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.