Course Reflection

It is time to reflect on the last seven weeks and what I have learned that will make me a better teacher. The course I am finishing is titled, “Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society.” I have affectionately referred to it as “Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts: Oh My!” The assignments and discussions have literally pulled me into the 21st-century. Sometimes, I was kicking and screaming, but most of the time, I enjoyed the ride.

This course helped develop my technology skills as a professional teacher by encouraging our class to explore 21st-century tools. The first tool we practiced with was a blog. “Blogging represents one of many tools that pioneering teachers are using to empower students to take more responsibility for managing their own work and adding value to the world” (November, 2008).

Next, we added wikis to our repertoire. Wikis allow students and teachers to communicate concepts and ideas to each other, even outside of school. They encourage collaboration in a way that is comfortable for students.

By creating our own podcasts, we learned about the power of this tool. For me, podcasts had the steepest learning curve. It took a while to figure out how to create and post an audio file, but when I finally finished, it was worth it. Right away, it was obvious that podcasts would certainly capture my students’ attention.

The process of learning to use these tools greatly enhanced my technology skills. Even though I am a digital immigrant (Prensky, 2001), I feel like I have lost some of my accent. I have taken a step closer to learning the language of a digital native. “…the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language” (Prensky, 2001, p. 3). This course helped us learn the language.

The course has transformed my knowledge of the teaching and learning process. During the first week, we were introduced to the distinction between doing different things and doing things differently (Thornburg, 2008). I have been using the technology available to me to do different things. My mindset is changing. I now understand that I need to be creative in applying new technologies to education. I cannot be the “Great and Mighty Oz” imparting my knowledge to the masses. My new role is to facilitate the learning of my students. “We have the capacity to use technology to transform educational practice in ways that were impossible twenty years ago” (Thornburg, 2004). My students need to learn to work collaboratively. It is the teacher’s job to create those opportunities.

Even though this course is coming to an end, I will continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement. I have already created a wiki for my classroom. My students are beginning to use the wiki and other technologies to explore math concepts in my room. Often, they are teaching me how to use the technology. However, in the process of teaching, they are learning, too. I have subscribed to several educational technology blogs by using an RSS aggregator. I will visit those sites often in order to expand my knowledge in this area.

One goal for transforming my classroom environment into a 21st-century learning environment is to get technology into every students’ hands on a more frequent and regular basis. It really does not matter how technologically advanced the classroom is if the students cannot use the equipment. This goal is hampered by the fact that technology is expensive. I plan to utilize the computers in the media center as much as possible. I will also look into grant funding opportunities for tools such as iPads for students.

A second long-term goal is to create an environment that encourages collaboration, decision making, critical thinking, communication skills, and all of the other foundational 21st -century skills (Thornburg, 2008). The barrier for this goal is building a new mindset about how students learn. I can no longer just “cover material” (Prensky, 2008, p. 44). I need to prepare my students for the future they are entering. I plan to meet this goal by giving the students more responsibility for their learning. I am going to step away from the front of the class and let them help teach themselves and each other with me guiding and encouraging them.

At the beginning of the course, we completed a checklist to assess our skills and practices regarding integrating technology in the classroom. I only checked “often” on six statements. Eight were checked “sometimes” and one checkmark for “rarely.” After just seven weeks, I can move most of the check marks to “often.” I have not finished learning about technology. As a matter of fact, I have only just begun. However, now I have a clear vision of the path I need to take to be technologically literate, and I have taken the first steps.








References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). The Emergence of Educational Technology. Baltimore: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Skills for the 21st – Century. Baltimore: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Prensky, M. (2001a). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.

Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf

Sixth Grade Technology Survey Results

The students in my graduate studies class have been learning about digital natives and digital immigrants this week. A digital native is a person who grew up surrounded by technology. A digital immigrant is someone who did not have the advantage of a lifetime of technology immersion and is trying to catch up (Thornburg, 2008). I am a digital immigrant. I suspect that many of my students are digital natives. What do you think? Do digital natives and digital immigrants exist? How do these categories affect learning styles and preferences? Do digital natives have an advantage over digital immigrants?

I surveyed some of my students about technology - how they access and use technology at home and at school. The results were interesting, yet not surprising. Check out the podcast below to hear the responses from a few of my students.

21st Century Skills

Our current assignment is to spend some time exploring the website www.p21.org, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. We are to familiarize ourselves with their mission, the members of the partnership, and the various resources available on their site.

After spending a great deal of time perusing the site, my reaction is that it contains a great vision, but is weak on application. Their mission statement is, "To serve as a catalyst to position 21st century readiness at the center of US K12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders." (Partnership, 2011) This is a great goal, and the site lists many states that have joined the initiative. However, when it comes right down to usefulness, the site falls short.

The site did give me a greater understanding of the importance of business and community being involved in education. The work environment continues to change. This makes it important to have businesses involved in education. Students can then more easily keep pace with the changes. The website has an impressive list of strategic council members. Most of them are well-known businesses. It was not clear how they interacted with students or schools. It would be interesting to know the connection.

When I looked at the math resources page, I did not like the fact that the activities were not sorted by grade level. I spent a considerable amount of time weeding through the activities looking for appropriate level activities for my students. In addition, the activities were not very helpful. It reminded me of the distinction between doing things differently and doing different things that we discussed several weeks ago (Thornburg, 2008). If we are going to prepare our students for the future, we need to focus on doing different things.

The implications for my students are that the skills they need to survive are very different. This means that the role of the teacher must also change. "We have the capacity to use technology to transform educational practice in ways that were impossible twenty years ago." (Thornburg, 2004) So, as a teacher, I need to more clearly understand how to utilize websites such as the Partnership website to connect with businesses and the community around me to help my students thrive.

References:

http://www.p21.org/index.php

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). The Emergence of Educational Technology. Baltimore: Author.

Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf



 

Some Thoughts on Blogging

A great deal of thought has been directed toward blogs this week. Specifically, how does one use a blog in the classroom? The subject taught in the classroom is sixth-grade math, four blocks a day, every day. One idea would be to use the blog to showcase the students' work. "To our kids, making their lives come alive online is a part of the way they live." (Richardson, 2010, p. 5) Our school district is moving toward more project-based assessments. The blog would be a great place for displaying those projects.

At the same time, sharing ideas with other teachers at the middle school level is a valuable use of a blog. "...as educators, we must tap into the potentials that these tools give us for learning." (Richardson, 2010, p. 9) We all have different techniques and projects that have worked well with students. When we share ideas and projects with each other, we all win. The students are the biggest winners of all!

Using a blog would enhance math lessons in a couple of ways. First, students will be more conscientious and thorough if they know that their projects are on display for the world to see. They will be inspired to be more creative. They will push themselves to higher achievement. Second, when ideas are shared with other teachers, lessons will improve in content and creativity. We will be encouraged to push ourselves to higher levels of learning for our students. The blog provides the conduit to collaborate with teachers around the globe.

It is important to provide tools like blogs in the instructional context because technology is a necessary part of a student’s education.  We are preparing students for a future that will be very different from what we know today. When I was in the sixth grade, blogs, wikis, and podcasts did not exist. Can we even begin to imagine what technology will be like when our students are grown? If technology is separated from learning, we do our students a great disservice. "We have the capacity to use technology to transform educational practice in ways that were impossible twenty years ago." (Thornburg, 2004) We need to make sure that education keeps pace with technology so that our students are prepared for the future.

 Perhaps this blog should be named “The View from Room 1203.” When you visit, you will be able to see what is happening with my students. You will also find great ideas to use with your students. And together we can encourage the use of technology in our classrooms.

References

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

Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf

It All Starts Here

When I meet someone and they find out that I teach middle school math, often the first response is something along the lines of, "You must be crazy!" or "Bless you!" or "Better you than me," etc. You get the idea. People think that the combination of math and middle school students automatically means I have lost my mind. Some days, I think they might be right. I also think that "normal" is overrated!

It is my hope that this space will be used to explore best practices in teaching math at the middle school level, to vent to each other when math (or middle school) gets the best of us, and to give encouragement throughout the whole process.

This is my fourth year teaching 6th grade math. Before that, I was a special education teacher for ten years. I am working on a graduate degree in Technology in Education. In addition, I am Eric's wife; Eliot, Zach, Drew and Bekah's mom; Paula's mother-in-law, and teacher of 120 fabulous students.

Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to leave me a comment. Let me know how you feel about math, middle school students, or life in general.