Revised Educational Philosophy

The definition of Educational Technology is broad and encompasses a vast description of technological tools and applications that many of us use in our everyday lives whether at work, home, school or just about anywhere else in the world. Wikipedia’s definition states, “Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources." It has opened up a world of resourses to Teacher’s, parent’s and student’s with all the benefits of learning, exploring, and creating, however there are challenges that come with it for teacher’s and parent’s too. The article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, by Marc Prensky gives us some excellent examples of the positive and negative aspects when he talks about the gap in learning that has been created between teacher’s and their student’s because of the differences in the ways these two generations grew up. His description of a “Digital Native” being “these “new” student’s of today…….the “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet.” In fact, most student’s in the upper grade level’s are probably better than the adult’s who surround them at all of these tools, as a direct result of the number of years of practice,versus those adult’s who are at the front of the classroom instructing them. We are quite simply stumped at some of the abilities of our student’s, and even our own children exhibit. The speed with which they are able to access information alone, much less the diversity, and skill levels are sometimes far superior to those who were brought up on books, magazines, and other paper resources. Author Marc Prensky calls those individual who were brought up on the pre-digital age of books, magazines, tapes, and television the “Digital Immigrants”, and we are playing catch up to our own student’s. It is the “legacy” content of our own learning that we are stuggling to overcome so that we can be better “future”content Teachers. We are being challenged not only by our student’s but by society, and the world at hand to become better Educator’s and to meet the demand of our student’s. It must be crossed this ‘Great Divide’, the barrier to learning, if we are to meet these demands. Wow what I have learned about Educational Technology over the last 7 weeks has been amazing. I feel like a whole new world has been opened up for me as a teacher, and I can not wait to begin to use this new found information in my classroom today and in the future. The wiki page has so many uses where do I begin, and I think the best was saved for last with the Google applications. The calendar is a great tool for teachers and I plan on using it immediately, as well as getting my students to use it for posting assignments and keeping track of who has turned in what. The world of technolgy is a wonderful way to get students involved in learning and collaborating with their teacher, other students, and even their parents. I see this technology as a whole new way of educating students and one in which teachers must utilize to keep up with the techno savy students in our classrooms today.

Website credibility

This has been an interesting topic and a question that, as a parent, and a web browser I've often wondered about. I'm glad to now have some tools on how to investigate the credibility of a website or to be able to get some idea of the validity of a website by checking the external links. This along with identifying who published the information helps to validate the information that is being published. This is extremely important to know as a teacher and a parent and the knowledge will serve me well as both.

Portfolios and EPortfolios Applications

This article gave me an enormous amount of insight into Portfolios and the premise behind the creation of them which I had very little prior knowledge. The learning potential from either an electronic Portfolio or paper Portfolio is still being debated however the evidence is clear overall that these both serve to help individuals, teachers, and students grow intellectually from the information which is gathered and used to reflect upon later. The argument in support of students keeping electronic portfolios "to support student learning, engagement, and collaboration" has been explored in a study by the REFLECT Initiative. The acronym REFLECT or "Researching Electronic portfolios: Learning, Engaging, and Collaboration through Technology" is an initiative that started primarily to study the issues related to learning and reflection by secondary students involved in the use of electronic portfolios and has been a two year undertaking. It was interesting to read that the teacher's role was critical to the success of the programs, and how a single teacher proved to be less efficient in developing the full potential versus two teachers, or a group of teachers who had a technology support system in place. Those teachers with the technology support were better able to utilize these eportfolios because the opportunity was there to communicate with one another about their experiences. And so it is no surprise that larger communities of teachers and school-wide systems have even better results. There are many variations of and uses for portfolios although those that are used to Assess Learning and those that support learning are primary to teachers. The applications are wide provide valuable data for both teachers and students. I can now see the unlimited resource a portfolio can be for educational uses and therefore anticipate the opportunity to learn more about them in the future, whether through my own experience or through others.

My Digital Map

Philosophy on Education and Technology

Technology Philosophy Rough Draft

Thinking back on my days as a young, impressionable student, some of my favorite classroom memories are without a doubt my 10^th grade biology class with Mr. Dubois.  This is probably because Mr. Dubois was a delightful, hard working, interesting Teacher, who cared about his students, and that was apparent in his style of teaching.  I remember having to do labs that didn’t thrill me, however Mr. Dubois somehow made those labs enjoyable.  He was a master at keeping his student’s engaged in what was going on in his classroom because was excited about what he did and it showed.  In fact, this class had such an impact on me that I pursed a degree in Earth Science, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree.

By recalling those memories now, I’m inspired to be that kind of Teacher.   A Teacher who cares enough about my student’s to do my very best everyday. To work hard at creating in my student’s a desire for learning, and knowledge.  It is an enormous responsibility we have as Educator’s and through training, coursework, and resources such as technology, books and other materials we can implement a plan that can be successful in our classrooms.  This means establishing lesson plans that work, using assessments to determine specific needs, and addressing those needs with the appropriate action while meeting the expectations of the Administrators, Parent’s, District and State. Officials.  To strive to get students involved in the classroom and challenge them to think, research, and produce, it is all a part of the job. If I can do all that, then it becomes the responsibility of student’s to apply what they learn in my classroom, coupled with some support at home, they will more likely than not become contributing members of society.

Technology today has transformed classrooms for Teacher’s into a world of resources right at our fingertips.  Supplying information in minutes to enhance lesson plans or provide quick answers to questions, or problems that may arise.  It has become something we must have in our classrooms and therefore another area in which we all as Educator’s must be willing participants in mastering.

Reflection 1

Hmmm....Automator or Informator, well that isn't difficult for me to answer and relect on because I know I use technology when I need it as a way to improve whatever it is I need it for at the time.  I like the informator approach however because as a Teacher I want to be able to come up with creative ways to incorporate technology into classrooms although I would hope this would be done with the guidance of the Techology expert working at the school.  Not to deminish my abilities here but I think in cases such as technology development in the classrooms a group of individuals coming together to brainstorm about where the technology is needed would be a great way to generate ideas and then incorporate those ideas into the classrooms.