Philosophy of Technology in Education

Prior to this class I thought of a lot of technology use as unnecessary, and viewed real conversations as more beneficial.  Through this class, however, I have learned a lot about the positive uses for technology within a classroom.  I read an article by Scott Warner called, “The Soul of Technology Education: Being Human in an Overly Rational World.” A quote from this article that summed up my new beliefs about technology in education is, “It is important to recognize that technology education can naturally offer an alternative to the dominant paradigm of American Education.”  (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v21n1/warner.html) Having been through my own “American Education” I often find myself wanting to stick with the way I was taught, and apply that to my future classroom. I find myself not wanting to look into the options that technology offers, and instead stick with what I am most familiar with.  Through this class I have realized that these alternatives that technology offers are often better than what I had as a child and the more I learn about them, the more I realize how much technology has to offer. I learned about ways in which technology can aid students who are either behind or ahead of the rest of the class.  I learned about how teachers can monitor the progress of the class, and know where each student is, and what they are struggling with.  I also learned how technology can promote connectedness, something I previously thought that technology only hindered.  In particular, I really liked how Skype can promote connectedness in a classroom.  The ideas of meeting classrooms from around the world, talking to authors, or hearing from experts in a field who cannot actually visit your school were really neat to me, in that they allowed students to connect to people they otherwise would not be able to hear from. I am very excited to continue learning about how technology can benefit me as a teacher, as well as my students.  I think that this is something that I will continue to learn about for my whole life, as technology continually changes, and new resources are constantly being created. 

Professional Learning Network

Prior to this class, I did not even know what a Professional Learning Network was.  Now, however, I see that everyone has one, without really knowing it, but having a deeper understanding of it can help it become more helpful and beneficial.  Once you know the strengths of your PLN, you can discover how best to use it, and once you know the weaknesses of your PLN, you can add to it and change things so that you can be supported in more ways.  Now that I know about PLNs, something that I definitely want to have in mine is Edmodo.  I would want to use this resource by asking questions to the teaching community there because you can receive a fairly fast response from another teacher, and get advice about issues you have.  Another resource I will definitely have in my PLN is Pinterest.  I think that Pinterest is a great way to share resources within a school, and also to find ideas related to almost any topic shared by teachers worldwide.  It is user-friendly and very easy to navigate.  Lastly, I really want to add Skype to my PLN so that I can connect my students to experts on topics that I am not an expert on.  I think that using Skype to help teach students is a great idea especially when you yourself are not an expert on a topic you are trying to teach.  Connecting students to someone who is will greatly deepen their learning and add a lot of excitement and engagement.

A use for LiveBinder that I found very interesting was the idea of using it as a note-taking tool.  Although this is not the intended purpose of livebinder, it is a tool that allows you to organize your thoughts very well, and would be great for a student who types their notes.  In addition, you can add links to websites that could be possible study tools or extra resources to add in your notes.  Although this note-taking format would not work for everyone, I think it could be a great option for some students.

Vocabulary is something that most students do not think of as fun or exciting.  Instead, it is something that you memorize, and get tested on.  Technology is allowing learning vocabulary to be much more fun and engaging for students, which will help students retain vocabulary better and learn more vocabulary on their own time.  Students can use programs like Wordle to focus on the most important vocabulary words, and even play vocabulary games on computers.  Technology also allows students to express the vocabulary they have learned in a creative way and teach their peers about what they have learned.  

When I was in elementary school teachers were not using blogs, so it was surprising to me how many benefits blogs can have for students.  I particularly liked the idea that students have a real audience for their writing when they are writing on a blog, rather than only writing for their teacher.  I also thought that it was a really neat way for teachers to get information out to students and to encourage students to actually read the information.  Having it in this format encourages students to participate more so than just sending them home with a sheet of paper.  Lastly, I think it is really neat that students can become more proficient in typing through blog-use.  This is a skill that many students struggle with, and extra practice is always good!

One blog in particular that stood out to me can be found here: http://birdsofsalem.wordpress.com/ This blog stood out to me because of how reader-friendly it was.  It included a lot of pictures and the information was organized in a way that made it easy to understand, and was the same for any bird.  I thought the addition of the “Bird-sighting Submission Form” is a neat idea to make the blog more fun.

Technology is something that I have often had negative feelings about, but something that I am realizing can be a wonderful resource in the classroom.  The technology I am talking about is electronic resources on computers, iPads, etc.  My issue with technology is that sometimes it can get in the way of meaningful interactions between students.  However, one of the best ways I have heard of technology being used in a classroom, was a classroom set up that allowed students to gain even more hands-on and face-to-face interaction.  In this classroom set-up students did online work at home through videos and online programs that taught new material to them.  Students could get help through the program, and also through parents who could also watch the videos, rather than trying to help the student but being confused about what is being taught. Once students came to school, they had learned new material and the teachers could focus on engaging the students with the new ideas, rather than spending time learning them.  Bigger projects, and more hands-on activities could be done with this new time. Meaningful activities are able to replace lectures. Another very positive way I have seen technology used in a classroom is through assistive technology for students who are physically disabled and can use technology to express themselves, and also to complete homework.  Technology is a great resource that allows people to do more, and to understand more. 

There are some circumstances in which I have seen technology being used poorly, however.  Sometimes in classrooms students who are ahead or behind are sent to a computer to either catch up, or work on something new.  The problem here is that the teacher does not know what the students are working on, and oftentimes students are working on something unrelated to what the teacher is working on.  Not all programs are created equally.  Technology should only be used when it is purposeful and the teacher is very aware of what students are working on, and has a goal in mind for the students.  Undirected technology use does not have the same strong benefits, and can very easily become wasted classroom time.