Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Synthesis and Philosophy

Synthesis statement:


Technology is not done for technology’s sake or to automate an existing process. Technology is meant to create experiences in learning that could not exist previously. It is meant to engage, teach, and connect learners in ways never possible before.

Shortened version of education technology philosophy including updates and excluding history:


A great teacher develops relationships and motivates students to have intrinsic motivation to work hard, do well and learn. They get the students to take responsibility for their learning. Teachers should serve more as a guide to learning. I want the students to gain the knowledge that they can learn anything, even if they do not know anything about it going in or it is difficult to learn initially. They have access to resources to teach themselves. They need to learn their future is in their hands. I want students to feel empowered and that they are valued and important.

I try to make lessons relevant. I try to use time available for students to create, not just listen. I want students to make the learning relate to what they are doing or need. I also teach concepts. Software changes daily almost, they cannot learn one and be done. They have to understand key concepts and functions and have the ability to adapt. I try to expose students to as many software programs and hardware devices as possible. This helps build confidence in learning new things in a safe place. I teach others how to find and use resources to take ownership of their own learning. A new initiative I want to start is a program where students are tech support for teachers – both on repairs and instruction using technology. This will empower students while at the same time helping our teaching and IT staff.

My goal will be to provide teachers all of the technological tools they need to be successful in their classes. These tools could be in the form of websites, software programs, acquisition of hardware equipment, staff development and training, and the effective integration of these technologies into their curriculum. As Mr. November says, “This is not about technology. It’s about understanding the impact of technology on how students learn.” The technology schools acquire should be driven by needs in instruction. Heidi-Hayes Jacobs, an educational consultant, says, “Teachers need to integrate technology seamlessly into the curriculum instead of viewing it as an add-on, an afterthought, or an event.”

I have the knowledge to educate students and teachers in technology in a variety of ways and to help staff integrate technology into all subjects, grade levels and curriculums. Technology is the future of education. As John Dewey said, “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”

 “There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age technology, but if the teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails,” Nancy Kassebaum, U.S. Senator said. We have several great technologies currently, but many have not been used to their full potential.

I constantly am striving to learn more and truly am a lifelong learner. I am self-taught in many software programs. Anything I do not currently know I will find a way to learn either on my own or through professional development. I will also continue to grow our school's reputation as a cutting-edge technology school by presenting at conferences locally, state-wide and across the nation. I will participate in professional development opportunities to keep current with emerging technologies to develop and maintain expertise.

In conclusions, I believe that it is the role of technology in education is to provide as many opportunities for success to all students in whatever ways are needed. I believe technology is going to only continue to grow as a way to engage students and encourage them to take over responsibility for their learning.

Reflection 5

My Aha's for the semester :

I have a background in educational technology and digital learning, so it was great to have some time and direction to develop what I knew.

Week 1 was helpful to really organize my philosophy on educational technology, in an innovative way. Week 2 was great because I finally started using diigo. I had seen it before and was impressed, but did not start using it. Now I don't know how I lived without it; it is a great tool! I had never used a wiki before so it was nice to see how easy and helpful they are. I actually organized a camping trip with my friend with one.

Probably the most helpful part of the course was to develop my portfolio some. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time and it was helpful to see the importance of it professionally for me, but also as a learning tool for students. Our summer school program implemented it as a pilot program and I plan to help one campus with them next year.

One thing I definitely walked away with is to just take a little time to learn the tools. I have heard of a lot of things that are interesting that I never get started with. Most tools can be picked up very quickly if I just take a brief bit of time to work with it.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Post 4

     I am much more comfortable writing documents online than on paper. In fact, when I write a letter on paper such as a thank you note I regularly make mistakes due to lack of practice. All of my remembering is done digitally. I live by my Outlook calendar and my Google Doc to-do list. All email addresses are on my computer and numbers in my phone. My note-taking has been back and forth between pen and paper and my Ipad at meetings.

     My phone is always on me and my computer is always on; I am always very connected. I will engage in 2-3 activities at a time, but I cannot verify the effectiveness of them. I have not played video games recently, but I used to play quite frequently. Maybe after I finish this M.Ed. ... hah!

     My family got our first computer when I was in elementary school, but we were one of the first on my street. I believe I am in between generations. Since I went to school for technology and my dad was into it, I feel I was exposed more than most too it. However, it was notihing like it is for today's kids.

     I think we need to embrace the digital age. Having kids "power down" upon arrival at school is fighting a losing battle. The teachers are teaching the way they are taught.  Teachers need to learn a new way of teaching, and it should be student led - especially since the students are the ones comfortable with it. This is a big project for me next year and if I ever go for my doctorate, this would probably be my topic hah! My podcast will address this issue more.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Blog 3 - eportfolios as assessment

Blog Reflection #3 - Assessment

 
The tenet I related to the most from the 10 research based principles in Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning is probably that AFL should be recognized as central to classroom practice. It was very hard to select just one, because many of the principles listed were important and also overlapped some of the others. For example, I do believe that AFL should focus on how students learn, should foster learner motivation, and guidance should be constructive. I feel that these could all fit together as to why it should be central practice in a classroom. 
There are many positives with AFL, which is why it must be a focus. Students must be assessed to guide teaching, not to keep record of their mistakes and shortcomings. We as teachers need to see where our focus should be. AFL will allow us to constructively guide students and foster their desire to learn on their own. It also allows them to learn in a way that will suit their needs best.

As someone with an art and technology background, I love the idea of portfolio assessment and have done it on a small scale within my classroom. Will it ever replace the standardized high-stakes testing? Probably not. Should it? Definitely. It is a way for students to show what they have learned and what they are the most proud of. It shows where room for improvement is. It shows strengths and can guide career preparation.

Creating and developing my own portfolio will hopefully help me keep a more organized track of career growth, get my name out in my field more, and help me cast a vision for future goals. Hopefully it will also serve as a resource to colleagues within and outside of my district.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Reflection 2

I had never heard of MAPping until recently. I was at a conference led by Alan November and he had an excellent example of a scientic study that had been done. There were two very credible sources that had very differing information. He showed MAPping to see how we could find which was the credible source. When researching I will definitely make sure to map my work and also not just believe everything I read. My confidence in past cited sites is definitely not as strong after learning these methods.


Mr. November mentioned in the Week 1 article that there is a temptation for students to stop thinking if we do not teach these MAPping skills. If we are teaching internet usage, it is our responsbility to teach them these skills. Without teaching our kids these skills, we are sending out a generation unprepared to think for themselves that will believe anything they read. This is obviously very dangerous and the ramifications will extend far into the future.

I think diigo is really neat for social bookmarking. I think it will be helpful the more articles I read online so I will have a way to find it when I need it. This best thing about this will be I will always have access, no matter which device I am on. I also see ways this can be shared with others in personal relationship, colleagues at work, or students in class.

 
I'm hoping that I can create the resource that I have always wanted for me to have in my wiki. Since moving outside the DFW metroplex, finding locations to train at and groups to train with has been very difficult. I am getting the wiki setup like I want, then I will invite my friends to join and edit it as well.

I think the wiki will be fun for what I am working on. It will be great for a simple way to communicate without lots of emails or texts. The only thing I am a bit nervous about is since it is public, will I have others I do not know editing it maliciously? I do not want to have to moderate it. Of course, for a small fee, I can control those that I want to edit and see it and that would solve my problem.

I want to look at http://www.dipity.com/ for timeline creation. I am also looking into more virtual fieldtrips next year and will look to those as well.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Blog Reflection 1

I have posted my philosophy and concept maps in the 2 previous posts. Due to the length of my philosophy statement, I decided to separate the posts for ease of reading and understanding.

Writing the philosophy statement helped provide me an organized foundation moving forward. As a technology teacher and instructional technology coordinator, I have had lots of loose ideas running around in my head for quite some time. To begin to organize those was very helpful. My reflection is currently in a work in progress state and will need a lot of simplication and refinement, but I was pulling from so many areas I did not want to leave anything out. I hope that it will give me guidance moving forward in my career.

I have my MFA in Arts and Technology from UT Dallas. During course work for this degree, multiple classes required me to blog. I strongly agree with the article we read discussing that once it was required, it was no longer really blogging. I love to read, especially from great minds in a field. I will read books, blogs and twitter posts from people that I find interesting. Unfortunately, I have never been into writing. I agree it is important and helps in the learning process. Beyond meeting requirements, I have only kept one blog for myself and it was based on training for an endurance event.

I have heard varying levels of success stories of blogging within classrooms. I believe all of the unknowns and security worries a lot of teachers. I do believe it is important and will continue to grow.

The Alan November article area that stood out to me the most was the first one, if it is on the internet it is true. I heard Mr. November speak in Spring of 2012 and he taught a very interesting lesson on this. As a computer teacher I have seen this first hand. It is, as he mentioned, a temptation to lull people into not thinking. We need to teach students to discriminate among information and to still think for themselves.

My expectations for the class are to learn some new technologies and how they are being used within education. Any information on combining technology and instruction, training of staff, or integrating technology will be helpful. I'm also interested the informating over automating. Currently I am in a 3 session program led by Alan November and have just become my district's Instructional Technology Coordinator. This is my only EdTech class at TAMU-C so I am very excited about it and looking forward to it and how everything going on will mesh together for me.
 


 

Educational Technology Philosophy


My career has changed so much and so rapidly that creating a philosophy for my thoughts on Educational Technology is really necessary for me professionally, not just for this course. I addressed my beliefs in various areas and classes, but to combine them all together as one overarching philosophy encompassing the entire field will be a rewarding challenge. Through this paper, I will address my background leading up to today, as well as my thoughts on education and the use of technology within it.
My mom taught my entire childhood and I developed a passion for helping people at a young age. I helped others regularly in high school and even tutored while in college. Growing up, I was always good at drawing and while you are young everyone tells to pursue it. As you get older, people tell you to get a real job and stop messing with art. I was a master at MS Paint as well, which got me interested in digital art. However, my small school had no digital art courses. Since I was in the top 10 in my small class, I was offered a full ride to the local junior college where I majored in art. Then I went to UT Dallas where I majored in art and technology and planned on becoming a 3D artist. While I enjoyed the field, I realized it was not a career path for me and decided to get my teaching certificate while I figured out the technology field I would go into if I was not going to do 3D animation.
I was offered a job in a very low SES urban area and really struggled my first year. While I initially planned to leave after my first year, I started to get the hang of it and found I was pretty good at it and overall enjoyed it. I teach digital art and other technology courses now and have helped to grow the entire technology program. I love to learn so I have enjoyed growing my knowledge in the technology and education fields as well as pursuing academic degrees within the fields.
I teach the way I do because I feel it is how I would want to be taught. I have a great work ethic, in fact I often think (and know) I work too much. I do this because of the way my parents taught me and my personal character. I like to be good at something and I am good at what I do. I can help others with what I do, both students and teachers. I also base my work ethic on a verse I like in the bible, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." Colossians 3:23 – so I try not to think about what or how much or little those around me do.
A great teacher develops relationships and motivates students to have intrinsic motivation to work hard, do well and learn. They get the students to take responsibility for their learning. Teachers should serve more as a guide to learning. I want the students to gain the knowledge that they can learn anything, even if they do not know anything about it going in or it is difficult to learn initially. They have access to resources to teach themselves. Their future is in their hands, not in mine. I want students to feel empowered and that they are valued and important.
I try to make lessons relevant. I try to use time available for students to create, not just listen. I want students to make the learning relate to what they are doing or need. I also teach concepts. Software changes daily almost, they cannot learn one and be done. They have to understand key concepts and functions and have the ability to adapt. I try to expose students to as many software programs and hardware devices as possible. This helps build confidence in learning new things in a safe place. I teach others how to find and use resources to take ownership of their own learning.
My beliefs on the role of education most closely relate to the Reconstructivism philosophy. While I believe each philosophy has valuable additions to the field of education, for our current time I believe Reconstructivism is the most relevant. I recently stated in another course:

[Reconstructivism] addresses the problems we face with differences in social class, discusses global issues, aims to support all students, and develop critical thinking. It does not focus as much on knowledge of facts and core subjects as some of the other philosophies do, which I believe is needed, but with the rapidness the world changes we need students to know how to think and learn to keep up in the world that is becoming more connected by the day. I will note that I realize this is not the type of philosophy most aligned with standardized testing.
Reconstructivism is a very romantic and idealistic view of education, but I believe we should at least aim to be the change we wish to see as Gandhi said. We may not be able to change everything but we can at least try and make a small impact in the world.
I work in the urban area of Oak Cliff. We’re a charter school and have students in neighboring south Dallas areas. Many of the these students come from backgrounds I cannot even fathom. After being here for four years, I have been there longer than most of the staff. These kids are used to teachers leaving. They are raising their siblings. They go home to no parent homes, are surround by violence, drugs, and alcohol. The fact they even get to school amazes me.
Yes, it is the parent’s job to raise the child, teach morals, work ethic, etc… The fact is, it doesn’t happen and isn’t going to happen. However, we can try to do something about it. A Theodore Roosevelt quote I like is, “To educate a person in mind and not in morals, is to educate a menace to society.”
People cannot help where they come from, but our job is teachers is to give them the best chance to succeed, in every manner, academically, socially, etc… and have a life of happiness as possible.
At the end of my third year I realized all the struggles going on in the education field and that I could make a small impact and help in my corner of the world. I began my masters in education immediately after completing my masters in art and technology. I initially planned on becoming an assistant principal then eventually a principal and following that route. Remember, this is only three years after I thought I would become a 3D modeler and was not even considering the education field.
Shortly after starting the administration program, something I had not even expected happened. I was offered a position to be my district’s instructional technology coordinator, a position I had never even heard of. This was a perfect fit. I could help all the teachers and students, while doing something I loved and was good at.
With this transition, my philosophy has had to change to encompass the new responsibilities of my role. I was not thinking about how to teach my particular content to my students, but find ways to share new information with staff, not just automate as Alan November describes, and find ways to engage students of all levels, ages and backgrounds. I have heard Alan November give talks, read his articles and actually sat next to him at lunch once! He is really a visionary and I subscribe to most of his philosophies.
I am very aware that, as Alan November stated, the more I see the less I know. When I first set out, I was very frustrated and scared because I didn’t know it all. I was afraid I would be unfit to be successful in my new position. Then after hearing Mr. November speak and share all of these same feelings and more I felt more comfortable.
My goal will be to provide teachers all of the technological tools they need to be successful in their classes. These tools could be in the form of websites, software programs, acquisition of hardware equipment, staff development and training, and the effective integration of these technologies into their curriculum. As Mr. November says,“This is not about technology. It’s about understanding the impact of technology on how students learn.” The technology schools acquire should be driven by needs in instruction. Heidi-Hayes Jacobs, an educational consultant, says, “Teachers need to integrate technology seamlessly into the curriculum instead of viewing it as an add-on, an afterthought, or an event.”
I have the knowledge to educate students and teachers in technology in a variety of ways and to help staff integrate technology into all subjects, grade levels and curriculums. Technology is the future of education. As John Dewey said, “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”
One of the key factors for me in this new position will be effective communication. While I did not coin the phrase, I always say, "You cannot not communicate, so you might as well do it right." Communication is key for success in any field. In my new position I should be closely connected with many key staff within the district. I plan to have close communication with the IT department, the curriculum department, all campuses and district personnel.
I believe the most important communication will be with teachers. Teachers are the staff that is working with the students. I will hear their concerns and find ways to help them in the timeliest manner as possible. The teacher's focus should be on instruction and whatever I can do to assist them or lighten other technological burdens is what I will do. I will occasionally sit in on team meetings to find out needs of the teachers. Also, I will even demonstrate teaching strategies with the resources we have in the teacher’s classroom. If a teacher sees the success of a resource with their students, they would be much more willing to attempt it themselves. Teachers also desire to be able to communicate more with each other.
“There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age technology, but if the teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails,” Nancy Kassebaum, U.S. Senator said. We have several great technologies currently, but many have not been used to their full potential. There is no doubt I will have to learn certain sites, software and hardware that I may not currently be familiar with. This is part of working in the ever-changing world of technology though. I will work hard to learn these resources and share that information with our teachers. New teachers will need extra training at the beginning of a school year. However, even current teachers often only know the basics of a program and are missing out on the great capabilities that are available to them. Beyond group trainings, I would also be available for individual trainings as teachers need.
I constantly am striving to learn more and truly am a lifelong learner. I am self-taught in many software programs. Anything I do not currently know I will find a way to learn either on my own or through professional development. I will also continue to grow our school's reputation as a cutting-edge technology school by presenting at conferences locally, state-wide and across the nation. I will participate in professional development opportunities to keep current with emerging technologies to develop and maintain expertise.
In conclusions, I believe that it is the role of education to provide as many opportunities for success to all students in whatever ways are needed. I believe technology is going to only continue to grow as a way to engage students and encourage them to take over responsibility for their learning.