REFLECTION: FINAL BLOG POSTING

    As I reflect upon the pars seven weeks of my fourth course in graduate school, I have found that I have not only become more confident and skilled in my ability to effectively integrate technology into my lessons. These new skills have motivated me and empowered me to continuously seek out more new and exciting ways to teach my students using technology as much as possible. I have always been a dedicated teacher wanting to provide my students with the very best but did not always know how to do that. Prior to this course my technology skills were very week and my classroom technology use was the equivalent of using technology to do the same thing differently just faster, rather than the effective way to use technology which is to do different thing all together (laureate education, 2010). Throughout this course I learned and experienced effective and ineffective uses of technology. If I am to prepare my students for a global technology driven workforce I need to do better, and I will. Below I have listed some examples of the technologies and 21st century skills that I have learned and experienced. I know these tools and skills will positively change my students learning experience.
   
    I learned how to create a blog and customize it to meet my needs. I also learned how to post to various blogs and set up RSS feeds that will let me know when people are commenting on my post, when they reply to comments that I have posted on their page, and it informs me of any other post updates that may come up on the blogs in my RSS Feed. These last seven weeks have also taught me about Wikis and podcasts and how to upload them to my blog. While I was learning about the great educational benefits of using and integrating these blogs into my lessons, I also experienced the excitement and ease of using these blogs first hand. Prior to this course the extent of my experience with blogging was Facebook. I never knew how to create a podcast let alone create one then upload it to my blog, my experience with podcasting was watching YouTube. I now know how to create them and have explored various ways of using them in my lessons. Lastly, I experienced collaborating with peers by creating a group wiki for the first time and communicating and editing directly onto this wiki to complete a task. This experience along with all the others truly enlightened and empowered me to continue to find new and innovative ways to engage my students by integrating these new tools into my lessons. They definitely worked for me, I enjoy using them very much now and am confident that my students will continue to enjoy using them, as well. I quickly went from feeling intimidated by thought of integrating these tool to feeling confident, motivated, and empowered by the great possibilities the tools provide.

    Using web 2.0 tools are not the only aspect of applying 21st century skills. However, they are a major factor and they do contribute to the use of other 21st century skills like, differentiation, communication, collaboration, critical thinking skills, problem solving, worldwide communication, etc. Collaboration and communication amongst peers is a 21st century skill that I used regularly prior to this class. Another, major factor of21st century learning is the student-centered classroom as opposed to the teacher-centered classroom. I have always loved the students-centered approach and while I use this approach often I became frustrated at times because I had difficulty coming up with ways to make more of my lessons student-centered. Throughout this course I have gained great insight into the benefits of communicating my ideas with my students and discussing there ideas to find new ways of learning that they enjoy. I also plan time for reflection with my students after lessons whenever possible. Obtaining student feedback has been highly beneficial for me in creating engaging and motivating lessons and activities that the students enjoy. Another major change in my teaching since the first wee of this course has been the use of Skype. I have always wanted to use Skype in my classroom with my Italian students but was nervous about it not working and the security issues with students having pen pals and so on. Although, I have only used it as class rather than individually and the other class that we Skyped with was the other middle school in the same town, and a family member of mine living in Italy, it worked out really well. My students were engaged, motivated and excited by the activity. This was a great start and I look forward to continuing this activity more globally and hopefully starting a penpal program with my students and a class in Italy in the next few years. I would also like to start a blog where students can post comments about each others writing and upload podcasts of their skits that they perform in class. This blog can also be a resource that parents and students could use to find out current class related events, due dates, assignments, and useful websites. I hope to have my new classes beginning in September, with proper permission, blogging and actively using the blog.     

    Based on my new knowledge and experiences gained throughout this course I have developed the following long term goals that I hope to achieve over the next two years. First, within the next two years I plan to write a grant(s) for lap top computers so that my students can experience the great benefits of 1:1 computing. Second, over the next two years I will continue to use the great new web 2.0 tools that I have learned about and experienced throughout this course, along with the many others that I am sure to learn about throughout this graduate program. I also plan to seek out technology based professional development, and collaborate regularly with peers to brainstorm ideas for the integration of technology into my lesson. Third, I plan to survey my students regularly regarding the topics being studied and discuss how they like to learn and what they would like to see or do more of. I then plan to incorporate a new tool or lesson strategy once a month. Lastly, students often complain that they cannot get access to many of the sites that they would like to use such as the social networking sites. This frustrates them because sometimes students are using these sites for reports. I plan to advocate for my students by not only teaching them appropriate behavior when using the internet, but also teaching educators how to teach students about best practice on the internet and the consequences of their actions. Within the next two years my goal is to have built up my confidence and knowledge base of technology integration in the classroom and will be awarded the opportunity to teach the skills to my fellow peers through professional development workshops. 

    After reviewing the self assessment checklist, I found that at the beginning of this course most of my responses were sometimes. I had very little experience with technology and therefore did not use it often. I was always strong in the areas of providing activities that incorporate communication and collaboration amongst peers and teachers throughout the learning process and to complete tasks. However, my weaknesses lie in my ability to provide learning experiences that integrate technology into their learning to meat their goals. I have been attending more professional development workshops on integrating technology, collaborating with peers at school and online, and consistently researching new ideas to change the way I teach by integrating technology and making my lesson more engaging while providing my studnets with the skills they need to success and thrive in life. I am now at the end of my course, and although I have too few checks in the often category of my list, I know I have made great improvements.  Although, I am too young to fit Prensky’s (2001) definition of a digital immigrant I still define myself as a digital immigrant with a strong accent that is fading little by little. Dr. Thornburg (2010), stated that we as the users of technology shape how it gets used (laureate education, n.d.). Technology use is no longer an option it is a necessity.
   
     I leave you with a quote from Richardson (2010),  “The coming years will be marked by a flood of new innovations and ideas in teaching, most born from the idea that we can now publish and interact in ways never before possible. In reality, we now have the Read/Reflect/ Write/Participate/Web, one that will continue to evolve and grow in ways not yet thought of, spurred by the efforts of creative teachers who recognize the potential to improve student learning (p 155)” I have a long way to go but as long as I continue my education, my confidence, dedication, and motivation will guide me in the right direction to get myself and my students to where they need to be. I look forward to continuing my education and building upon my 21st century skills.I aspire to always be a creative and innovative teacher like the one’s mentioned by Richardson (2010).

    Thank you for reading and supporting me through my blogging journey.  :-)


References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). The Emergence of Educational Technology. Baltimore: Author.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Podcast- Technology Interview of Today's Students

In the article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1, Prensky (2001) stated that "today's average college grads have spent fewer than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, e-mail, the internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives (pg.3)."

As part of my graduate studies, this week I was required to survey how my students use technology, the types of technology they use, how often they use technology, and how they feel about technology use at home and at school. I conducted the survey with my eighth grade students. At the completion of the survey I chose four students to be interviewed. Their responses represented those of the class majority. This was my first ever podcast, in fact a student had to instruct me on how to us GarageBand on my personal computer. I was intrigued by the level of experience my students have with the various technology tools and embarrassed that it far exceeded my knowledge and experience. I was also bothered by the students frustration with the technology use at school and the lack thereof. I was surprised that sightly less then half of my students are either not allowed to use social media sites like Facebook and many of them who do use these sites were only recently permitted to do so. I was equally surprised that on average students spend one hour or less using the computer for school or to complete assignments. Many of my students stated that they have created their own Podcasts and blogs in their free time for fun yet never used these tools in school or for academic use.  My goal is to begin incorporating these tools more and more into my lessons. The more I practice using these tools the better I understand their benefits and the more confident I become with incorporating them.

This is my podcast interview of my four eighth grade students. These students as well as the majority of my students represent the school student body that is performing either at or above skill level. Two girls are White, one is Asian, and one is mixed race. These students are also from a middle to high income home, as are the majority of students in my class.  I apologize for the length of the interview and the technical difficulties, these students were so excited to share their thoughts. This and my lack of experience with the program made it very difficult for me to edit and delete without losing key responses.

Thank you for your time and patience in viewing my podcast. I am a newbie in training looking forward to becoming an expert at teaching with technology.

Podcast - Technology Interview: Today's Students 

Click here for the full interview:

Today's Students-Technology Interview

Reference: Prensky, M. (2001).(p.3) Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).)."