Technology Autobiography (Revised)

Oh technology, you fickle beast. I have issues with technology, to say the least. I would not exactly call my self technology-savvy--quite the opposite really. There was not a computer in our house until the end of my seventh grade year. Before that time my experience with technology consisted of going to computer class in school once a week to play games, learn how to construct and work with spreadsheets (which I have yet to grasp), or learning to type. The computer games were mostly educational, such as Speedway Math. Computers at the time still seemed to be a new-fangled oddity and I was under the impression that they should be treated with maximum reverence, touched or used only under strict adult supervision. Computers were not toys. At the time, the computers in my school were still huge, boxy contraptions, an olive greenish yellow mass of plastic whose welcome screen was nothing but a blinking green cursor, awaiting my commands while mocking my inexperience as its intermittent blinks reminded me of a tapping foot. The floppy disks were large and literally floppy and only the fanciest computers had a mouse.I really had no use for computers until seventh grade as my teachers did not require typed compositions before then. In the rare event that I did have to have something typed, I used a typewriter. It seems quite archaic now, having to constantly worry about using too much correction tape instead of just hitting backspace with no repercussions.

After my parents bought a computer for home use, I began to grow in "computer competence." I discovered the Internet, another new wonder, and only cautiously explored at first. It was in eighth grade that we began using the computers for research and typing with a purpose rather than practicing "asdf jkl;" monotonously. Our weekly computer class changed in its scope with the introduction of a new technology teacher, and I learned how to search the Internet effectively, format documents, and type. With high school came more need for typing ability and computer skills which developed through a keyboarding class in tenth grade. I used the Internet on almost a daily basis for research and enjoyment. It seemed as if there was a technology explosion that started during high school in which new gadgets were being introduced every month, and more and more projects required the use of technology. I never really used PowerPoint or any program other than Microsoft Word, Works or Excel with any degree of regularity.

Now, technology is definitely a larger part of my life. The education school's use of LiveText has forced me to lend some small bit of trust to the electronic expanse of the Internet to hold my work and not "recycle" it at a whim. I'm not fully comfortable with not submitting hard copies of my work so there are always backup copies within quick reach. I use the Internet for staying in touch with friends, satisfying my addiction to music (special thanks to YouTube and various music blogs), writing a personal blog, research, and keeping up with my interests or hobbies. My iPod is a frequent companion, and after my initial doubts about the possibility of such a thing, it is almost filled to capacity. I also use a digital camera, reveling in the ease of its use and the ability to delete pictures of poor quality.

In my observations of a middle school classroom this past semester, I was amazed at all of the things that the students could do with ease on the computers. They were effortlessly constructing elaborate PowerPoint presentations, complete with animation, researching a geographical region, and importing pictures to their presentations from the Internet. The students' computer literacy was beyond my expectations. I guess I should not have been so surprised given the increased importance that has been given to technology with core content standards and such.

There is a definite role for computers and technology in all classrooms. Computers and the Internet allow for instant communication world-wide and add to the capability for collaboration with others on a single topic, idea or project. They offer immediate access to a vast store of knowledge, resources, and even experiences. Students can interact with other students across the nation and across the globe which can be an indispensable learning opportunity. Teachers can use technology to communicate with parents, colleagues and experts in order to grow personally as well as professionally and to give their students quality learning experiences. Technology offers various opportunities through programs such as PowerPoint and text-to-speech programs, as well as language learning software that enables teachers to implement lessons which reach all students, even those with exceptionalities. New technology programs and tools that I have learned about in the course of the last two weeks will definitely play a role in my future classroom. I love the idea of having a class blog and possibly individual blogs for each student. The opportunity for communication, individualization and assignment completion with blogs is astounding. In addition, there are so many projects and assessments that could be completed using Flickr, websites such as Delicious and programs like MovieMaker. It seems as if technology is growing in its uses with education in mind. These new tools and programs are not so unapproachable as they once seemed and I am so excited to begin incorporating technology into my lesson plans. Technology will add interest, connections and enrichment for my students as they learn and grow as "Digital Natives" (Richardson 6). The constant advances in the world of technology offer an almost limitless number of possibilities for its use in classrooms in the present and future.

Technology Tool Evaluation

Dear Mr. Administrator,

At a recent professional development meeting, I was introduced to the website TeacherTube. This website is similar to the website YouTube and is made up of user-submitted videos. These videos are made by teachers and others in the education field as a means of collaboration and also providing insight. Many of the videos on the site are meant to be instructional, such as advising teachers in the best way to conduct literature circles, or providing teachers with videos on how to teach particular subjects. I noticed that there are several instructional videos for math instructors as well as with language arts. The site offers teachers the option to view and submit videos of their own, to simply watch or to share with their students in the classroom. Often, the videos are instructional, a lecture, demonstration or an excerpt from a program which are all to the benefit of students. There is a rating system which tracks whether other viewers find the video to be helpful and the site also gives viewers the ability to flag a video as inappropriate so that it can be removed by the site administrators.

I believe that the use of this site could be quite beneficial in our school. Our teaching teams could view videos for our content areas together in our weekly meetings in order to decide whether or not to include a video in our instruction. In addition, there would also be the possibility for us to submit our own videos as a way to help our students understand a topic or concept more fully. We could also use the RSS option as a way of quickly notifying each other when relevant new videos are uploaded. Doing so would greatly reduce the time required to find helpful and relevant videos that could be used in class. Obviously the use of this website will not take the place of classroom demonstrations, but it still has the ability to enrich our lessons. Along the same lines, using TeacherTube would help students who are absent, as a means of catching up with missed instruction, especially when used in conjunction with podcasts reviewing the week's content. In addition there is the fact that TeacherTube appeals to diverse learners. Auditory, visual, intrapersonal and even musically inclined learners could benefit from the use of such a resource.

Decisions such as whether to include the use of collaborative websites such as TeacherTube cannot be made with haste. I look forward to addressing the possibility of using this new and exciting tool at our next faculty and staff meeting.

Chapter 9

Like it or not, technology is here to stay, not only in our everyday lives but in education as well. The big shifts mentioned in the chapter are startling, to say the least. One of these shifts, Richardson's #1 Big Shift about Open Content, is something that worries me. I guess it is because of my hesitant stance toward what is considered the latest and greatest, but I don't like the idea that textbooks could potentially become something of the past. I like the idea of having a textbook, something tangible, real and guaranteed to be peer reviewed and edited. Yes, there may be more current information on the Internet, and yes this information may be accurate, but how can we really be sure? I don't think there is any real reason to fear that textbooks will be pushed aside any time soon, but it is not something I look forward to at any time. Richardson's claims that previous resources such as books in schools and libraries "required more time and effort to find and consume than the average student wanted to expend" (127) is true but that does not make it a reason for relying solely on the new trends of relying so heavily on technology. Sure, it takes time and work to find information when you do research in a library or a with a book. Is that so wrong? Research skills for all formats and media are valuable skills to have. We should not feel as if we have to completely give way to the ease of Internet research. What is easy is not always best, and what is best is not always easy. Too many things today have begun to take the easy way out, and not always with great results. Heaven forbid we ask students to put a little effort into their school work.

I do however, agree with Richardson's Big Shift #9, Mastery is the Product, not the Test (131). There are definitely more ways to demonstrate mastery than by exam grades alone. I for one, do not want to put my trust in a physician, for example, who "mastered" subjects in medical school with merely passing grades. It's not exactly reassuring. I'm not sure what the answer is, as far as the best way for students to demonstrate their mastery of a subject, but I don't think that testing is the best or only option. The use of portfolios is promising, but that also has its limits because it would still be left to subjective standards for evaluation. The idea of how best to evaluate mastery is something that will need to be examined and reconsidered for years to come.

Chapter 6

The idea of the Internet being a social web is something I've never really given much thought beyond the obvious. Of course it must be social because of the ease with which we can communicate with one another and publish our ideas. However, the idea that we can so easily share our research, our "bookmarks" and other such things is rather interesting. I thought that Bloglines was one of the most "high-tech" sites out there due to its ability to constantly search and collect information for its users on topics of the user's choosing without any further work on our part beyond entering the RSS code to Bloglines. Reading about Furl and Del.icio.us really changed my mind! How neat is it that we can use these sites to create individualized instruction for our students and send them links to sites that could help them in their research for projects?! The idea that we can create homework questions or even just consideration questions for each student which cater to that student's interests or topics of study is great! This individualized take on education is exactly what education should be leaning toward. We need to give our students the most personalized education is possible because no two students are alike or will be interested in the same things.

Furl especially sounds promising with the multitude of keywords to search and the ease with which users can "bookmark" a site to return to. I like that users can post comments of their own on their bookmarks, kind of as a mental note about what to use the site for or what was especially interesting. Then, with the capability of adding multiple tags or keywords to a website, searching for and sharing similar sites becomes that much easier.

Excuse me while I go investigate Furl farther.....

Chapter 8

Podcasting will be a unique way to connect with students and parents in a school environment. It could be used as a way to provide summaries of what was covered in class for students who have been absent or could be a neat way to provide audio/visual connections for parents who want to see what is going on in their child's classroom or school. The school as a whole could also use podcasting as a way to publish special events, field trips, or provide recognition to outstanding staff, students, faculty or community members. Beyond these uses and those mentioned by Richardson, I am at a loss as to how or why to use podcasting in a classroom or school.

More than anything else, this type of technology and media seems like it would be most appropriate in the form of keeping listeners up to date on issues or trends in a field, or expert commentary on various ideas or topics. Podcasting in a classroom at this point sounds like using technology for the sake of using technology. This is merely my current opinion, I may change my mind in the future upon better understanding of the capabilities of podcasting.

I am quite intrigued by the possibility of using screencasting, such as with the use of Skype. I think it would be a great experience for students to communicate with other students their age across the country or even across the globe. Students could interact and discuss what they are studying, the differences in culture, their different interests, or even collaborate on a project. This would be such a unique learning opportunity, and I am very interested to learn more about programs such as Skype.

Chapter 4

I have to say that with my background as an English major, I am quite hesitant to think of wikis and wikipedia as viable resources for classroom use. It has been drilled into my head that the only sources that should be used are peer reviewed or edited and reviewed by experts. I do not doubt that some of the entries on wikipedia are edited by experts, but most surely are not. In one of my classes this past fall, a fellow classmate stated as fact in a presentation that Columbus landed in Puerto Rico in 1942, using wikipedia as a source for this information. It is nuggets such as this which further solidify my doubts as to the validity of such a site.

However, given the chapter in Richardson's book, it seems like wikipedia could be used as a starting point, at least, in the information gathering phase of student research. I was impressed by the cited studies which measured the length of time it took for incorrect information to be edited from a wiki article (Richardson, 61). It is comforting to know that there is an audience for the site which will monitor the information and quickly correct false information. With the ease of editing, it should be the case that if someone stumbled on a mistake he or she would be able to quickly fix the error but with the vast number of articles that are available, who is to say that each article is going to be edited to the point of veracity? I may be an English snob I guess, but I just can't jump to the defense of this technology tool so soon. There are too many uncertainties, possibilities for gross information and not enough of a guaranteed monitor for every article to be considered as a reliable resource.

Syncing Up with the iKid: Connecting to the Twenty-First-Century Student

Josh McHugh’s article about how to effectively reach students was really surprising. I did not know that there were so many different kinds of media available in terms of software which could be so useful in the classroom. The Moodle program in particular seems as if it would be a rather versatile tool in its capabilities as an online community. The idea reminds me a lot of the Blackboard system. Using such a system may even have more potential that a class blog alone. I especially like that this system uses online tests and quizzes as yet another way for students to receive immediate feedback about their learning and understanding.

What really surprised me was the statistic that “27 percent [of teachers surveyed] have little or no training with integrating computers into lessons” despite the fact that “more than 70 percent of teachers at all grade levels believe computers are an important driver of student learning” (McHugh, 2005). These statements lead me to believe that more adequate training is needed for teachers, both in teacher preparation programs and for current teachers, so that our students benefit from the advantages that a technologically rich curriculum can offer. It will serve no purpose for technology to be integrated into lessons if the technology is not used properly, or in a productive manner. We cannot integrate technology just for the sake of meeting a curriculum standard. Doing so will not improve our effectiveness as educators, nor will it help our students to learn and understand.

I had not really thought about it before, but the idea that classroom experiences are not matching the students’ everyday lives is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed. All of the education experts that I have been reading over the past few months insist that classroom learning experiences need to be personally relevant to students so that the students will achieve maximum understanding and will experience quality learning. However, by not effectively integrating technology, which has an ever-increasing role in students’ lives, students are not experiencing learning in the same way that they would in learning experiences outside the classroom. The students willingly research topics of interest on the Internet, teach themselves how to master the newest gadgets or video games and gladly communicate their ideas through text messages or emails every day. It is no wonder that they are not particularly enthused about book research, hand written compositions or other “normal” classroom activities. I know that we cannot expect a complete overhaul of the education system, but there is no reason that educators cannot begin taking inventory of what their students enjoy, how they enjoy learning and what is important to them in order to integrate useful technology into classroom lessons. Our goal as educators should be to combine the best of the traditional classroom with the best of the new in order to create a learning environment suited for the students of today.