reflection

Reflection
The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know. --- Socrates

This semester, I started a journey to integrate technology in the classroom with a vision to acquire new ideas and tools to use with my students or to share with my colleagues. What I did not expect was the change in my educational philosophy on technology in the classroom.

As an enthusiastic user of technology I always tried to find ways to integrate computers in the curriculum. Before Computing in Education course, my technology classroom integrations consisted of web searches with my students, using drill and practice software, and creating power point presentations for or with the students. I did not realize that integrating technology in the teaching requires more than “applying new technologies to current procedures, expecting them to work better.”

This realization came with the reading of “The Educators Manifesto – Renewing the progressive contract with posterity” by McClintock. He wrote that “we can do better in our extended present by recognizing that the task facing educators is to reconstruct the whole system in ways that will allow it to use new communications resources to overcome the inherent, structural deficiencies of the current system.” I truly believe that. There are many challenges that educators face. The overwhelming amount of information that our students face each day is very different from the scarce and limited resources that were available to educators in the past.

There are two different ways teachers can deal with this change. We can either refuse to accept these new approaches to teaching, approaches that are forcing us to become facilitators and our students to become self-learners and critical thinkers, or we can embrace this new role and learn alongside with our students to enhance our own critical thinking and analytical abilities. I choose the second avenue.

Finding and using the best drill and practice programs is no longer my goal for using technology in the classroom. Since I learned so many different tools this semester, I will be able to structure my teaching not by including the occasional technology tool to fulfill the technology standards, but also integrating the technology in the same way I integrate books, videos, or graphical presentations. Integrating technology in the classroom helps to differentiate between the ability levels of my students creating challenges that are reachable yet not out of reach. It also helps to provide more individualized instructions by include multiple intelligences approaches to teaching.

I want my students to graduate my class with basic core knowledge that technology is not just for games or drills but also for inquiring, organizing, and presenting new information. I hope that they will have a chance to work on at least one WebQuest project, use mindtools like Kidspiration to demonstrate their knowledge of different learning concepts, use digital photography to capture and present their knowledge and creations, and feel confident, independent, and responsible in using technology for learning.

Each year, our kindergarten aide puts together a hard printed portfolio for each student. I would like to create Eportfolios to keep for me not only to see their progress but also as an evaluation tool for reflecting on my teaching techniques. I plan to collect writing samples for Eportfolios by scanning students' writing and drawing samples. If this approach works, I will extend this process to other subjects.

Finding pedagogical use for blogs for my classroom was the hardest task. Since I teach early elementary grades, I cannot expect my students to write blogs or check my messages for homework. However, I found the way to use blogs to teach my teacher’s aide. Maybe I can also use it to share my newly learned technology skills with my collegues. Another good use of blogs I found was using blogs as a message board to inform parents about our classroom activities and add links to children-friendly websites and local educational resources.

The WebQuest project I designed is for first grade students. I talked to the first grade teachers in our school and asked them what science project would be useful for them. They suggested Animal Kingdom. I hope they will use this WebQuest with their students and give me their feedback. If the project works, my kindergarten students will be able to conduct the WebQuest project created by their kindergarten teacher taught by first grade teachers.

For my first artifact, I chose a tutorial I created using Snag It. I am very proud of this work. I made a video and audio tutorial for my teacher’s aide on how to attach a picture or a file to email message. I spent a lot of time to make the movie the right size. The significance of this artifact is the fact that my aide actually used it and gave me a very positive feedback on it.

As a second artifact, I chose Hot Potato J Quiz about animal groups. Even though I did not have time to try in practice yet, I really enjoyed making it. I created this exercise for my WebQuest project. Unfortunately, I could not put more then two questions at this time, but I am planning to discuss buying this tool for our teachers in our school district.

Aside from the portfolio artifacts, I also included a page with links to all my lesson plans that I have created this semester for ETAP 529 Technology In the Classroom and ETAP 526 Media in Teaching and Learning. As I continue on my journal through the maze of tools used in educational technology, I hope to add more to my list of technology lesson plans.

I have just began my journey, yet thanks to this course I now have many different instruments safely tucked and ready to use in my teaching toolbox and I also found a new way of looking at integrating technology in the classroom. There are many different ways I can help my students and my colleagues embrace the potentials of learning with technology. However, I also realized that “the more I learned, the more I realized how very little I really know.” I envision many more hours spent on creating more WebQuests, improving websites, and using more tools with my students.