Reflection on Impact of Technology in Education

My eyes have really been opened to the opportunities that technology can provide students and how vital technology related skills will be to their futures. My masters’ course has made me aware of the value of tools like blogs, wikis, and podcasts. I had never used these tools prior to this course and now view them as integral components in teaching students 21st century skills. Using these tools personally has allowed me to become comfortable with them and to feel confident that I can effectively incorporate them into the curriculum. Learning to use them was fun and I think that many of my students would feel the same way. I am excited to put them to use in the classroom.

My knowledge of the teaching and learning process has also been enhanced through this course. Today’s students are what Marc Prensky (2001) refers to as “digital natives”. These students have been exposed to technology from birth. Prensky points out that the digital native prefers games, multi-tasking, receiving information quickly, and thrives on instant gratification. These students are vastly different from those of previous decades. It stands to reason that teaching methods of the past are not best practice for these digital natives. While I may not perform my best when faced with multiple tasks at one time, many of my students do. Establishing a classroom environment and providing learning opportunities that allow my students to utilize the skills they have and develop other 21st century skills will benefit them greatly in the future.

Understanding the characteristics of digital natives and the skills they will need in the 21st century workplace has demonstrated the importance of shifting from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered approach. Students have an abundance of resources at their fingertips. This has made memorization of information trivial as it can be found easily on the Internet. There is a greater need for students to develop skills like critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and communication. These skills can be enhanced through collaborative projects where the teacher provides problems or situations for the students to solve. This kind of fundamental shift allows the students to take control of the learning with the teacher serving as a facilitator. The teacher’s role as a facilitator is vital as they guide and coach the students through the situations. The benefits of this type of learning as compared to the previous methods of lecture, worksheet, and test are huge.

Incorporating technology into the curriculum is a time consuming and sometimes daunting task. I often have the feeling that in order to incorporate something into my curriculum, I need to be an expert on it. That is not the case with technology. It is important to have a general understanding of the technology to be used but not essential to be an expert on it. In working with technology in the past, many of my students have come forward as experts in the area and have assisted me and their classmates in using some aspect of the tool. Providing students the opportunity to use new technologies is one of the most important things a teacher can do. Using new technology can be exciting and motivating for both the students and teacher. I can continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology by being willing to try new things. Providing appropriate learning opportunities and assessments will increase student achievement.

I have set two long-term goals that will transform my classroom environment. My first goal is to establish a blog where any of my students or their parents can go and get general information. I will include my school contact information, links to important websites, FFA information, and links to all of my classes. For each of my classes, I will include the projects we are working on, upcoming due dates, and other critical information. This application of the blog will allow the parents and students to stay connected with what is going on in the classroom. My second goal is to get all of my students blogging. This will look different in each of my classes. My engineering class will use the blog as an online portfolio. Students in horticulture will use the blog to post lab summaries and interact with other classmates. I will provide learning opportunities where all of my students will post to their blog at least once every other week and also comment on two of their classmates’ blogs. There are many obstacles that I will need to overcome to accomplish this. The first is that my school has a block on blog sites. I will research what type of blog site I want to utilize and then present the benefits of it to my principal and the use of an RSS aggregator. Computer use is another issue to overcome. I will need to be creative in ensuring that students have ample time to complete the assignments. My survey of student access to technology revealed that all of my engineering students have access to a computer at home. Completing some blogging as homework is an option, at least for this class. This will be a time consuming endeavor. I will be completing this process in stages rather than doing it all at once so that I am not overwhelmed with it. This will allow me to establish my blog and incorporate blogging into all of my classes in the next two years.

This course has taught me a great deal about the importance of incorporating technology into the curriculum. At the beginning of this course, I took a self-assessment to evaluate my skills with utilizing technology. I initially rated myself low in many of the areas. I would rate myself much higher if I were taking the assessment today. I am sufficient in all of the areas of the assessment and even exemplary in some. Standard two, planning and designing learning environments and experiences, is an area where I now feel like I excel. There is always room for improvement. Understanding the importance of technology, 21st century skills, and the characteristics of digital natives can allow me to provide my students with the type of learning environment that can prepare them for the demands of the 21st century.

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

Podcasts

This week I was given the task of creating a podcast. This was a completely new experience to me. I can see how this application of technology could be beneficial for my students but I need to get more experienced with it myself. I used Gabcast to create my recording and it can be found by clicking on the title Summary of Student's Digital Abilities. Gabcast was a very user friendly site and I will likely use it again.