Approaching a New Year

Since my earliest blog entry, I have tried to maintain a balanced perspective regarding educational technology. Even though many of my posts generally address the potential benefits from the use of technology in teaching and how the use of technology as a learning tool opens up multitudinous opportunities for students, I would like to think that I have always remained aware of the problems and concerns associated with the integration of technology into the classroom. As I continue to read more books and articles about educational technology and even more blog posts from tech gurus, I think I will need to begin investing more time in searching for articles that address the pitfalls. A little more than a month ago a fellow blogger and I were having a conversation on David Warlick’s blog reply board, and he had said that when teachers become overly infatuated with any instructional strategy or educational technology tool, they quickly lose a facet essential to the creation and sustaining of effective teaching, healthy criticism. The ability to step back and evaluate teaching practices and tools is important to remember as many of us “digital immigrants” become attracted to the glitz and glamour of Web 2.0.

Asking questions would help professional educators to remain engaged in conversations regarding the usability and functionality of new tools as technological advancements arrive to our computer screens, but what questions should we be asking ourselves as we consider the place of technology in our teaching? Foremost, I believe teachers should continue to think about learning objectives and unit plans before thinking about which new Web 2.0 tool they want to incorporate in next week’s lesson plan. Technology should not be a teacher’s solution to every problem; in fact, teachers should always ask themselves if there is a better way of conveying a particular concept or teaching a certain skill. Technology will not always be the most efficient method of instruction. Additionally, before teachers and IT departments begin writing grants for the next wave of digital projectors or audio recording devices, they should reexamine the tools they already have and see whether there exist other ways to utilize them. Last week, a man discovered how to use a Nintendo Wii remote to create a device similar to that of a SmartBoard.

Wii Remote as Interactive Whiteboard

I wonder if the technology sitting in our schools right now have multiple functions that we are unaware of. Continuing this thread of multi-functionality, teachers should ask what cross-curricular or multi-literacy skills are being enhanced by using technology in the classroom. Technology certainly develops literacy—after all, Web 2.0 is a read/write interface, but how do teachers trace the progress associated with technology? If teachers want to use technology, then I hope they research the tool and get involved with discussions about it.

The list of questions and concerns surrounding educational technology will inevitably grow as more technologically-advanced generations of students move through the educational system and demand technology in the classroom. I will forever urge my colleagues to remain involved in the unfolding of technology, especially as it relates to education. Am I asking everyone to create avatars in Second Life? No. Do I want all of my colleagues to join me in writing a MAC twittory? No. All I ask is that we continue to ask questions about what is happening in the world of technology and what are the implications for education.

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Image Citation:

2Dizzylizzie. (2007, October 4). Trapped in technology. 2Dizzylizzie's Photostream. Retrieved December 31, 2007 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/14257925@N08/1484722820/

Final Blog Reflection - Week of December 17th

Teaching with Technology has simply been an amazing experience. The readings, discussions, and projects have all contributed to an insatiable thirst for learning about technology. While I am in the program, I hope to treat my classroom as a safe environment in which to integrate some of the tools I have learned about and researched on my own. While there is still much to learn from my side, I am comfortable with using technology in the classroom as a novice and enabling students to become teachers for their peers and myself.

Although my blog began because of a graduate class, it will not end because the semester has come to a close. At the very least, I think our blogs can serve as regular modes of communication for my colleagues and me as we enter the classrooms full-time in less than a month. Let’s face it, our lives are going to remain busy – just a different kind of busy in comparison to last semester, and I know a lot of us would like to remain aware of each other’s developments.

Keep hope alive! Continue to post!

Blog Reflection - Week of December 3rd

I’ve recently found a new interest. Although it does include reading, it is a step away from biographies and fictional narratives. After mulling over which Web 2.0 tool to integrate into my class this spring for weeks, I have finally settled on one: blogs. Classroom blogging seems to be the most user-friendly Web 2.0 tool, and once I teach my students the basics, I can begin to show them how to use some of the other Web 2.0 tools that can utilize blogs, for example, podcasts, RSS feeders, etc.

Blogs are certainly a learning tool that offers students ways of expressing themselves in public, yet potentially private, spaces, and I think students will really enjoy the publishing aspect of the tool. By having students post their work in a public domain, they are enabling more of their peers to read the writings. As I begin to think about how to best incorporate this tool in the English classroom, I imagine I will have students post smaller assignments as opposed to five paragraph essays. In addition, students will be required to read the posts of their peers and make constructive comments. While I do not foresee this exchange becoming an editing workshop, I believe feedback at any level is better than no feedback. Finally, using a strong RSS reader, like Google Reader, I will be able to track the work of and interaction between my students.

Professional edublogger Will Richardson seems to suggest classroom blogs can help prepare students with the appropriate literacies to enter the job markets of the future. I believe classroom blogging has the potential to engage students on multiple levels. For the low-achieving students, they may only wish to add text or, perhaps, the freedom to add pictures and video will spark interests and enable them to excel. For the high-achieving students, the potential of blogs as far as layout, add-ons, and input feeds are seemingly limitless. Blogs can be as simple or intricate as the author wants.

For further readings about the capabilities of blogs in educational settings, I would recommend the books of Will Richardson, Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms, and David Warlick, Classroom blogging. I am currently reading both, and I find each of them incredible helpful as I begin to frame how I see blogs operating in my classroom. I would also recommend subscribing to their blogs.

Before I leave today, I want to dispel a common misconception about using the Web as an educational tool and how it relates to blogs. Parents are often worried about whether their children are in danger when they use the Internet because most parents associate the Internet with online predators, but Blogger has security settings in order prevent this type of abuse; in fact, you can set up one classroom blog with multiple authors and treat the blog more like a wiki in order to have less data to manage. Also, sometimes educators worry about anonymous peer-to-peer bullying, but Blogger has additional proactive steps to prevent this as well in the settings.

The only thing I can ask of my colleagues is to give classroom blogging a chance – experiment with it.

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Image Citation:

Helmond, A. (2007). Google and Blogger, please stop localizing me! Retrieved December 6, 2007 from http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/wp02/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/blogger01.png

Trimester Scheduling made in iMovie