous ways not to put these two things together hand in hand. I have seen this happen in the past and unfortunately some of the equipment then just sat gathering dust which was a shame mainly because the students were the one’s losing out. I did not become a teacher to see this type of thing happen and when it did, it made me angry! Also being a taxpayer and parent, I can see why it is so hard for a district and an administration to make the right decisions about what needs to be done for the whole of their reach. Choices need to be made strategically and carefully at the same time, which is not a magic trick!

Above and beyond the hardware, I think districts need to hire personnel whose job is nothing but developing technology for their teachers and students. You can have an IT person for fixing your printer but their job should be just that and not the other. Specific focus is needed, as the book and video this week show us, to make the best possible choices for or student’s future. Having a vision about the future is where this idea really starts but without the proper planning, hardware, software, training and personnel to properly address technology, we could be obsolete!

It's a New World

            When I think about technology and the ways I use it, I rarely make a list but after reading chapter 5 and 6, I was reminded just how much technology is in use in my daily routine as a teacher. I originally kept my scope to what I was doing instructionally but I needed a reminder that is used in more ways everyday. I have been using technology since I was a child but as an adult it has definitely taken on a different form or forms. I think the first real type of technology I used for my students beyond word-processing and the electronic gradebook, was a puzzle maker. I remember wanting to do something more with my vocabulary words than the usual and I wanted it to be fun. A crossword puzzle was my answer. It may sound mundane but students are happier to do that and still learn and interact with the words in that way instead of defining them. This activity was never the end to end all but I liked it and it was a different way to get students to learn. Web quests are the second thing that came to mind for me as my “go to” when I wanted to really layer my learning styles and heighten the thinking skills. I remember using the web quest matrix that Dr. Powers asked us to use and this was years ago, to find something for the Humanities class I was teaching at the time. I found a great quest on the matrix about Egypt and Tutankhamen’s death that was a great bridge to introducing my students to archaeology and the importance of history. It seems like students sometimes do not understand why we study the past so much and you have to bring the meaning to them and the web quest was a perfect match! The students loved the web quest and did understand a bit better what the purpose was in the long run. I was not surprised that they are still in use and have become even more sophisticated then when I used one the last time.   

            I had never even heard of glogster before last week but I was willing to give it a try! I have only used power point a handful of times but I am not a newbie to using technology so I thought I would be able to use glogster but when I could not get the tutorial to work, I just decided to create a power point presentation about my favorite poem. The sound did not work in the drop box, though I am not sure why, so sorry that the nature sounds I added only worked elsewhere! I am glad that there are new tools to use in the classroom and I look forward to using them, especially when they elevate my instruction and make it more engaging!

In the Technology Jungle

            Although it may look easy to integrate technology into the classroom, I have found it to be more difficult. I am not sure if it is just because I teach literature and writing and/or the fact that I am considered a digital immigrant because of my age. I can have my students use word processing all the time for numerous things and using other media has been easy but using the internet, databases and spread sheets is not as simple. It does come down to my effort most of the time or how creative I can be with the lesson but in the long run, word processing is King in my classroom. I have used web quests for numerous activities to engage “digital natives” and that almost always layers the learning and really requires higher order thinking to complete but the real tie in for my area comes down to the writing part in the long run.

            After reading and viewing the videos for this week, I felt like I wanted to scream! Sam seems like a brilliant young girl but I can’t help but ask how at her age can she not interact with a real book? Where were her parents when she was younger? Although technology is moving fast, I do not think her textbooks will be on the Kindle or Nook by the time she needs them. The ways of old may seem to be just that but I can’t help but wonder if she needed some help along the way. Could she need glasses or be dyslexic? The video did not show us everything we needed to know about Sam and why she needs to interact with technology so much. Being a teacher and a mother in this situation, I can’t help but ask questions that need answers. Having gotten off my soapbox, I think students today have to be able to use a variety of media and if schools have the funding to achieve that then everyone will be on the same level. My concern here is that the have-nots will be just that. I have been using computers since I was a child in one way or another because my parents knew it was the newest and latest type of learning tool. They had the money to buy it and provide the technology for me. Programming came in high school but they were still using the electric typewriter in typing class! Real life applications for me only happened in an office environment after that. In my teaching experience, I have often found it challenging to use technology because of the lack of equipment, the poor state of the internet connection and the lack of money to change either. School districts need to invest more in what is coming and try harder to keep up with the current state of technology in order to better serve the whole school. 

          There is also some concern about relationships. We live in a “viral” world but we still have to interact with each other on a daily basis. I feel that texting and social networking sites have done our society a disservice in regards to empathy and real communication. Texting to communicate does emit emotion, even with a smiley face! I try hard to not text anyone because I know I should just pick up the phone instead! Overall, students in general seem to like interacting with a variety of technology in the classroom so I am sure research going forward will only prove this to be a benefit to our students and society, but in the big picture of things I also try to remember that technology is a valuable tool and not the end to end all things! Teachers cannot really be replaced by computers but should utilize them to help engage students in the classroom more often.

            Lastly, my four-year old son says he does not need to learn how to tie his shoes because most of his shoes have Velcro. He might be right but then again maybe not, so I will teach him how to tie his laces anyway. Handwriting may not be as important now as it was when I didn’t make the penmanship club in third grade, but I will teach my son how to handwrite anyway. As a species we do not really like change so even though we are going forward with the integration of technology into all parts of our world, we may still need to hand write a few things and even tie our own laces once in awhile.

           

The Complexity of Education

            After reading and then rereading chapter 2 in our text, it is clear to me that this specific chapter holds an enormous amount of valuable information. Although most of the information is straight forward, I found it hard to visualize some of the aspects in my mind, which in turn would materialize in lesson design and technology integration in the classroom. The difference between directed and constructivist method is clear but the combination almost seems too simple. Having attended and attained Gifted certification, I have used Gardner’s seven intelligences on numerous occasions, so I felt very comfortable thinking about technology through that line of thought. TPAK also seems like a concept that is easy to grasp. Everyone needs to assess the pertinent aspects of a project for the appropriate outcome to happen and that is exactly why TPAK makes sense although some might skip this process out of arrogance. When it comes to technology, some people seem to be so scared of opening themselves up to trying something new, that they just shield themselves by being difficult and closed. This can be a missed opportunity because learning is a never-ending cycle and no matter how confident you are about what you have learned, learning something new is always possible! TIP in sequence also makes good sense. Because our world moves at such a fast pace and information doubles itself so quickly, we must continually re-evaluate what we are doing to keep it current and relevant. I loved that we posted URL’s to web quests so soon because this was one way I integrated technology in my classroom often, especially when I taught Humanities. Teaching literature with history makes sense but can get taken over by one or the other easily. Web quests made approaching this so easy and most of all fun! My students were highly motivated when we did these assignments and the final out comes were outstanding! It was easy for me as the teacher to see the higher order thinking skills going on, and the complex ideas that were layered through out the web quest. Technology integration is not just allowing a student to use a computer, nor is it limited to computers alone. Overall, classroom technology integration takes planning, preparation and evaluation to lead to effective learning.

In the beginning...

Today is our first day of class and I have fond though nervous memories of day one as a student and then as a teacher! I have a passion for teaching literature analysis and the writing process and have mostly taught high school juniors and seniors and aspire to teach at the college level. Technology has always been a clever tool that I have relied on for numerous additions in the language arts classroom and I want to use technology to expand the ideas surrounding the history behind literature, art, and music, as well as politics. Doing this will help students see numerous aspects that influenced what people were writing about, why they were writing to begin with and what other humanities were an extension of any time in history.