Technology and Learning

The articles in this section made me think about how learning occurs in our classrooms and about how I can be a facilitator of that learning. As teachers begin to think of themselves as coaches or facilitators instead of the keepers and providers of knowledge it shifts the responsibility for learning and solving a problem to the students. One of the advantages to this approach is that we are teaching the student how to fish instead of just giving it to him or her. As I think about these articles it makes me consider how to balance the various approaches to teaching and learning to best support our students. I find that many people have an all or nothing approach when it comes to teaching philosophy. They either refuse to use the textbook or use it everyday. The most effective teachers that I have encountered have used a variety of apporaches to reach their students. They vary their approach based upon the needs of the students and the content being covered. Interesting articles!

Standards and Websites

As I read the article on standards and technology based lessons I kept thinking the same thing....Duh! That thought shows that I take for granted that every teacher plans their lessons around standards. Standards based education, while prevelant, is not always a given. It helped me to continue to look at some of my biases and assumptions about teaching.

Evaluating web sites is a new literacy skill that students and educators need to become versed in. The Berkley article about evaluating websites is a great place to start because it is a simple, step by step process through which students can learn more about a particular website. It reminded me of what I know about URLs, etc...but also left me with some things to ponder as well. The section on the quality of information was especially beneficial.

School websites

Schools and districts are joining the 21st Century through the use of technology. There are a wide range of sites that schools are offering for thier communities. There are a wide range of services that can be avilable to parents including access to homework, grades, school information, and school paperwork. School websites can also be a gateway to new learning. The possibilities are endless!

The virtual tours are awesome! They allow interested parties to get a lot of information about the school or the community at the click of a button. I am in the process of creating a virtual tour of our district that will be an ongoing project.

Global commuity projects offer students and teachers a way to get hands on experience solving a problem or developing a theory with real data from other places. The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science gave students access to other students from as far as Transylvania! Students are using technology to facilitate service learning projects and making a differnece in thier communities while they are learning for school.

This set of articles was very interesting and opened my eyes to wome additional ways that students can use technology as a tool for learning.

The Digital Divide

Access to technology is a serious challenge for students and education. Technology skills are developed through instruction, experience and practice. If students do not have access to technology, then they will be a disadvantage in school and in the marketplace. Technology community centers are one way to bring technology to under-served areas. A community center brings not only hardware and software, but also opportunites to learn and gain technological experience. I would be very interested in more recent studies of the technological divide. My school has a 70% free and reduced lunch rate and it seems that more and more of our studnets have access to technology at home.

Information Literacy

Teaching information literacy is vital to students future success.  The world is changing rapidly and students need to be able to adjust and grow with new technologies and through new skills.  There are various skills that students need to be skilled at.  Searching strategies and knowing how to search efficiently is vital for students to be able to navigate through the growing morass of the internet.  Students also need to be consumers of information.  They need to be able to check the reliability and usefulness of a multitude of information.  The Quick- Quality Information Checklist is a useful tool.  Teaching students to paraphrase and then cite their sources from various types of media will continue to be an important skill.  Students also need to be taught how to apply the skills they learn in order to solve real world problems.  Using technology as a tool to teach higher level skills like analyzing information, synthesizing information, problem-solving, critical thinking 

Internet Safety

As a regular user of various formats on the internet it is easy to forget the dangers that can be encountered.  As we consider students or children using the internet it is important to educate and monitor them.  There are various forms of protection that parents and schools can use to insulate their network from dangerous influences- web blockers, parental controls, rating systems, etc...  It it is vital however, that we do not rely on these measures alone.  Internet predators, internet gurus, and the children themselves are very good at getting around security systems.  We must educate children as to the dangers that they could face on the internet, monitor them and then communicate with them about their internet use.  At our school we do this in various ways.  Our computers teacher begins the year with an age appropriate safety course and then follows-up throughout the year.  We also have the Goodyear Police Department come in and give an internet safety presentation.  It is eye opening for the students.

Ways to Change Education

The articles for day five had a common theme of, "How to improve education."  The Edutopia article, "Big Ideas" discussed various innovations the George Lucas Educational Foundation has found during their research.  Some of the ideas for teaching students include project-based learning, integrated studies, cooperative learning, and comprehensive assessment.  While none of these ideas are new they are a good reminder to keep in mind as we reflect on schooling.   The article on the arrangement of the room was great.  As I think of how my staff sets up their rooms, many of the more effective teachers have a couple things in common with the article.  They have various setups within their rooms that have a purpose.  They also vary the way the desks are arranged  in their room based upon their needs.  The Counting on computers article discussed some early attempts of the Chicago school system on integrating technology.  Boy have we come a long way!

Plagarism, Piracy and the Web

New technologies have opened up a whole new world that can be used for "good or evil." Students and educators need to be educated about just what plagarism is and what constitutes software piracy.

The article, "The New Plagarism" makes some interesting points. First, many of the research projects/reports that were done in the past are irrelavant today and will likely encourage students to cheat. Jamie McKenzie proposes that we change the questions that students are being asked to answer to encourage thought and critical thinking. Jamie calls these "essential questions." We must also teach them how to cite materials and ideas from other sources.

Bob Krueger encourages us as adults to be good role models for students and to talk to them about cyber-ehtics. He states that educators need to take the lead in the discussions about Cyber-ethics because many children have more knowledge and skill with the web than thier parents.

Both articles challenge us to look at our own practices and the practices of our staff to ensure that we are being good role models. We need to help students understand what the legal and ethical requirements of using the web are and how they should be observed.

WebQuests

WebQuests are a way to build interactive environments through which other people build knowledge. There are different types of WebQuests. The main distinctions are the length of participation (one session to weeks of work) and the products that are created. There are various products that can be created, ranging from webcasts, to surveys, to interviews. Kathleen Schrock proposes that quality WebQuests contain six components: introduction, task, process, information sources, evaluation, and conclusion.

The portion that I found most intriguing was in the information sources section. It is recommended that people be given a pe-determined set of resources on the web to use in the WebQuest. This idea will help me as I continue to design professional development for teachers that is timely, useful and does not waste thier time. I have never made a WebQuest so I am very interested in the experience.

Searching the Web and Literacy Skills

The series of ariticles that we read for searching the web were intriguing in a couple of ways. First, the amount of information available on the web is imense. Search strategies and skills are essential for efficiet use of the web. If someone is not skilled at searching they will waste countlless hours and likely be discuouraged from using the web as resource. The basic skills mentionin the Step Zero and Four Nets are simple ways that people can be taught to improve thier searching skills. The methods in the articles are simple and easy to remember.

Second, searching the web is a much more complex process than many of us think. Our brain does multiple complex tasks as we search the web and decide which site to go to and what information to use. Many people now do these tasks instictually, but the is much cognitive work going on even if we do not realize it. The Henry Study does a great job of drawing attention to the fundamenal skills, reading and writing, and more importantly, the higher order thinking skills, such as evaluating and formulating questions, that take place during web searches. The researcherargues that some of these skills are unique to web searching. I beleive that while the context is unique to web searching, the skills that are used are similar to thosed used by more advanced researchers. As we were going thorugj school the average research report had maybe 3 or 4 sources if we were lucky. This is not much informaiton to evaluate and synthesize. Using the web you can have a myriad of sources and that brings all of the challenges (and opportunities) that a multitude of sources brings. It is a great opportunity to teach and apply higher order thinking skills!

Tech Integration at RV

Our school district is trying to address some of the challenges that are mentioned in the article. We are having teachers apply to attend Smartboard training and then recieve a Smartboard. They serve as model classrooms on each campus for the next round of Smartboard application period. One area that we will need to ensure that complete is the follow-up portion of the training. We need to ensure that we do not have "one-shot" trainings. We also have a serious challenge in terms of the hardware that is available for students.

Tech Integration 6-3-07

The article that I read "Technology Integration as a Transforming Teaching Stategy" was by Jerry Woodbridge. The study looked into whether teachers who participated in the Jacksonville University Master's of Arts in Teaching integrated technology into thier classrooms. The researchers analyzed teacher beleifs, perceptions and attutudes towards technology, thier teaching stategies, and their integration of technology in the classroom.

The article had a good summary of some of the challenges that teachers face when they attempt to integrate technology in the classroom. The challenges range from the lack of good models to observe, lack of adequate pre-service and inservice training, the lack of follow-up after initial professional development and the lack of communication between IT departments and teachers. Many teachers who are skilled are self-taught.

Effective integration includes combining content knowledge, pedegogical knowledge, technical knowledge and student construciton of knowledge. The researchers found that there was a strong correlation between constructivist teaching methods and those teachers that effectively integrated technology. They found that their was a difference in how teachers integrated technology based upon thier beliefs and perceptions.