Reflection

“The Read/Write Web holds transformational changes in store for teachers and students of all stripes. But, as is often the case, education has been slow to adapt to these new tools and potentials” (Richardson, 2009, p.3). My philosophy as to what is most important for my students and how I can ensure they process the information has changed dramatically since embarking on the journey throughout this course. During each week’s resources and readings, I was able to obtain further evidence that a big change is about to occur in the education field. I have come to realize that many districts are failing to enrich their students with the skills they will need to use in the 21st century business world. Educators need to move away from the lector approach of teaching in which they control the amount of knowledge that will be access and processed in a lesson to a more shared learning environment allowing the teacher and students to explore the information together. It is known that students learn best when they are working with information that they deem relevant to their lives in some way. By allowing students the ability to use the technology that is easily accessible to the public as tools to use in the learning process, students will be more likely to retain the information as well as gain knowledge of the skills that are needed in their futures. Students are using these tools already in their personal lives; why not expose them to the educational area of these tools. Although the educational system is slow to make the changes in their districts, I believe in the next several years educators will be changing their roles as “the knower of all information” to directional leaders guiding their students through the avenues of information and enabling them to discover in their own ways. Their approaches will no longer be centered around the teacher but on the learner.

I have begun to change my approach in teaching to be more focused on the learners as a result of discovering that my students are not being exposed to the 21st century skills essential to their futures. In reading class, we will be reading two books that deal with autism and how it affects a family. To explore this topic of autism in a more “learner centered” approach, I will be taking my students down to the computer lab to research autism. After exploring the topics on autism, students will present their information to the class. This will be a day of exploring, researching, sharing, and teaching. Students will be able to process more about this topic by exploring websites and sharing their findings with the class than if I was to give them a note sheet that answers questions about autism. They will be able to see different sides of the issues on autism and observe how it affects not only the individual but also the family. I am not an expert on autism, so I look forward to learning a few new things from my students during this lesson. Through this process of discovery, my students will be able to recognize many things about this condition and as they read their novel they will have a better perspective of the characters. The way in which learning takes place in my classroom will not change completely over night, but I will begin to make the switch over to a “learner-centered” classroom one unit at a time after agreeing with the need for these critical changes.

“Studies show that by their senior year, barely one-fourth of today's students agree that school is meaningful or their courses are interesting—and less than half believe what they learn in school will have any bearing on their success in life. However, evidence also shows that by engaging students through participatory media, we can turn these statistics around” (Nussbaum-Beach, 2008, p.1). It is so important that students understand why they are learning the curriculum and how it will be beneficial to their futures. This course has provided me with the opportunity to explore different media tools that I can incorporate into my lessons to not only deepen my ability to work with these different tools but also to peek the interests of learning for those who are bored in school. Technology tools such as podcasts and Wikis I had merely heard of but never explored or thought to incorporate into the classroom. Now, I have become more comfortable with these tools and seen the potential they have in the learning process. These tools can help teachers expose their students to 21st century skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, and team-work. By participating in making a group Wiki, I have explored the problems that may occur in the process, worked closely with others, and shared ideas. Individuals in the business world work with people in other states or countries on projects all the time, so by exposing my students to this realm of learning they are able to learn 21st century skills and understand the importance of what they are learning. As a result of working with additional technology more students will find learning meaningful and interesting.
I have set two long-term goals for myself that will help change my classroom environment to a 21st century classroom. Currently my school district has a strict surf control on student and teacher computers. When creating my podcast for this course, I had a very difficult time being able to access Audacity; luckily, my principal allowed me to use her computer to complete my assignment with the students. In order to meet my first goal of exposing students to podcasts and Wikis, I will have to petition my administration to unblock certain sites for the educational purpose I have in mind. I will not be able to take strides in transforming my classroom into a 21st century learning environment if I cannot have access to the technology needed to fulfill my goals. I plan on presenting my purpose for using the technology and the list of skills and outcomes students will obtain from using the technology. It is my hope with the state’s core curriculum content standards changing that the administration, too, will change with the times and allow my students access to the latest technology resources.

My second long-term goal is to change over from paper portfolios in writing class to online portfolios using student blogs to house the various writing artifacts that we create throughout the year. I do not plan on having students just post their best work rather a collection. This collection of work will consist of a writing piece every two weeks in order to chart the improvements they have been making throughout the school year. The class will reflect on their own writing as well as post on others’ blogs about what they liked in their writing pieces. For conducting peer-edits that we do in class after each writing unit, students will post comments for improvement on their partner’s blog. Through this process, students will obtain a greater desire to do well since others will be able to see their writing. Students will also be able to continue adding to their blog after the year is over if they wish. My obstacle that will have to be overcome in order to put the blogs into motion is to get permission from my principal and also to try and convince other teachers in the language arts department to switch over to e-portfolios. There are some teachers that may be hesitant in doing this since they have had the manila portfolios for years and years, but I believe if I show them how easy it is to create a blog and coach them through creating one, they may be more willing to do so with their classes. “”When you celebrate good work, or use students’ unique ideas to drive further discussion, it goes a long way to creating a community of learners” (Richardson, 2009, p.47). I believe by creating blogs it will expose students to more writing and help them learn from one another how to improve and value their writing techniques. If the other teachers jump on board with this goal I have for next year, the community of learners in my school district with be vast.

In order to continue increasing my knowledge of how to teach with technology, I will continue to take courses at Walden as well as continue to read education articles about this topic. It is my job, as an educator, to expose my students to the curriculum that I value to be essential to them in future grade levels as well as to set up a foundation of skills for their future careers. I want my students to succeed and have the 21st century skills that they need. By keeping myself up-to-date on the lasts forms of technology accessible in the classroom as well as ways to implement it, I am doing my job as their teacher in preparing them for the future and guiding them in the learning process.

Resource:
Nussbaum-Beach, S. (2008). No limits. Technology & Learning, 28(7), 14–18.
Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8466

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Podcast Headache Rant

( Note: There are two links in this post)

When I first began this podcast assignment, I did not predict that is was going to be a royal pain and cause so many problems. I began my podcast assignment early at school because I knew I had to create the survey, get it approved from the principal, conduct the survey with my homeroom students, then plead with them to get their permission form signed by their parents in order to move on to the next step of the assignment. Out of fifteen students who were surveyed, seven remembered! I only needed three, so I was okay with that. I compiled the data from the survey http://feed.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/2116/mp3.rss I was ready for the next step. Then the problems from school started.
It all began with the fact that I was unable to download Audacity from my computer at work since it has a surf control block on it. When I contacted one of the administrators who handles the technology in our district, she advised me to contact the company that deals with the teachers’ computer problems by sending them an email. That is when I knew I would not be doing the student interviews that day. I happened to see my principal in the office that day and told her about the road block in my project, and she told me that the computer company that helps with teachers’ computer issues often does not reply to emails as quickly as we would expect… could take a week!!! She then said I could try her computer to see if Audacity would work. Luckily it did, and I was allowed to bring my four students down to her office to conduct the interview portion of my assignment since she was not going to be there on Thursday.
Once I gathered all the students, I had twenty minutes to explain to them that they may not touch anything on her desk, show them how to use the microphone, work the controls of recording and stopping after each questions, etc… It was pretty funny when I look back on it, but the recording http://feed.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/2172/mp3.rss is not great since they were sitting in four chairs and passing the microphone down the line. They seemed to be more interested in the video phone on the wall that displays the people ringing the doorbell to come into school.
In the end, I realized that my school is not prepared for podcasting. I even had the administrator who I had emailed about my problem call me and want to know something along the lines of why schools are just expected to have access to this type of technology and how the recording site could be unsecure. I do not believe I will be including podcasting into my lessons any time in the near future, and I am glad this assignment is over.