I have been struggling with that question this week as my old self and my new self struggle to become comfortable with this relatively new form of communication. I have been whining all week about what I should blog about, who cares what I think anyway, who is really reading all these blogs, etc. I looked to Pete’s blog, EdTechJourneys, for some inspiration. That was interesting reading, but it just made me feel like I’m going to be putting my thoughts out “there” and I’m having such a hard time articulating what I’m thinking. So I turned to the Education World site to see if anything there would jog my desire to post to my blog. As I began reading an article on that site, I noticed a link for the author’s blog. I decided to see what he was blogging about and proceeded to have my first AHA! moment while blogging.
The first sentence of Miguel Guhlin’s blog was talking about Pete Reilly’s (Ed Tech Journeys) recent blog post. With just a few clicks of my mouse I was able to become a ‘virtual’ part of a conversation between professionals in a field I’m choosing to learn more about. And while I do have the opportunity to speak to Pete in person on a weekly basis, it is enlightening to know (and really experience) the conversations he is having with his peers. The power of having a learning community on-line is becoming a reality for me.
Miguel outlined two methods of education we employ in America in his post:
Traditional Methods
- Domesticating education
- Attitudes relating to authority, conformity and power
- Drill-n-practice technology use is predominant here...inauthenticity of classroom activity makes it difficult for children to see how school learning applies to their lives. the data suggest that emphasis on advanced reasoning skills promotes higher student performance.
Progressive Methods
- Empowering education
- Powerful literacy
- Communicating/Collaborating using technology…Here, “technology use is used as an asynchronous tool for communication that allows teachers to engage and collaborate with one another within a building and across the district. Encouraging online discussion amongst teachers in study groups is core feature of professional development strategy.” But couldn’t the same be said of students and their technology use?
from Patrick J. Finn’s book, Literacy with an Attitude
Currently, I am reluctantly employing the first method in my daily practice because that was how I was trained and that seems to be the way of the education world. But, hopefully through my coursework in the NYIT program and with more discourse with my ‘virtual’ peers through blogging, I’ll move to the second method or to someplace happily in-between.
Valerie
I was trying to figure out why, in a district as large as the one I work in, more educators are not actively seeking to utilize the technology we already have in place to enhance student learning. When I first arrived in Yonkers, it was mandated that computer labs be disbanded (at least in the elementary schools) and the computers be placed directly in the classrooms. This was to ensure that students had access to computers during the course of the day to be used as a tool in their education. Every classroom was to have 5 computers with internet connection. In my building every classroom has the required amount of computers, however, the vast majority of these computers are not being used in the way they were intended to be used. One of the main problems for the minimal levels of usage, in my opinion, is accountability.
There is a section of No Child Left Behind which is called the “Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001”. I had never heard of this before. As far as I can tell, there are no real measures of accountability in place to monitor the enhancement of education through the use of technology. As a classroom teacher shouldn’t I be held accountable if I fail to adhere to this act mandated by the Department of Education? I certainly am held accountable if my students fail to reach the required yearly progress goals as measured by the ELA, Mathematics Exam, and other mandated standardized tests. I am constantly reminded of the urgent need to “get those numbers up” in that respect. Why is there no sense of urgency with regard to enhancing education through the use of technology?
As a matter of policy, we tend to measure those aspects of education which we collectively deem important. I don’t think there will be the necessary paradigm shift in education, with regards to technology, until we are held accountable. Of course there is a sense of urgency in some districts, but I have yet to see it across the board for all students in all districts.
I am starting to realize that many of my 5th grade students do not share my enthusiasm for technology in the classroom. Technology use in school is potentially creating a bigger wedge between the “haves” and the “have-nots”- those who have access to computers in their homes and those who do not. During an impromptu question-and-answer session about the realities of middle school, my students learned that it is a requirement of most middle school teachers that assignments be word-processed. For some of my students this is a serious problem. It was easy for some to advise those who don’t have a computer at home to go to the public library to use the computer. This is not as easy as it sounds. Many of my students are not allowed to leave their homes after school because it is too dangerous. Their parents are worried for their safety. Also, many students in Yonkers are bussed to school. They don’t have the opportunity to stay after school and use the computers in school. This makes the average word-processed book report more difficult than it needs to be.
The program that provides affordable laptops for children in small villages in Africa could be a huge benefit to some of my students in Yonkers. The technological revolution we are currently experiencing is leaving many American students in its wake. All students should have the opportunity to benefit from advances in technology.
This was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I feel like a total techie right now.
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