Reflections on Teaching with Technology

I was nervous entering this course. I'm not a very gifted person when it comes to technology, Sure, I know some basic stuff about the Internet and the Microsoft Suite. But that has more to do with having grown up at the right time to have a basic knowledge about these sorts of things.

My parents might think I'm a wizard when it comes to technology, but that comes primarily from a generational gap between us. In reality, I'm sure there are future students who probably know way more than I do, and they'll probably to continue to exponentially know more than me.

Some of my fears dissipated as the course went along. A ton of the technology we encountered in this class were things I knew nothing about prior to this class. I dreaded having to use them, freaking out that I'd be out of my depth. But it turned out that many of these websites and technology applications were fairly intuitive and easy to use.

The course also heavily reinforced my guiding view of technology and education prior to entering the class. I came from the perspective that the latest generation of students has been born-and-bred on digital technology and therefore is very likely to be keen to use it in the classroom. A belief that class went out of its way to prove at every turn.

Take one example of this reinforcement of my views of technology. Week 1 had the directed versus constructivist debate, which seemed to go out of its way to make directed instruction appear almost entirely irrelevant (To be fair, it's not. It's just tremendously overused). The constructivist integration strategies are so highly appealing because they encourage students to collaboratively and creatively explore their interests using technology.

These strategies were still proving themselves to be potent in Week 4 when the chapter on my content area (Chapter 12) detailed multiple constructivist approaches for technology integration. The case in their favor was still strong in Week 5, when I highly considered including a discussion of constructvism in my Web of Wonders project (You can see how it might have fit in to the Power Point and screencast presentation by checking out my written report on the final project). It all came full circle. That's a pretty nice achievement when it comes learning outcomes.

There are numerous assignments and activities from the class to contemplate, but I'll only talk about a few so that this blog post doesn't end up any longer than it needs to.

The Technology Integration Workshop assignments were admittedly a little tough. They required a lot of time and effort to be done correctly. But I appreciated the way they forced us to really dwell on how technology is actually integrated in the classroom. They made us think about how we ourselves would go about the process of incorporating technology. Some types of technologies and some chapters provided better opportunities for considering technology in instruction. This was especially true of the Technology Integration Activity on blogs, Power Points and Wikipedia.

I also liked the group work. Again, admittedly, it was tough at times to get people together to complete assignments. However, I really liked some of the topics of discussion and debate, and the dialogues that this initiated.

Finally, I appreciated having to write a philosophy of education statement. I've had a number of ideas rattling around my head as to why I want to become a teacher, but it was nice to finally articulate them. The philosophy of education assignment helped shape my final Web of Wonders project. Thinking about topics like digital literacy, digital citizenship, and the influence of social networking all helped inform the final product of the WoW assignment.

Reflections on the Virtual Classroom Session

Despite some minor hiccups during our virtual classroom session, I would have to say that I felt it was a success!

Sure, I may have lost audio and visual capability towards the end there. And yes, Adobe Connect crashed not once, not twice, but three times on me. But despite these minor roadblocks and hindrances, I feel like the virtual classroom worked for many reasons all real classrooms work: It brought our class together for collaborative and constructive ends

I appreciated being able to actually tangibly communicate with my classmates. It was nice to hear people's voices for once (and see some real faces). It would have been great if we could have had more face-to-face meetups for this class. I think the course really could have benefited from it. Being trapped in my isolated little bubble, I wasn't sure if what I was doing and thinking was matching up with what everyone else was doing and thinking (I'm glad to find out that it was!)

This was especially true of many of the individuals not in my group (Group B). I feel like I never truly interacted with these peers except occasionally in passing. I think I would have gained more if I had been able to build off their knowledge and ideas more during the class itself.

The session may have gone on a little long. But hearing people describe their work and why they chose it was really valuable. I feel like I gained more from them explaining things than just by checking out the links posted over on the forum.

Even more valuable were the conversations initiated among us after viewing each others' projects. Some great questions, criticisms, and general thoughts were inspired by the virtual classroom setting. Some positive feedback was also usefully generated. I'm a sucker for praise, and it was nice to hear it in a non-written form from the vocal chords of real live human beings.

Reflections on the E-Folio

I have to admit that I was initially overwhelmed in the face of the e-folio. There was just so much there: So many tabs, so many sub-tabs, so many formatting suggestions, so many tidbits about different assignments.

To be fair, I'm a person who is prone to being anxious and easily getting stressed; so perhaps, I'm not the best person to make judgements on this.

My struggles with e-folio didn't help matters either. I don't know what it is about the pictures and images I uploaded but many seemed incapable of staying visible. A white box with an error symbol would appear. I hope you don't have trouble when viewing my e-folio. I've posted links to the especially relevant images (TLC screenshots, forum comments, etc.). I also had difficulty with formatting: letter size and font colors would change back even after I had saved them multiple times.

However, I think I ultimately the e-folio turned out pretty nicely. I don't think I really know all of its features or how to fully, properly use it. But the way it organized all of the work from this course turned out to be useful way to gather my thoughts. After all, as the name implies, e-folio is a portfolio for our work, and it served its purpose to that end. 

Reflections on the Web of Wonders Project

The Web of Wonders project gave us an opportunity to select a topic that had really interested us during this course and delve into it more deeply than ever before. It also allowed us to use the technology and multimedia resources we had come to know throughout this class in order to creatively discuss something we found important and meaningful.

I've been truly quite passionate and fascinated by the intersection of the issues regarding digital citizenship, digital literacy, and research and writing in the classroom. Additionally, I've found it incredibly pressing how these issues relate to students' personal growth and identity formation.

Now, my Web of Wonders project did not have all the breathing room to tackle all of these concerns. My screencast runs just shy of 5 minutes and only begins to scratch the surface of the subject. If you're interested you can read my reflective essay which goes into much, much, much more detail on my thoughts on the topic. 

But I think just by scratching the surface of this subject, I really got to convey some of the importance of these issues and why they so thoroughly intrigue me. It all goes back to my philosophy of education statement. My statement centers around developing the personal growth of students right alongside the intellectual growth. How that personal growth takes place is changing due to new realities of the digital age. I offer some thoughts on how and why we should confront this pressing issue.

The Web of Wonders was a nice summation of a number of the major learning outcomes from this course. It forced us to reflect upon the key takeaways we derived from this course and then use technology to articulate them.

Reflections on the Philosophy of Education Assignment

The philosophy of education assignment was intended to get us thinking about our own personal beliefs and views on education. It's important for teachers to reflect on why they are entering the profession and why they think education matters, and the ways that this will impact their instruction.

My philosophy of education derives heavily from my own personal experiences from education. My teachers, particularly my social studies teachers, helped inform my perspective. The best teachers I had were much more interested in the why of education than the what. They wanted to shape young people into good citizens and good human beings, and instruction was just a means to an end towards achieving those results.

My philosophy is also heavily impacted by the constructivist approach to education, rather than the directed approach. I think social studies education gets a bad rap because it too frequently relying on rote memorization and busybody work. To me history is about considering what it means to be a human and thinking about humanity's place in the world. It should be about so much more than just memorizing terms.

I also feel that there's a tremendous need to emphasize digital citizenship and digital literacy as part of the social studies curriculum. We need to make students capable of being informed, engaged citizens. That starts by ensuring students know how to do high quality research, writing and thinking.

To reiterate, the assignment was designed to get us to start to consider the significance of our personal perspective  on education and teaching and its potential impact on our instruction. I feel that it has been pretty productive and successful in that regard.

Thoughts on Rubrics and Strategies for Social Studies Educators

Part IV: Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum

 

Ch. 12 Teaching Social Studies with Technology

As far as rubrics go, few strategies for assessment of technology integration are as sound and reliable as the good old Tech-Pack. This was discussed way back in Chapter 1, but the underlying principles work pretty much for any subject area or topic. The Tech-Pack considers the overlap of content knowledge and technological use, and how effectively the two areas impact one another and result in quality instruction (Roblyer, 9) .

There's also a really useful rubric specifically for social studies teachers in Chapter 12. The chapter notes that social studiesteachers are required to be prepared to teach about a wide array of topics and that they won't necessarily always have the background for this. That lack of background can also extend to an understanding of the necessary technology to integrate (Roblyer 348-49).

There are numerous skills that are necessary to master in order to be an effective social studies teacher. However, I just wanted to focus on a single skill area: digital information critiques and electronic research strategies. The chapter has these two categories as separate knowledge bases and integration strategies, but to me they're interrelated (Roblyer 348-49).

For starters, we as teachers need to provide examples of good and bad sources, and explain why certain sources offer poor or questionable information. We also need to breakdown the process of how to research and come by effective, reliable information. This can be done initially by examining and questioning primary source documents or secondary source readings written by historians or scholars. But it can also be done by taking a look at the news and looking for biases in the presentation of information. Students need to be taught about the types of sites that could be useful, and they need to realize that certain resources are very easy and readily accessible, such as Wikipedia, Google News and Google Scholar. Since search engine results will be a popular go-to method by which students come by their information, we have to teach them how to sift through search results in order to determine worthy, credible websites.

That's just one set of strategies I recommend for building up teachers' skills for social studies instruction and integration of technology. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to suggest them.

References:

Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (ed. 7). Boston: Pearson.

Big Idea Overview Podcast Summaries

Big Idea Overview Podcast Summaries:

The following is a set of summaries and reflections on some of the BIO podcasts featured at the the start of each chapter. I've chosen them based on elements of either the podcasts or the chapters the podcasts are featured in.

BIO Podcast #2: Chapter 2

The podcast starts by describing the fact that educational theories primarily fall into two categories: directed and constructivist. It provides a list of a whole set of theorists that would fit into each category.

The summary than discusses the significance of the Technology Integration Plan. This is a way for teachers to keep track of how effectively they've integrated technology into their instruction.

The podcast uses theater a metaphor for all of this. It compares technology integration to a play and educational theory as the script.

***

I chose to summarize this Big Idea Overview because I just really love the chapter's introduction of the competing technology integration strategies: Directed vs. Constructivist. I keep returning to them in my posts and discussions because I find the idea very compelling. I feel that much of the reading and activities from this class bare out the notion that constructivist leaning approaches tend to be more prudent and successful. Yet directed approaches still seem to have their place, and sometimes it's difficult to distinguish whether a lesson fits a directed or a constructivist approach. They're a blend of both.

BIO Podcast #3: Chapter 6:

The podcast begins by discussing the difficulty of navigating the new digital world (Web 2.0) we're in. It then points to digital citizenship as an invaluable way of surviving this new digital world.

The summary than goes on to mention a number of technologies discussed in the chapter. It talks about navigating websites, using search engines effectively, successfully communicating digitally, and employing social media and other collaboration tools.

***

I chose to summarize this Big Idea Overview because of how taken with the concept of digital citizenship I was. I found that to be one of the more compelling and important ideas discussed in any of the readings we've encountered. Digital citizenship is especially pressing for social studies education. Social studies has an obligation to create informed, engage citizens capable of meaningful, constructive discourse.

BIO Podcast #4: Chapter 7:

This podcast deals with online vs. in-person classroom. It talks about the degrees to which an online class can be done. Some online classes can have a mix of in-person sessions and are called blended classes. The most popular of the blended classes is the flipped classroom. In the flipped classroom, instruction is done at home while what would normally be homework is done in class. Research has come to the recent conclusion that blended models appear to be more successful than non-blended classes. The summary concludes by noting that there are a variety of methods instruction and resources for implementing an online class

***

I chose this chapter's Big Idea Overview because I found the discussion of online versus non-online classes interesting, and also sort of obvious. Of course, blended classes are more successful than non-blended classes. People create meaning through social interaction and social construction; humans learn better through face-to-face conversations. Technology is best utilized when facilitating instruction, not becoming the sole purpose for it.

BIO Podcast #5: Chapter 12

This will be a bit of a repeat from my general thoughts on the chapter. The podcast for Chapter 12 breaks the chapter down into 3 sections. The first section is about the challenges facing social studies education. The second section is about how technology can be integrated into the social studies curriculum. The final section is about how teachers can improve their skills for integrating technology in the classroom, and provides a rubric to help assess the teacher's growth.

The podcast ends by noting that technology for social studies is a "double-edged sword". Technology has made it even easier to get access to any kind of imaginable information, but technology has also made it difficult to get reliable information.

***

This was the chapter dealing with technology integration as it relates to my content area. It was one of the chapters I found to be the most relevant and interesting to me because of its direct relationship to my future role as an educator. Other chapters have only tangentially had significance when it comes to discussing the role of technology in the classroom as a history teacher. Some of the issues it described and the ways it discussed dealing with them were highly relatable and useful.

References:

Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (ed. 7). Boston: Pearson.