Technology is constantly changing, and as an educator, I have the responsibility to prepare my students for a technology-enriched society. There is no way to predict the capabilities that technology will provide in the future, but I plan on staying up to date with technology in my classroom, within the boundaries of the districts budget. Sometimes budgetary issues dealing with technology are beyond the control of a teacher, but I plan on expanding my awareness of technology by taking full advantages of the resources that are already available, and by expanding my personal knowledge whenever possible. Currently I am working on a Masters degree through Walden University that deals with the integration of technology in the classroom. The course that I am currently taking, “Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society,” has opened me up to the possibilities available through the use of Web 2.0. Prior to this course, I focused much of my attention on using technology to do old tasks in new ways, thus making them more efficient. However, Dr. Thornburg believes that teachers must not just do things differently, like replacing a blackboard with an Interactive white board, or using PowerPoint instead of using hand written content, but they must do thing differently (Laureate Inc, 2008). Through learning about blogs, podcasts, and wikis, I now realize that there is a myriad of possibilities at my disposal.
In the Laureate Educational DVD “Bringing the Fun into Teaching,” Dr. David Thornburg, and Hall Davidson, talk about how much fun and enthusiasm technology brings into the classroom (Laureate Inc, 2008). They talk about teachers getting a new surge of energy because of the “fun” that technology brings into the teaching experience. I feel this amount of energy from my personal use of technology and the same reaction is displayed even at a greater scale from my students when they get to use many technologies. Sometimes technology even results in more work, but through the fun, teachers and students alike see it as less, yet more productive learning.
I have two long-range goals that I created in order to transform my classroom environment into a place where technology is integrated seamlessly to meet instructional goals and increase student awareness. My first goal is that I plan to continue to integrate technology as much as possible within the spectrum of my room through the use of the SMARTboard, document camera, computers, and other technology resources. It is hard finding time to make elaborate SMARTboard files and activities for a lesson, but my goal is to use old creative technology files on a regular basis and to add at least one new lesson every few weeks. By creating one new lesson every few weeks, within a two year time period, I should have completely transformed my teaching approach. My second long-range goal is to integrate technology resources for out of the class learning, in order to help increase productivity within my class. I will meet this goal by setting up a blog or website that provides useful links and other essential materials that students can access from home. Even though many technology resources are not currently available in my classroom, I can still tap into this wealth of knowledge by creating opportunities that students can use from home. Overall, I am very excited about this new technological path in education.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Bringing the fun into teaching. [Motion picture]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Transforming the classroom with technology. Part 1 [Motion picture]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
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