Module+4+Week+7+Reflection


 * //Reflection Prompt Module 4 Reflect on your thinking surrounding your developing a philosophy of Instructional Technology use for learning and your understanding of 21st Century Teaching and Learning. //**


 * Describe: ** After reading through pamphlet entitled, //The Digital Curriculum,// I must say I am a little overwhelmed. I truly enjoyed the ideas that were presented throughout the reading, but I kept asking myself, how is this possible on a transformative scale. The article dealt with a couple of schools in the United States that have made great strides in terms of technology. But the problem I see deals with the mass integration through an entire school district. I am pretty confident that I could make this happen in my classroom. I have the general ideas of how my class could be set up, but the more I look at it I can't imagine teachers with 20 years of experience completely rewriting their system. Perhaps these teachers should try a redo, but that would take training and lots of help to progress forward. In all honesty, a 1:1 school with tech integration would be really interesting. The fact I enjoyed the most was the concept that technology was invisible. Six years ago I sat in a "tech" class in the MacLab on the main campus at the University of Akron and they were more or less talking about using technology as a motivator as an eye catcher. I mean even when I student taught I did not even have an LCD projector to present my information. I was literally using chalk and an overhead lamp complete with transparencies. The classroom of tomorrow would certainly look a lot different. Would teachers even need a chalk board, would they even need a whiteboard? I am in awe of the potential possibilities and a little scared about what the future may hold. I read an editorial last week in the Akron Beacon Journal that talked about eliminating teachers and schools after sixth grade, everything else would be done at home over distance learning networks. This person talked about the money that would be saved. Would we do this as a society? Would this benefit more than the current system? What happened to people learning how to adapt? Why are teachers the only ones that have to adapt? I know the article talked about moving forward quickly and that it is a necessity, but I certainly hope for the sake of my career that we don't think about eliminating teachers on a wide scale. Needless to say I am mildly concerned.

Now, if I was going to completely redo my classroom and make it tech oriented, like a 1:1 classroom I think that would be very possible. //The Digital Curriculum,// provides some great insight to what a classroom might look like. I for one would like my classroom to have an Ipad cart. I would like to have a cart of at least 35 Ipads, wireless internet connections, plug-in keyboards or keypads (because typing a great deal on Ipads can be a tad difficult), access to stylus pens, for drawing or note taking. In addition to the hardware, I would need access to software, too. I would need Microsoft Office, Sketchbook Pro or some other drawing/editing software, Movie editing software, probably IMovie (we would be using Ipads) and potentially other software that would take the place of outdated, beat up and largely unused textbooks (although lots of information is available online it would be better to have access on a legal basis for some services). I would like to use various Web 2.0 products, too. I think the Wikispaces could be great or Moodle may be efficient to take place of my Issue and Words of the Day daily activities. Instead of writing these answers down the students can simply type out their responses. With Internet and computers for all at all times I could give a brief lecture on a topic, introduce some key concepts or ideas and have the students research and elaborate further given essay type questions instead of generic simple to find answers by simply skimming the textbook. The lectures could take a completely different route. Usually, I conduct all of the student learning but now I could go more of a student driven learning. The students would need to research the material and find the answers to posted question. I have always like the idea of inquiry based learning but I did not see how I could easily implement this in the classroom, but with a 1:1 setting that is completely possible. Oh, and as a late edition a wireless printer/scanner would be great in every class, too.

I would certainly keep some of my standard technologies, too. I would keep my LCD projector, which are getting better and better. I would keep my Mimio device which is like a Smartboard, but more mobile, I can use any flat surface, and I would probably keep my Ladybug Document Camera to use with outside resources like my old books of history or photographs I have acquired in my short time as an educator. I really enjoyed the Bloom's Taxonomy of Web 2.0 programs, there is a great deal of information that could be of great importance here. I wish those programs would have been available to me earlier.

As long as we are changing the setting I think it might be a good idea to change the furniture schematic, too. We have always had the tried and true student desks and chairs all connected together which are very uncomfortable for extended periods of time. We should move more towards an office setting style desk and chair. The chairs should be able to move up and down and rock slightly to make sitting through class more comfortable. I always have kids leaning, slouching, and rocking these awkward desks around and I think an office chair and table would be much more conducive to learning. I think it would be especially great if we can rid ourselves of the horrible wired mess that is our computer labs. All of our labs are like a circuit of wires that are simply everywhere we need to bring an end to that. We have all the capable wireless technology we just need to use it. We need to not only promote technology but we need to promote safety and aesthetics, too.

====I also would like to mention would be what Evan Abbey talked about in this blog, //The Digital Curriculum.// Abbey talked about access over security. Do we need computer security, yes but the more access we can have the more possibilities there are potentially. My school district has gotten much better about this in recent years, but we need this to be universal. Students know they will run into questionable material on the Net, we can't hide students from absolutely everything. We just need to be cautious about material on the net, not afraid of it.====


 * Intent: ** The intent for my new integration of technology is to make students prepared as they enter the 21st century on their own. I would like to make my students as aware as possible of the different technologies available to them yet still cover the content that I enjoy so much. I guess the most difficult part will be moving past the "new" and "exciting" phase of technology. There is so much technology out there that I have not been able to experiment with yet so it is very important that I get accustomed to the technology and begin integrating the technology as I see a need and a use for it. I have to be careful to not use technology just to use it. I have a great website called, Blabberize, which allows users to take still pictures and make the pictures talk by recording sound. I can't wait to use it in my class but I am finding it difficult to find an adequate spot given my curriculum. Overall we want kids to be able to use technology, but more importantly we want students to be able to think critically, communicate, collaborate, be creative, use initiative, adapt just like they did in the traditional classroom (Abbey, 2009)


 * Impact: ** By instilling a 1:1 classroom we are better preparing our students for the lives outside of the classroom setting. Students go to school for many reasons and the basic premise is to prepare them for the future. If we can instill these ideas into our classroom we are giving our students a better chance to thrive in the new age of learning. We need to make this technology invisible to learning so they are more concerned about learning material and not about the technology itself. Once this transition in implemented then the possibilities are indeed endless given how much information is readily available. Just as Jane went through her average school (Abbey, 2009) day using technology at every step, even physical education, everything seemed natural, connected, and worthwhile. If that is the goal in the traditional classroom it may be time to move into the next phase of education. It may be time to embrace technology and all of its advantages instead of being scared of the possibilities and annoyances that result from technology.