Self –Assessment
- Critically reflect upon the knowledge you gained from the reading. (3 Points)
Interesting statistics from 2005 in this reading: 85 percent of teachers use technology for administrative tasks, but less than 50 percent ever use technology to support instruction. (Williamson, 2009). This paragraph goes on to state that only slightly more than half of teachers said technology has significantly changed the way they teach. This TF standard comes down to one common theme: teaching teachers how and when to integrate technology into their lessons. It is easy for a technology facilitator or leader to tell a teacher to use technology more in lessons, but it is another thing to actually help that teacher know when are appropriate times to use technology.
- Critically reflect upon the relationship between any new information you gained from the reading with old information you previously held to be true. (2 Points)
A lot of older education administrators seem to think of technology as a thing, like textbooks and calculators are a thing. "Get in there and use the technology we've purchased and make the students use it." Many of you may have heard a similar quote before from your administration.
The definition of technology is: 1 a : the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area : engineering 2
Nowhere in any of these three definitions does it say technology = computer. The closest is the example for #2, but even then that definition is "a manner of accomplishing a task"
Technology is a tool just like the old fashioned gradebook, the slide ruler, or a chalkboard, but teachers have no problem integrating those tools into their curriculum. By simply giving students a learning task as part of a well-planned lesson, the students will take care of implementing the technology for the teacher.
Fortunately many teachers are beginning to find ways to implement various technological tools into curriculum. It is the ones who are not that are simply remembering the lessons from their youth and re-packaging them in their own classes that are not taking advantage of technology. It isn't that those teachers don't have the tech available, it is that they are too lazy to re-write curriculum for particular subject areas that has been available for decades.
- How did the relationship between the old and new information you learned affect your personal experience with implementing the Standard and Indicators in your field-based internship activities? (2 Points)
Learn as a Learner
- Critically reflect upon your approach and strategies used in implementing the Standard and Indicators in your field-based internship activities.(3 Points)
As the reading points out, teachers may be doing fine using technology in their classrooms for clerical items, however as of 2005, less than 50 percent used technology to support instruction. (2009)
"It has been said that the person doing the work is the person who learns." (Learning, 1999) Any time I have to teach a class or make a presentation, I always find how easy it is to wrap my head around a subject after having researched it, written out discussion points, and actually talked through the presentation. Conversely, when I'm the recipient of information, unless it is really an engaging subject, I usually get tired-head about five minutes into the presentation and completely zone out.
By doing the research and trying to prepare for possible questions the audience may pose, as a learner I really feel that I get more out of a subject when I am the one preparing to teach it. Whether or not I ever present my findings matters less than the learning that took place to prepare for presentation.
For example, the other day I visited one of our school district classrooms and presented a brief class about automating actions in Photoshop. I am by no means an expert on Photoshop and I usually have a really hard time remembering all the necessary steps. But the time I had created a handout and had practiced my presentation, I really had a strong grasp on that particular function. The same is true to learning any subject in our classrooms...if you give the students a subject, plus give them some boundaries in order to stay on task, you will be amazed at the depth and variety of learning that takes place.
- Critically reflect upon how you learn as a learner and how you assess your own performance in implementing the Standard and Indicators in your field-based internship activities. (2 Points)
As stated above, I am not a classroom teacher. However in my field-based internship activities, I try to teach as I would like to be taught. I want my instructor to give me the benefit of the doubt that I can understand the basic concepts and am able to keep pace with the instructor in what they are trying to teach. When making a presentation, I try not to bore my audience with mundane minutae, but instead push forward and encourage audience members with questions to ask them on the spot, or contact me separately to get the answer.
In one of the videos we watched in EDLD 5364, a teacher said "In the beginning, what we tried to do was motivate. And then if all things come together as they should, pretty soon we're just trying to get out of the way." (Edutopoia, n.d.) This quote supports everything we've learned in most of our classes. Teachers should take on more of a facilitator role, and leave the learning to the students. When they are ready to take the reins, let them go. This kind of harkens back to last week in the quote "if I teach this way, am I doing my job". My answer is that as long as a teacher has explained the parameters of the assignment, the class has developed a standard of ettiquite as well as standard of performance, then a teacher should just supervise to ensure standards are met and prescribe additional practice as necessary.
I really like that this video used Luis as an example. I met a student in my own district who's life is changed because of technology. He isn't in a supportive family like Luis, instead our student lives with different friends because, if memory serves me correctly, his parents are separated and both work outside our district. Like Luis, our student's interest in technology has motivated him to succeed in all classes, and in projects outside of the standard curriculum.
I hope that in the near future we experience a paradigm shift as evidenced by these Edutopia videos, and that all education stakeholders: students, parents, administrators, teachers and pre-service teacher-educators begin clamoring for student-directed curriculum development.
- How did your learning and interaction with colleagues (such as discussion forum, web conferences, wiki and blog participation, etc.) affect the results of your performance with respect to implementing the Standard and Indicators in your field-based internship activities?(2 Points)
The disucssion boards in our weekly lessons brought to light a lot of the positives of working in a district like Irving ISD, and made me thankful to not be a teacher in others. In one of my classmate's districts, teachers at her school feel they have to "fly under the radar" in order to get student access to the technology that properly engages their interests, but I am glad that her building principal has taken the responsibility for ensuring students learn what they need to learn in a way that gives them the most benefit. The video I referenced above about Luis isn't contrived for Edutopia, because I've seen the same thing happen in my district and have been personally introduced to an amazing young man who is Irving's "Luis".
I'm looking forward to the time that teachers -- and maybe even more-so referring to district administrators -- are secure enough in their training as learning facilitators to give the students the tools they need, get out of the way, and watch how much learning will take place.
Lifelong Learning Skills
- Critically reflect upon what you gained about learning and how you learn that will impact your future learning regarding the implementation of the Standard and Indicators. (3 Points)
Standard II is all about planning and designing relevant and engaging learning for students. I am reminded of the reading from Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools, pp. 168-176, where the authors talk about the practical application of what students have learned in a wide variety of media, then assessing students knowledge by employing ongoing, formative evaluations. Ultimately students can know a lot of stuff, but if they use that stuff, then they really haven't learned anything. The effect of this will be that societal contributors educated in this form of schooling won't support an economically prosperous economy. The future trends in educational technology will hopefully offset this traditional factory approach to schooling and pave the way for more practical application of knowledge learned.
- How will your past interactions and collaborations with colleagues impact your future learning experiences with regard to the implementation of the Standard and Indicators?(2 Points)
Page points out that computers and other classroom technologies...have become a mainstay in education. Despite the low amount of credible data to support full-scale integration, technologies have entered the educational scene in ever-increasing numbers. More research is needed to examine the effects technology has on the educational achievement of students worldwide, and more attention should be focused on whether technology contributes to the personal worth each student assigns to himself or herself during the technology-assisted process. (Page, 2002)
I met Gary Stager in November 2009 and I had the opportunity to hear a presentation from Gary Stager (http://stager.org/). In his electrically-charged speech, one specific topic caught on with me. He said -- to paraphrase -- computers have been in our schools more almost thirty years now. How can we still be announcing technology pilot programs, and testing the effect computers have on our students? The computers have been there for so long that there is no excuse for not using them to their full educational potential and knowing exactly how that use effects our students' achievement.
- As a lifelong learner, what questions or issues challenge you and are worthy of future research or investigation with regard to the implementation of the Standard and Indicators? (2 Points)
TF II includes a lot of language about how students will aquire technical skills when the teachers aren't qualified or confident in their own technical skill-teaching ability. (2009) Teachers uncertainty of how to embed technical training into instruction could hinder student use of technology. More research is definitely warranted in learning how to impart to teachers that they don't have to be an expert, just that they have to know when appropriate times are to integrate technology.
In the same conference where I met Stager, I had the opportunity to meet Marco Torres (homepage.mac.com/torres21). I asked him how, when he was having his students develop their own class projects, did they develop the evaluation instrument that would determine their grade. He simply said "we did it together."
Torres went on to talk about systems he put in place for his students to help teachers at the school keep their technology up and running, and how he taught his students to create films in class. I have no doubt that with the engaging nature of his curriculum, coupled with Torres' charismatic personality, that he in fact attained complete compliance from his students. And I'm confident that he attained this compliance not from being a overbearing taskmaster, but by being himself and putting himself in the shoes of his students. Therefore Torres attained an environment that supported student initiative.
Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education
Learning as a Personal Event: A Brief Introduction to ConstructivismSouthwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved on October 4, 2009 from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html
Page, M. S. (2002). Technology-enriched classrooms: Effects on students of low socioeconomic status. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(4), 389–409. Retrieved October 5, 2009 from the International Society of Education at http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Number_4_Summer_20021&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&ContentFileID=830
Edutopia.org (nd). Digital Youth Portrait -- Luis. Retrieved on Oct. 5, 2009 from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-profile-luis-video
Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2007) web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.
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Thanks for giving good points...
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