As the course I am taking on Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society draws to a close, I am taking some time to reflect on what I have learned…

• In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills as a professional teacher?
  

The online course I am taking at Walden University has helped me to develop my own technology skills as a professional educator in several ways. One of the most important qualities of a successful educator is keeping abreast with the most recent technology trends and issues in education. Many of the articles, books, websites, and blogs I had the pleasure to view made me realize the issues facing education and teachers today across the country. I have never used an RSS feed or aggregator before. This technology really keeps the average busy teacher up to date with their favorite blogs or websites. It can take a great deal away from planning and teaching when you are surfing the net for the latest educational issues and news. Having an aggregator helped me to be able to keep tabs on issues that interested me.

As a requirement of the course I also had to make this blog and post comments on my team of classmates’ blog posts that interested me. I have viewed many blogs in the past but never made my own or really posted too frequently on other blogs. Making this blog helped me to reflect on current issues involving technology and education and how it directly related to me.
In what ways have you deepened your knowledge of the teaching and learning process?
I have deepened my knowledge of the teaching and learning process tremendously as it relates to technology integration. The technological changes occurring in society today are shaping the way we work and learn. Technology is really forcing educators to take a good, hard look at what and how we are teaching. I am amazed at how different the work world is becoming in comparison to most elementary schools. It seems the educational world, especially at the elementary level, is a bit behind. While most school meetings are still conducted in conference rooms, the “outside world” is utilizing global video conferencing, wikis, telepresences, and virtual worlds. Yes, the educational world has always been different than the outside world because we are dealing with children. Yet, the reasons why we must adapt and add these new technologies or brave, new world of learning to our educational systems are beginning to narrow the gap between the business world and school.

To become well informed of technological advancements as a teacher is quite difficult because technology is always advancing. However, as technology evolves it also becomes more “user friendly.” Blogs, wikis, and websites are becoming easier to create and update. With this, our students gain confidence with the simplicity of these technologies and therefore use it more often than not. It is imperative that we develop in them (students) a kind of network literacy to guide them in this process (Richardson, 2009). The technological interest and confidence of our students pushes us much like Toffler’s waves of society into a new era of teaching. It has always been the goal of educational system’s to properly prepare students to become capable members of society who effectively contribute to the working environment as lifelong learners. Technological innovation and advancements in our society have altered the working and social environment to include technology. Therefore, it would only be second nature for our educational curriculum to change and evolve to a curriculum of integrative technology to properly prepare students for the future.

As educators, we must tap into the potentials that these tools give us for learning (Richardson, 2009). Technology will affect our teaching practices by imploring us to venture to the technological advancements that appeal to us personally. Teachers will begin to gain comfort with the newest of technologies by honing in on what interests them or what they or passionate about as learners. This practice of becoming a bit selfish with what technological opportunities are utilized in the classroom is a step in the right direction and a great way to open the doors to this new wave in education.

• In what ways have you changed your perspective from being teacher-centered to learner-centered?

From this course I have been able to reflect on my own teaching and realize that I am doing a great deal of showing my students how to do things and my teaching is quite teacher-centered. My perspective has changed now and I see the value and relevance of having students work collaboratively on authentic learning tasks that involve the student making more choices and actually publishing their work with the most innovative of technology.

Technology and the use of learning objects can be used to transform learning. It involves moving away from whole-class instruction and mastering basic skills, and toward focusing on authentic instruction and assessment (Cramer, 2007). I plan to model lessons to teachers where the teachers and I serve as facilitators, guiding the students through authentic learning tasks. This will especially be useful for teachers who shudder at the thought of re-teaching a specific concept shown to be an area of weakness from data, yet it still serves the purpose of data driven instruction. Developing media with the intent of publishing it to peers as an audience makes the learning opportunity all the more powerful, motivating, and successful for students. If we want to remain relevant in the lives of the students, then we must use strategies and materials-such as global networking-that fit the learning styles of the digital natives. Classrooms in the 21st century need to be collaborative spaces where student-centered knowledge development and risk taking are accepted as the norm and where an ecology of learning develops and thrives (Naussman-Beach, 2008).

• In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement?

Long after this course has concluded, I still intend to utilize the blog I have made and aggregator I have set up. I find that these two components from this course help me to be more reflective with my effectiveness as a teacher and also keep me informed with how students learn best. I appreciate the networking that occurs with blogs and I feel it is extremely valuable to communicate with other teachers and professionals around the world.
Set two long-tem goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment by which you may have to overcome institutional or systemic obstacles in order to achieve them. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?

Upon reading the many resources from this course, I am astounded at the facts I read and how apparent it is for our curriculum to change to integrate current technology. The reasons why make perfect sense, yet I wonder how we could communicate this to the elementary schools in the county as well as the community I teach in. It may prove beneficial to spend some time sharing the facts I have learned with the schools I service. I will begin by adding what I have learned to the monthly newsletters I publish, sharing insight at faculty meetings, and create discussion on my blog. I will take it a step further by reaching out to the communities of the schools by sharing the facts with parents and the community by presenting to PTA and County assemblies. The most important fact I want to convey is that although digital natives may be tech savvy, they don’t use a lot of the information, or at least they don’t know how to think critically about the information they use. They need guidance on how to find the best information most efficiently (Miners & Pascopella, 2007).

As an Instructional Leader of Technology, the challenges I face are not necessarily with the students but with the teachers who are technically my students. I have been integrating the use of remote response devices for teachers in the classroom for the past two years and have found we are at the stage of the game where teachers should begin to utilize the equipment on their own without me asking them to. Yet, this is not happening. When I ask teachers why they are not utilizing the system, they mention that they just don’t have time to create relevant interactive powerpoints that they can use with the remote response devices. It is true they don’t have the time. However, this form of technology enhances assessment as teachers are able to get data on each student right away without the traditional paper/pencil assessments. It also enhances the normal powerpoint lesson as the show comes alive with clips, images, and questions to monitor student achievement. Initially, I was hoping that a blend of modeling the technology in every classroom and offering incentives such as jumpdrives and printers would entice teachers to utilize the devices. I even hoped that the sheer excitement and enjoyment to learn that the students expressed when remote response devices were used would motivate teachers to utilize the devices. Yet, I am still not seeing the progress with this device as I had hoped and it all goes back to teachers not having the time. So, I’ve decided to shift my technique drastically. Why not create the time for teachers to utilize the devices we offer in the county? Perhaps, it would be better to now to take the next step of offering work sessions for teachers to make and take their own interactive powerpoints that utilize remote response devices. Why not take the time to have each teacher bring a concept of study from the curriculum framework for each subject of the grade they teach? Before teachers ever come to the work session, let the teachers decide who will work on what subject and what content each subject will include. That way, in preparation for the work session, teachers will collect all the information they want to include in their show. At the work session, I will be there to facilitate the integration of technology by assisting teachers with embedding video clips, inserting images, and more importantly, mastering how to create interactive slides that utilize the remote response devices. Every teacher can bring a jumpdrive that they can load up with all of multi-media lessons that are created in the work session therefore walking away from the session with a way to assess and integrate technology in every subject for their grade. In addition, I will add these multi-media presentations made in the work sessions to our school’s website of teacher-made interactive resources.

As described in A Report and Mile Guide for 21st Century Skills, schools, like businesses, communities, and families must adapt to changing conditions to thrive. To continue professional growth with technology, I would like to begin assisting teachers, as well as Instructional Specialists, with getting to know and use blogs, wikis, and podcasts. I will lead by example with the creation and upkeep of my own blog, wiki, and podcasts available to the teachers and administration. I have already added this concept to the online class I am currently conducting. By the end of the online course, each teacher will have created a blog or wiki, a class website, and two podcasts. Their incentive for completing this coursework is college credits or recertification points. In addition, teachers get to utilize all of these tools in their classrooms as they will be required to create products that are relevant to the grade level and content they teach.

Another step I would like to add to professional development, is to try to encourage principals, and curriculum leaders to learn how to utilize podcasts, wikis, and blogs and publish them as well. I believe if I start out educating the leaders of the schools on 21st century skills, it will give teachers the motivation to begin learning and wanting to use these tools as well. I would like to make blogs, wikis, and podcasts a way for teachers to gain professional development ,as well as collaborate with other educators in the district and world. Once teachers begin utilizing these resources, I believe they will realize the need for students to master proper use of these available tools as well. We must work to restructure the state’s education system to integrate 21st century learning and implement online professional development tools (Miners & Pascopella, 2007).

One new technology I would like to implement in the classroom is the use of student-made wikis. I would like to begin modeling the use of utilizing wikis and podcasts with two 5th grade classes in the district I teach in. I want to initiate online collaboration through skype and wikis between two 5th grade classrooms from schools on opposite ends of the county I teach within. Students will work collaboratively to research and find information on concepts and standards of learning that interest them from a list compiled by their teacher and myself which has been shown to be areas of weakness on recent benchmark assessment data. Students will choose an area of interest and pose the question, “How can I make learning about this concept more exciting and fun for students?” Students will use the internet and online collaboration to create an informational wiki that includes relevant learning objects such as pictures, video clips, and their own podcast on assigned areas of interest.

Creation of these products I have mentioned will not only benefit the students publishing them. It will also serve to benefit 5th grade students in other schools in their district or perhaps state-wide. We want our students to learn to manage their own networks, and begin to understand the power of connectivity (Naussman-Beach, 2008). The teachers and I will serve as facilitators, guiding the students through this authentic learning task.

Cramer, S. R. (2007). Update Your Classroom with Learning Objects and Twenty-First-Century Skills. The Clearing House , 126-132.

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.Used by permission.

Naussman-Beach, S. (2008, August 22). No Limits. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from Technology and Learning: http:www.techlearning.com/article/8466

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.