As a student at Walden University studying Integrating Technology in the classroom I have been introduced to information that before I would have ignored. Integrating Techgnology in the classroom has opened my eyes to a lot more that technology has to offer. Before, I was just using power points and jeopardy games in the classroom. I thought wikis, and face book was just a waste of time, so I did not even try to understand the implications of these pages in the lives of my students.This course literally turned the light bulb on in my mind.
The reflective and read/write aspect of this course has brought new insight into the use of technology in the classroom, although I use other aspects of technology, I have never thought of using wikis, skype ( to keep students who were absent form school updated), photos on projects and or comics as suggested by Jim Moulton in his blog on Edutopia. The article written by Susan Cramer was encouraging, as the information presented increased my confidence in my lesson plans as I realized that I was incorporating aspects of 21st century learning in the classroom. Despite this revelation, I see the need to guide my students into being more collaborative and highly productive which can be gained by the use of weblogs, other web 2.0 tools and wikis.
I have always been learner centered in my mind, but I was probably not communicating that effectively in my lesson plans. The courses completed in differentiated learning and integrating technology in the classroom, has provided more interesting and innovative ways like wikis, weblogs, SCRATCH and other web 2.0 tools that would be effective in stimulating learning in my students. By collaborating with students to explore and find new and interesting ways to to incorporate technological tools in the lesson plan to solve problems in the real world we are preparing our students for the 21st century work world. It is imperative that we provide learning experiences that stimulate our technology rich babies, or they will see school as dull and devoid of any real life experiences (Richardson, 2009).
Dr. Thornburg in Society and Technology advocates that our students need to experience anytime, anywhere learning. Without incorporating group research and the publishing of their research our students will not learn this concept. Incorporating mind tools as Kirschner suggests and short but relevant illustrations and video clips as suggested by Cramer are wonderful, interactive ways to include technology in the classroom. Technology opens doors to areas that students have fun doing and as such will encourage learning, as noted by Hall Davidson and Dr Thornburg in Bringing fun into teaching. New technology and new ways to work with students, will help the students to feel like a unique community ( Streaming Media, 2008).
It is important to continue to expand ones knowledge of learning, teaching and leading out with technology by being more collaborative with teachers within the school and globally via the web. In becoming more involved with educators blog sites teachers are able to interact and recieve additional knowledge from them.
Having said all of this what are my longterm goals? My goals are to find more creative ways to implement wikis and weblogs into my Algebra 1 and Geometry classes. This presents a challenge for me as it is not as easy to see how it can be done in Math as in Biology. Another goal for me is to help other teachers in my department and eventually the school, become more aware of the importance and the impact technology can have in fostering learning in our students. In order to accomplish these goals I need to have the administration working with me to reduce the filters, and achieve the 21st century learning skills necessary for students to succeed. It is my intention to keep pushing for more collaborating and inclusion of 21st century skills, despite the obstacles, how about you? Will you join me in the fight to raise awareness of technology in our schools so that our students can gain the competitive edge they need in this new and growing technological society?
References
Kirschner, P., & Erkens, G. (2006). Cognitive tools nd mindtools for collaborative learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 35(2), 199-209.
Cramer, S. (2007). Update your classroom with learningobjects and twenty-first century skills. Clearning House, 80(3), 126-132.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand oaks, CA; Corwin Press
Laureate Education Inc., (2007). Technology and society (DVD). Baltimore
Common craft show(n-d). Social media in plain english. Retrieved Nov 7, 2008 from http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia
Laureate Education Inc. (Producer). (2007). Bringing fun into teaching with technology. (DVD) Baltimore. Dr. David Thornburg and Hall Davidson.
