As I finish my survey class of understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society, this course has helped me develop my own professional technology skills. In the beginning of the class as I considered our checklist, many items I had to check rarely because of no clear skill level with which to implement the desired outcome. While I had heard of wikis and podcasts I had never used them before. Blogs I had used in my classroom, but had never created a professional one. After seeing the tremendous opportunities in using wikis and podcasts, I see many wonderful ways to incorporate them not only in my classroom, but also my professional life (Richardson, 2010). I have already approached my principal and started building a school wiki, and have also begun one to share professional curriculum and ideas with teachers I work with. My class has also begun sharing of ideas about math and science through their own wiki. Last week we created podcasts on severe weather which the students loved doing. In going back to our class checklist, I have developed a skill set which will now allow me to move from “rarely” to “sometimes and often.” I see great potential in my classroom and professional life for these 21st century skills and tools!
In taking this class, I have deepened my knowledge about teaching and the learning process in a few ways. First, I realized how vital my role is in helping my students develop and utilize their real world skills through the use of 21st century skills. I can no longer use old teaching techniques if I am to accomplish this goal (Levy, 2006.). Also, through this class, I have developed an urgency for quickly becoming technology savy and continually develop these skills. How can I begin to introduce and utilize these tools if I don’t first have a basic understanding of how and when these tools can be used and integrated into the classroom. Finally, I do not have to know everything about technology tools and programs to be implementing them. As the facilitator of knowledge within my class, I can allow other students to share their learning and understanding as “voices of authority” on technology tools (Dede, 2010). This is an uneasy ground for some teachers to stand on, allowing students to become the drivers of information and learning, but as I’ve learned through this course, I have to be ready for a broader curriculum, and facilitate my student to using skills that will enable them to succeed in their future jobs.
I plan to continue to expanding my learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement through challenging myself to explore new technology tools. As I am able to do this, I will create a comfort level allowing a natural ease with these tools to flow into my students learning and achievement (Keengwe, 2008). Also, I am learning the technology leaders to follow, read about, and where to get help as I strive to continue learning.
A couple long-term goals will help transform my classroom environment and guide me through overcoming roadblock for these goals. First, completing grants in the hopes of obtaining technology tools for my classroom. These tools will then support the implementation of technology throughout my curriculum. Second, I want to observe other classrooms that creatively I will accomplish these goals by researching the tools I would like to have, developing creative ideas for how these tools will increase learning in my classroom. As these two goals are implemented then I will have a great start of developing curriculum that truly highlights 21st century skills.
References:
Dede, C. Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). [DVD]. In The Changing WorkEnvironment Part II. Baltimore: Author.
Keengwe, J., Onchwari, G., & Wachira, P. (2008). The use of computer tools to support meaningful learning. AACE Journal, 16(1), 77–92.
Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
