The Integrator

There have been definite ups and downs as I learned about the impact of technology on education, work, and society. It has been helpful to understand the history of and the ways that technology has changed our lives. Since graduating from college five years ago, I know I have seen many changes in  my personal use of computers, cell phones, and especially the Internet. However, the disconnect in my use and my students' use of these same tools has been made more clear through information I have been exposed to such as the Thornburg Center and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. I am much more comfortable using blogs; so much so that I have incorporated them into my enrichment classes. Additionally, I am working toward becoming 'paper-free' at least in printing out articles of interest and emailed information. I will admit that podcasting is going to require more practice on my part before I will make it a regular part of my teaching tools. Figuring out how to convert files was one assignment that nearly caused a destroyed laptop and martial strife!

My understanding of the learning process has changed because I recognize that I and many of my colleagues use technology in very basic ways. Instead of asking students to learn from technology, they need to be taught to learn with technology. Assignments that I have designed in the past asked students to do very basic technological tasks; typing assignments in word processing programs, creating power points, and limited online research from sites like Proquest. However, I now know that these assignments don't necessarily engage students in those 21st Century Learning skills like critical thinking and complex communication. 

I am glad to be able to say that my lessons have always been more student-centered rather than teacher focused. Using technology will help me to continue to engage learners in meaningful ways that allows them to create projects through collaboration with their peers, allowing them to practice for the jobs they will one day hold. Employers want employes who are self-driven and can communicate with a team rather than mindless drones who take orders. Understanding how our workplace has changed helped me to see the significance in helping our students to be prepared for a wired workplace. I intend to continue to stay abreast of changes in technology by monitoring the technology blogs I subscribed to as part of this course. Also I will work with my media center coordinator to use new opportunities in my classroom. 

Though two years does not seem terribly long-term, in the world of technology, it is actually quite a long time! I would like to make my enrichment classes that I mentioned earlier work entirely on blogs that are set up in the beginning of the year. Here we would create an online community where the students can communicate about our content and collaborate on their assignments. In order for this to happen, I'm going to have to get our school board to pay for membership in a better blogging site. The free site I use has a limited number of student accounts with a small amount of storage that would not hold a year's worth of work. Also I am afraid that not all parents would embrace this idea, especially if they do not have Internet access at home. My second goal is to then use technology more in my grade level classes. I feel guilty denying these students the opportunity to use technology, especially since they are the ones who may benefit most. Potential problems in this venture are needing to monitor students more closely, behavior problems, and less experience with computers. I know that it will probably take longer to work with technology and I can't let our curriculum fall by the wayside. However, I consider it to be a worthwhile cause and will use our technology coordinator and lead teachers to help me overcome these issues. Wish me luck! :) 

First Pocast

Here is my first podcast. In it is an interview with three of my sixth grade social studies students. Their opinions well represent the norms of their classmates. After polling my students I discovered several characteristics about their technology use. 

First, they use much more technology at home than at school. The average number of hours using computers, cell phones, and gaming  was three hours daily. Whereas at school, the number was less than a half an hour and primarily in computer class, if enrolled at all. 

Secondly, the students are adept at using computers for both school work and pleasure. Browsing the Internet; though surprisingly not using social networking sites as I would have expected, is something the students have been doing for some time thanks to popular tween websites that they mentioned such as Nickelodian, Club Penguin, and Webkins.  Though the students I talked to do not visit MySpace or FaceBook, I know that many do thanks to their questionnaires. 

Finally, students use of technology has been so limited in school that they are either unaware or apprehensive about doing certain types of assignments using computers rather than traditional books or paper and pencil. In my survey I asked students how they would feel about holding class discussions online and many wanted to know exactly how that would work. Many were not aware of what a blog is. However, the students were excited about alternatives such as reading our textbook online or completing assignments in Power Point rather than doing paper projects. Please click the podcast link above to hear what my students had to say. Enjoy!

Evaluating 21st Century Skills

Overall, I am impressed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. They certainly have an impressive list of members and partners; groups which should be on the cutting edge of technology. Identifying and describing the "Six Key Elements of 21st Century Learning" and illustrating the "Bridge to 21st Century Learning" was helpful to educators like myself who are new to learning about technology integration. Additionally, I liked the fact that the Partnership has created "Nine Steps to Build Momentum" rather than just telling teachers that they need to figure out a way to implement those key elements on their own. A quote I appreciated from the Report and Mile Guide said it best; "Infusing dynamic, real-world contexts into classroom learning will invigorate teacher and student engagement." (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf p. 5).

Some states that are involved in Partnership initiatives surprised me, since they are not as well known for their educational standards. By no means do I intend to write off all the hardworking teachers in more rural states like West Virginia or Wisconsin, but I know the realities that schools everywhere face when it comes to getting the equipment and access needed to get a program like this off the ground. Largely, it seems as if these states' participation is supported by their governors. This is important because we all know that schools depend on political actions and is instrumental in building said momentum and preparing citizens to one day be productive contributors to society. 

One aspect I thought was a bit odd were the missing success stories. A link is provided, alas, no success stories! Also considering how many publications cover the Partnership for 21st Century Skills as referenced on the homepage, I am curious as to why my state, Maryland, hasn't become more active. On the Tools and Resources page, the Partnership claims they "conduct extensive, ongoing outreach to a broad range of individuals and groups within the education community, including education experts, teachers, administrators, students, businesses, community groups, university faculty and researchers, under-served community representatives, after-school program representatives, and policy makers." So what's the deal Maryland? I'm new to technology integration, but surely someone more significant than me knows about opportunities such as this. What can we do to get involved?

I suppose that classroom teachers like myself are responsible as well. We can't push all the blame on our state curriculum writers or Boards of Education. Like new employees bring technologies to the business world, teachers need to maximize student exposure and create assignments as well as assessments that use Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom in order to prepare our students for the real, 21st Century world. If we do it in our schools it will trickle up!

Now What Do I Do With It?

I teach sixth grade social studies, which is ancient history in my county. Our enrichment students use something called an Interactive Student Notebook (I.S.N.) which is a part of the History Alive program and encourages text interaction, creation and use of graphic organizers, journal activities, and other higher order thinking activities. Immediately the I.S.N. seemed like a way for students to use blogs as an alternative to the actual notebooks that get lost, aren't completed, or are simply rushed through. 

The I.S.N.s are collected only twice per quarter so they are nice to grade just a couple times. However, you can imagine that some students don't keep up with assignments day to day since long-term projects are difficult for new middle schoolers to transition into. I am excited most about using blogs as a way to collect student assignments, or at least monitor their completion more easily. In addition, parents could access their child's blogs to verify that work is done on time. I could create a class blog to post the assignments and other class information. Another benefit would be that students would not have to worry about losing their work and furthermore would be able to monitor their progress throughout the year and refer back to it as they begin a new I.S.N. in seventh grade. 

I would love to try this with one of my three enrichment sections at least as an alternative for the few who are failing because of poor I.S.N. grades. I know there are downfalls such as limited home Internet access and several students may be inexperienced with technology. But I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions for this application of blogs! 

What's a blog?

Can you believe that's what my students said when I told them about this endeavor? I thought I was the only one who was new to blogging. So I told them a blog is an online journal of sorts. Being the mature sixth graders that they are, they said something like "Who would want to read your journal Mrs. Thompson?". Ha! I'll have to inform them that (eventually) I'll have quite the following here! Thanks classmates! :)