Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching 21st Century Skills

I recently visited http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ . I found a lot of resources regarding what skills students should be taught in order to succeed in the 21st century. There were also several states listed that have initiatives to implement policies and standards that will ensure students are presented with opportunities to learn these skills. I liked the recent news events of businesses partnering with schools to help further the students' education, but I was disappointed that there were not more states or businesses listed. I was also looking for suggestions as to how to implement teaching these skills in my class, and did not find them. Did anyone else find good ideas here?
3 comments
Read more

Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology-Week 8 Reflection

I have enjoyed this class. I appreciate the practicality of the classes at Walden. I can use the material in my classes right away, if I choose. In this class, I was part of a NING, which allowed collaboration and sharing of resources. I appreciated my classmates input, and will continue to use those resources. I learned more of the teacher's responsibility in the classroom. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI) are more than just "buzz words." In this class, I learned that they are a way of thinking about the material that I present, and how the students learn that material, and even how the students demonstrate their learning of the material I have presented. UDL allows all students access to the curriculum, standards, and objectives through a variety of materials and methods. DI challenges the teacher to learn her students and present the material in a way that he/she finds interesting and learns best. UDL and DI are not difficult...
Post a Comment
Read more

Carrying out my GAME Plan

To carry out my GAME Plan, I will need to subscribe to several digital resources such as: http://teacherspodcast.org/ http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ http://www.techlearning.com/   http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/ Reading and listening to these resources will keep me current on technology trends in education. Then, I can find ways to include or exclude those technological trends in my curriculum. I can consult with the Instructional Technology Specialist at my school to gain suggestions or fine-tune activities. I can get ideas from other students in my Walden class. I may need additional information, but the Walden Library, as well as Google, can provide more resources, if I need them. In carrying out my GAME Plan, I subscribed and listened to The Teacher's Podcast. I also subscribed to Cool Cat Teacher's Blog. I plan to spend a few minutes (10-15) every week to keep up with new ideas in the educational uses of technology. I have spent some time reading educ...
2 comments
Read more