As this course comes to a close, I begin to reflect on what I have learned. I saw this quote and it made me think of technology and where we are headed in the classroom. In Charles Shultz's quote, Charlie Browns deck chair represents technology, and the cruise ship, education. Educators, parents and administrators must find a way to get their "deck chairs" open if they want to enjoy the cruise.
It seems that I had a misconception about Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. Prior to this, I viewed these 3 technologies mainly as social networking applications. After reading and watching the course resources I have gained a wealth of creative and useful ways to incorporate these into my everyday lessons. Even more so, I was able to bring together my colleagues through a school wide wiki to collaborate on relevant problems, ideas and challenges they face in the classroom. The collaborative environment that wikis facilitate can teach students much about how to work with others, how to create community, and how to operate in a world where the creation of knowledge and information is more and more becoming a group effort.” (Richardson, 2010) One of the more prominent gains I have made from resources presented in this class was my recent success in dealing with a group of students who were having trouble focusing in my class. I didn’t take into consideration that there may have been an environmental factor that was contributing to their lack of focus. “Environmental factors that may interfere with communication process include environmental conditions that cause the message to be distorted or even blocked.” (Duffy & McDonald, 2008) What I discovered was there was a computer monitor that was emitting an intermittent a high pitched noise that was only audible to my students. I soon learned that adults do not hear the same frequencies as children do. The pitch was so high, only the students in close proximity to the offending monitor could here it, thus, causing a major distraction to them.
Times are changing; educators are no longer the center of the classroom. Technology has adding a vast amount of resources to our students. Making the transformation from a teacher centered environment to a student centered classroom can be a daunting task for some. I have found it to be somewhat of an easy transition, since I work with technology every day. The one of the biggest obstacles I face in this transition is getting my students to “filter” the internet resources when doing research projects. Having these resources at their fingertips is a great advantage, provided that they know how to correctly use it. “Today’s learners will benefit from this powerful tool by enabling them to stay on the cutting edge of technology and collaborate across the globe in the business world. (Tappscott & Williams, 2007)
Through the promotion of new and emerging technologies and appropriate staff development tools I can lead the way to improving student success through technology and our district curriculum. Keeping staff aware and trained on all technologies will help them to become less hesitant to try new things in the classroom. In turn this will spark student motivation and interest, therefore improving student achievement.
My 2 long term objectives for my classroom would be to improve upon the quality of the technology that I receive and to have more of the classroom aides become more involved with technology. I plan to accomplish this by writing technology grants to acquire more funds to improve and to stay current with today’s fast paced technologies. I will conduct my own in house staff training session for classroom aides and offer assistance during my prep period in their classrooms.
When I started my masters program I thought that I was up to date on the most current tools of technology in the classroom. Through this course I have learned how to effectively incorporate Web 2.0 tools into my curriculum. I am now starting to use these tools to change the way I teach. “In a world where technology is continuously being upgraded it is necessary that teachers change with the technology and learn to use these changes not only to do the same things differently but to do different things as well.” (Thornburg, 2010) The next generation of students will be a different type of student when they enter the working world. “Technology will develop a new and different type of thinker” (Dede, 2010) I am now more confident that I will be able to lead my students into the 21st century with the skills necessary to be successful when they graduate.
References
Duffy, J, & McDonald, B. (2008). Theoretical foundations. Boston: Pearson Education Inc.
Dede, C. (2010). “Millennial Learning Styles.” [Video file]. Laureate Education. Unkown.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Tapscott, D., & Williams, A. (2007, March 26). The wiki workplace. Businessweek.com. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/ content/mar2007/id20070326_237620. htm
Thornburg, D. (2010). “The Emergence of Educational Technology.” [Video file]. Laureate Education. Unkown.
