Technology Reflection

Given my previous use of a web-based classroom management system, I was already quite familiar with many aspects of this course. In my teachings over the past few years, I have utilized this system to post information for my students to access. I had established and maintained a wiki in this environment for us to share information and collaborate to produce educational study materials. I also used this environment to post multiple choice quizzes for the students to complete. So I expected this course to reinforce the knowledge I gained from that experience and expose to a few new things. This course turned out to be much of what I expected in that the readings were of familiar content and I learned some new things, especially in the creation of my blog. My outcomes were very positive and actually rekindled my interest in utilizing these types of technology in my teaching.

The content and tools that exposed to the students in this course are very much the cutting of edge of technology available out there for use in teaching. Today’s students are all already quite savvy in their use, so introduction of them into the classroom should be very seamless in terms of student use. The challenge is to push today’s teachers to overcome any inhibition with technology and change the way they do things in their classrooms. It seems that education is undergoing what you might call a paradigm shift. This shift is away for a focus on facts and bits of information to concepts and connections between the facts. On top of all this, students will need skills on how to access information more than they need to know the information itselt. They need to know how to find information and apply it Technology has provided so many tools that are standards in the job world that to be prepared to enter it, a certain bank of prerequisite skills are necessary. This course exposes future leaders to these many tools so that they are aware of their availability and applicability in the classrooms of today.

I don’t feel that there was any one outcome that I had envisioned that I didn’t accomplish. I guess the course covered most of everything I was familiar with or at least had heard of. If was prevented from achieving something, it must have been due to the scope of the course. Given the time frame, I felt like the scope was very appropriate. There are some technology things that I currently use that were not discussed in the course, but it’s hard to cover everything out there in a reasonable amount of time. Beyond this limitation, the only other factor hindering me was possibly time. Given the scope of the course and trying to balance the rest of my life, I wasn’t able to go above and beyond what the course included. Don’t take this as dissatisfaction…it’s just reality. In the end, I’m leaving the course feeling more confident in promoting technology as a educational leader.

As I stated above, my only hindrance in this course was just the reality of having limited time. With my experiences in using technology and working somewhat closely with my campus’ technology facilitator, my background gave me a head start in completing assignments. The only things that was somewhat new to me was blogger.com. The posting of the PowerPoint was really the only difficult thing. I think the size of the file made the conversion process very slow. I gave up on AuthorSTREAM after waiting an hour and went slideshare.net which worked much faster. There wasn’t anything that discouraged me, but I might have been encouraged if the assignments could have included tasks involving the creation of something to implement the technology tools in the course in my current or future teaching capacity. The fact that I was going to get immediately implement something in my own teaching would have provided encouragement to complete the task. The assignments would have then served a dual purpose.

Not to be boastful, but the thing I learned the most was that I’m already quite adept in the educational technology tools available today. What I learn was that it’s how you use the technology is what really matters. It’s not enough to have a computer for each student so that each student can just type up a document or make a PowerPoint presentation. The true power in technology is when it allows the students to go beyond the resources available in the classroom, such as the teacher or the textbook. Technology provides so much more access to knowledge, so teaching needs to add a facet of instruction for students to learn to proper access and utilize this information. I also learned to be mindful of taking advantage of what the students already know, as well as the technology they are bringing into the classroom. Lastly, what’s sticks the most in my mind is how teaching is becoming more about collaborating and communicating with others, and technology provides a unique venue in which to teach these skills. So, as a future campus leader, I need to remain mindful of the application of technology in our schools and stay proggessive in its implementation.

As I stated above, a sound educational background for the 21st century learner must include skills related to collaboration and communication. Blogs provide a powerful media to facilitate the development of these skills. They can be used by students individually to share their ideas for others to give feedback, or they can provide a place for students to collectively create something in a group effort. These allow for an expansion of the classroom. Rather than doing things in class, the teacher can post a writing prompt or other information for students to post comments. They could provide a venue for online discussions to occur. If a teacher runs out of time at the end of class, a blog might be useful to continue the discussion that evening using a blog. In addition, they would also provide a means to communicate with students in terms of due dates and clarification on assignement instructions.

The key in using blogs for educational purposes is that they are used properly. A concern would be that they may become a social venue where the students are not using their properly. It will be important to train the students to only comment in the realm of the coursework involved. This may require more maturity in the students to handle this technology appropriately. Also, there is something to say about the power of a face-to-face conversation. Body language and voice inflection often support what is being said. But when the conversation is occurring online via a keyboard, some of the power of a message can be lost or misinterpreted. This aspect of cautions to using blogs will be crucial to the teaching about how to appropriately use the technology, in addition to teaching how to use it. But in the end, I think the advantages of using blogs in education greatly outweigh these types of problems. With proper training and accountability of use, blogs can provide a fun, technological twist on the normal class discussion.

I’ve mentioned above how blogs can be used to communicate with students, but their reach can be further. Blogs could not only provide information for the students, but also for their parents. Blogs might provide a place for teachers to let parents know what’s going on in class. They might allow parents to provide feedback by adding comments to posts. If we can get all stakeholders in the habit of checking in on a blog, or at least setting up an RSS to notify them of changes, this would greatly improve communication between the classroom and home. What might be even better is that blogs, being somewhat of a public domain if setup accordingly, can provide information to any member of the community. So, even community members without students, who can sometimes grow out of touch with the local schools, could access these educational blogs to keep abreast of what’s going on in education. This appears to me to be an excellent way to create informed voters for local school board elections.

So, as a future campus leader, I feel that this course has provided knowledge and skills that have effectively prepared me to promote the implementation of technology in education.