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Forging Ahead

Since taking this class entitled “Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society” I have learned how to blog, create a wiki, and create a podcast. I would not have made time to learn these technologies without this class.

Reading the 21st century learner expectations and skills necessary for students to succeed in the future has challenged me. Students need to use higher-order thinking skills. Sometimes the students have insights into technology with which I am not familiar. This sharing of the knowledge is the key to learning and development for both the teacher and student.

I have become more conscious of being learner-centered in my classroom. I plan to give more collaborative projects. For the collaborative projects, the students will choose from a variety of technology topics to research, rather than the assigned topic. I will give the students opportunities to help each other during class time rather than having them quietly doing independent work.

I will continue to use and learn more about the wikis, blogs and podcast technologies and incorporate them into my classroom. With each different technology the students use I may interest some of them to do more research that is independent and incorporate that into their daily lives. Maybe some of those skills could translate into achievements outside the classroom in the community.

One long-term goal is for my students to collaborate in making a wiki. I would take the project that I currently assign as a presentation and brochure to make into a wiki. A second long-term goal would be to keep an interactive class webpage where students would post work and blog. An obstacle I would have to overcome is time because students lose instructional time for guidance referrals, office visits, and other issues because I am just a “related arts teacher” not an “academic” teacher. These projects would also require that I overcome the school district’s internet filter policies that block most wiki and blog sites. I plan to accomplish these goals by asking the technology department for permission to experiment with a student blog. I will also work with my school's instructional technologist to modify the district filter policy.

I hope to continue utilizing these blog, wiki and podcast technologies that I have learned and applied in this course and transfer this knowledge to my students so that they can use those skills in the future.

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