EDUC 6710 - Reflection

EDUC 6710 Reflection -

       As this course draws to a close, take some time to reflect on what you have learned and how it will affect your growing technological abilities, your knowledge of how to effectively integrate technology in your classroom, and how to become a teacher leader in the area of technology integration.

Step 1: For your final blog posting, respond to the following questions:

• In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills as a professional teacher?

Introduction

An educator’s role within the school setting has changed over the last twenty years. Teachers were once isolated in their classroom and the source of information to prepare students for adulthood. Now students can have first hand experiences of events occurring across the globe, communication with other people in different countries, and observe and manipulate natural resources in their bedrooms (Kelly, McCain, & Jukes, 2009, p. 13). Kelly, McCain, and Jukes add, “The digital world has quickly left behind the black-and-white test-only information most of us grew up with and facilitated access to full-color graphics and video accompanied by stereo sound (2009, p. 13). Teachers need to continually be proactive in seeking and implementing the latest digital experiences within their classroom.

Blogs

This course has helped me develop my technology skills as a professional teacher in two different ways. The first way is through blogging, one of the latest technological advancements in which an individual creates a type of a website where others can interactively communicate. Before creating my own blog, I visited different educational blogs that interested me, such as Eutopia, Math Lessons, and Free Technology for Teachers.

After visiting the blogs, I created my own blog at http://jeremiespriggs.blogspot.com/. I learned that this interactive website allows me, as an individual, to post comments and uploading music, videos and pictures. Visitors to my individual blog can leave suggestions and comments. Likewise, I can format my individual blog to follow other education-related blogs and web resources that will provide relevant professional and/or content specific strategies I can use in my classroom.

I have contemplated the advantages and disadvantages of blogging with my 5^th grade mathematics class. One advantage of blogging within the classroom setting is that students and teacher have an opportunity to be better informed about standards, indicators, classroom management, non-curricular activities, etc. This communication piece can strengthen student/teacher and student/student relationships. All parties involved can share knowledge. The teacher, as well as other students, can provide feedback on questions, comments, and/or suggestions to strengthen understanding of a specific idea. The teacher can use this as a means to monitor student’s learning.

On the other hand there are disadvantages to implementing blogging within the elementary setting. One disadvantage of blogging is student access to technology. Many of the students I teach do not have a computer, much less access to the Internet. Another disadvantage is the appropriateness of responses on the blog. Since the school has not addressed this aspect of technology, it does not have jurisdiction on the responses from the students while they are at home. Last, keeping the blogs organized could potentially be very time-consuming.

With this in mind, I believe that blogging has many advantages that outweigh the disadvantages. First, I would have to be creative to ensure all students had access to responding on the blog. Next, I would have to have some sort of organization and share this with the students to ensure that blogging enhanced their learning.

 One way to keep it organized and maximize student learning is to post a problem for the week. Having students show how they solved the problem would benefit all students. I could pull up the blog at school and we could discuss the problem and how different students solved the same problem. Blogging would also allow students the opportunity to share their understanding of certain skills and assist each other in gaining a deeper understanding of specific skills and concepts. The second way to organize the blog is to have students respond to set questions like "I am still having trouble with...." This will allow the students an avenue to express any academic misunderstandings. The last way to organize the blog is to have an open forum. Here the students can discuss other issues not related to academics.

Wikis

The second way this course has helped me develop my technology skills as a professional teacher is through creating a wiki. A wiki is a website that allows different creators the option of disseminating information on a specific topic or many topics. Working with three other individuals from the class in Group 3, I helped create a collaborative wiki site called The Walden Tech Teachers’ Wiki located at http://thewaldentechteachers.wikispaces.com/.

Our group created a wiki that focused on rating different blogs on various topics. Each participant in the group was allowed to pick a topic of their choice. The various topics included foreign language, mathematics, music, special education, and smart boards.

Working with Group 3 made me think of things I would change when I have the students in my class create a wiki. First, I would provide specific steps to the students in order to complete the assignment. Next, I would set certain timelines so that each member could provide comments and suggestions on each others’ ideas. Last, each team member will be given a rubric to fill out that will rate their created wiki.

• In what ways have you changed your perspective from being teacher-centered to learner-centered?

When I decided to become a teacher I thought this professional would be challenging to a certain extent. Once I started teaching, the challenges were ever encompassing. Those challenges arose from students with various academic, social, and emotional needs, parents, colleagues, school board policies, community interests, and state and federal mandates. To address all the previous mentioned challenges, I, as a teacher, have had to create an effective, organized, and positive atmosphere that actively encourages accountability, tolerance, cooperation, respect, confidence, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that will translate to every aspect of an individual’s life.

Therefore, it is my responsibility to ensure that learning is dynamic, fun, interactive, and relevant. One approach is to incorporate blogs and wikis into the classroom. These tools are a new digital reality that can make a connection between learning new material with a student’s prior knowledge. This is a dramatic change from how I have instructed in previous years. I used the industrial age approach in my instruction by being the main source of knowledge. Instruction was delivered out of textbooks. Pedagogy, during this time, adhered to a national awareness.

Today, I am gradually changing my role to be more of a facilitator of learning than a director of learning. Instead of being the main source of knowledge, I am giving up my mindset as the center of the learning process and instead putting students at the center. My role is to help student synthesize the vast amount of information available, therefore, their learning is in the form of global awareness.

• In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement?

I can continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement in a variety of way. First, I can continue to participate in class work through Walden University that focuses on learning, teaching, and leading with technology. The degree I am seeking at Walden University is Integrating Technology in the Classroom. Next, I can actively participate in staff development and conferences offered at the local, district, and national level. Here I can network with other professionals so that I can use the knowledge and tools of teaching and learning strategies to help increase student performance. Finally, I can stay actively engaged in professional learning communicates in various settings and medias.

Step 2: Set two long-term goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment by which you may have to overcome institutional or systemic obstacles in order to achieve them. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?

The two long-tern goals I would like to set is incorporating podcast and transitioning my classroom atmosphere from a teacher-center approach to a more learner-center environment. The first goal will not be as difficult to accomplish as the second goal. The obstacles I will have to overcome when incorporating podcast is the time it will take to teach the students how to record and edit their input into the podcasting hardware. The obstacles I will face in my transition to a learner-center classroom environment is my own mindset. After reading the research about learner-center classrooms I think it is imperative that I change my style of teaching even though this is not what I learned while receiving my undergraduate in teacher education.  

Step 3: Refer to your checklist from Week 1. Have any of your answers changed after completing this course?

Referring to the checklist from Week 1, my answers have changed after completing this course. One of the biggest areas of change has been in my teaching practices. I have incorporated reflective practices and engaged students in activities that promote self-reflection and self-examination of their own learning. Students in my class are able to self-correct any assessment. They are required to rework the problem and discuss the reason for their error. I will give them 50% of the point value back with the error analysis completed. This strategy has caused the students to be more aware of simple mistakes. Likewise, it has helped me to identify if my students have made careless errors of if I need to reteach a concept.

Reference

Kelly, F.S., McCain, T., & Jukes, L (2009). Teaching the digital generation: More cookie-cutter high schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.