Reflections on Technology

I’ve always considered myself open to technology (“Work smarter, not harder” is something of a classroom motto), but there were elements of technology that I had successfully avoided due to lack of time or my own failure to recognize their potential in the classroom. This course has certainly changed that. I now have practical experience in creating blogs, wikis, and podcasts, as well as a clearer understanding of how these tools can be used to increase classroom engagement and help shift responsibility for learning from teacher to student.

As important as those practical skills are, I can’t neglect the importance of my increased awareness of the need for my students to master twenty-first century skills—and the power of Web 2.0 tools to help them succeed in that goal. While I can’t overstate the need for careful monitoring to ensure student safety, I now recognize that we must put more control in student hands. We shouldn’t block Wikipedia, for example, as an unreliable site; we should teach our students how to use this vast resource carefully and intelligently—not to mention teaching them how to add to this storehouse of information themselves, to become part of “the collaborative construction of knowledge and truth” (Richardson, 2009, p. 57) that the Read/Write Web allows.

The first step in continuing my own understanding of and comfort with new technologies lies in putting them to use on a consistent basis. I plan to focus initially on using the Web to broaden the audience for my students’ writing. Providing an authentic readership for their work will help students recognize the need to strive for a polished product. Receiving feedback from writers besides the teacher will provide additional encouragement to my young writers. Richardson notes the motivational power of blog responses, “especially when those comments come from sources outside of the classroom walls” (2009, p. 30). Expanding the audience will be a valuable means to increasing student achievement.

The next step is to continue my own studies in the field. In addition to the three upcoming technology classes in this degree program, I plan to take advantage of professional development offered by my district—and to recommend more technology-related offerings.

My first long-term goal is to make blogging a regular part of our writing experience. I will be teaching a new language arts course next year, so I plan to integrate blogs as a required form of publication from the beginning of the course. Requiring students to read and respond to each others’ blogs will help build a sense of the class as a supportive community. I hope that as our blog readership expands, students will recognize the potential of their words to reach an immense audience. While this may take some adjustment, I anticipate that students will welcome this forum and the move toward a paperless experience it represents.

The second long-term goal is the use of wikis for a variety of purposes. Our initial foray into wikis will be to build grammar resources that will be used by our class. Students will learn the nuts and bolts of wiki building in small groups; they will develop both technological skill and the ability to work collaboratively, two elements that are critical to twenty-first century literacy. As students comfort with wikis increases, they will use the wiki as a collaborative meeting space as they work on a variety of assignments.

Many teachers who have embraced the use of new technologies have commented that this has allowed them “to move from a didactic, teacher-driven world to a more inquiry- and project-based world” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2007) with their students. This is the direction is which we need to move. And if these technologies can bring “the element of fun to the learning experience, (Laureate Education, Inc., 2007), then so much the better.

References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). “Bringing the Fun into Teaching with Technology.” [Motion picture]. The Emergence of Educational Technology. Baltimore: Author.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The Great Podcast Experiment, Part II

Here's the same interview; the podcast is embedded this time. Always something new to learn!



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The Great Podcast Experiment

Here's the link to a discussion about technology use among four teenagers at my middle school and myself.

Week Five Application