Semester Goals

At the beginning of the semester I picked out three goals for myself personally. 

1. I would like to learn different ways to incorporate technology in the classroom, especially practices that would benefit all ages.

** I was able to do this in the school I work in! There are days I have to teach nutrition lessons or even physical activity inside of the classroom or utilizing limited space. I used this time to get acquainted with the SMART boards in the room and had the students use their iPads and classroom laptops to complete the lessons.

2. On top of learning different ways to use technology, gaining more confidence in using these different techniques, as well as understanding them.

**This class gave me the confidence with better understanding technology, using it in the classrooms, the benefits and pitfalls, and all the different approaches that are available.

3. Simply, stay on top of my assignments all semester, up on readings, and ask questions when I need to!

**This was a tough one, but I am proud to say I completed it. Making this a goal for this class helped me accomplish this in not only this class, but all of my other classes this semester!

Era of Digital Learning

What are the emerging trends in educational technology?

A growing focus on understanding how our students are learning, as well as students feeling more empowered and in control of their grades through things like Google classroom. There are so many emerging trends, in many schools each student is starting to receive some for of technology available to them on a daily basis for school work. Students are creating websites to showcase their work and project based learning is beginning to incorporate high levels of technology.

How do they reshape the culture of learning and teaching?

They are empowering both the students and the teachers. Many teachers feel like through different technologies and software they can better understand where each student is individually. As well as understand more specific needs of their students. It gives students an opportunity to work at their own pace, have access to so many resources to help guide them when they're stuck or confused. It puts them in charge and in control of their education!

What is the role of teachers in an era of digital learning? 

Keeping in mind this idea of creating good digital citizens. It is inevitable, technology is growing and increasingly becoming a part of everyone's lives. Teaching our students how to utilize it properly, and in beneficial ways is key. I also believe, along with understanding proper etiquette when it comes to technology we should be promoting and encourage breaks! Encourage balance. Technology has its place, and always will from this point on, and it is a good thing. However, too much of anything is never good, so teach techniques for breaks and encourage the "pen and paper" method when possible to keep that balance. 

Participatory Culture

Participatory culture refers to published media, and dates back to year ago when newspapers started to circulate. Participatory culture has now transformed into a culture in which many individuals within a society (or the world) can contribute because of the advances in technology. Social media, wikipedia, blogs etc. allow everyday citizens to become a part of the media culture. There are both positive and negatives to this, as teachers we have the ability to help mold this growing culture into a positive.

Teaching this can go hand in hand with teaching our students about technology and the ethics that go along with it. Expose students to this type of culture, explain what it is and the impact it can have, both good and bad. Allow students to get involved, let them be creative with it. The barriers are minimal, which is both good and bad, if we expose them to the implications they will be able to learn and utilize these skills in the real world!

Immersive Learning

The article, Learning Science: A Deweyan perspective touched on many different things, but mainly this idea of the "Deweyan" way of learning. Letting our students explore the curriculum, essentially have a say in how they learn.

The difference between and ordinary learning experience and a Deweyan is that students get the opportunity to take part in their own learning experience. Meaning there will probably be less of the rigid schedules, more opportunities to give students their own time to work, placing students in groups to work and collaborate based on similar interests. Emerging technology, in my opinion, could take this idea of Deweyan learning to another level. It would present a much larger ability to let our students explore and become a part of their own learning. Even just with google docs, the ability to collaborate outside of the classroom. Prezi is another example, it is a more creative way for students to create presentation, as opposed to power points, there is little room to be creative. Also, with Prezi students can work on their projects anytime and anywhere as it is not a software that would need to be purchased.

Emerging technology will offer so much to our students in the coming years, as long as were aware of the benefits and address concerns right out of the gate so that our students benefit from the technology, it could create so many open doors for our students.

Wise Integration of Technology

I found the image above and found it incredibly informative and a great way to explain the SAMR model and ways in which is could be utilized within a classroom. These are not the only class tasks in which this framework could be implemented, but it gives enough examples to give a teacher an idea of ways it could be used. It could be tweaked in certain areas to be more appropriate for different ages levels as well.

Substitution -- is the stay of replacing a traditional method with a technological method. This is also where you would want to ask yourself if the replacement is beneficial or not. There are still many times when traditional methods will better serve your students, and this would be the step where that needs to be determined.

Augmentation -- this step, as well as the previous, traditional methods will be directly replaced with that of a technology method, however with enhancements to the student experience. Giving the students a bit more control, and trying to enhance their learning.

Modification -- the biggest question here is asking whether the technology significantly alters the task or not?

Redefinition -- does the technology allow educators to redefine students tasks, but in a way that will be beneficial to both the teacher and the student?

I chose this framework as one to discuss because I like that each step requires you to dig deep into how it will benefit the students, teacher, and the classroom in general. There is a whole process to go through that will enable educators to really pick apart whether or not the method they're considering implementing or the substitution they're attempting to make will actually yield beneficial results or not. In the end, many things must be attempted in the real world in order to determine how successful they'll be, but this framework provides some steps to follow to weed out any concerns before its taken into the classroom to be attempted.

I found the RAT model to be very similar to the SMAR model, however there are a few things that I like about this model that differ from the SMAR model. 

Replacement -- this is similar to the substitution step from above, but this is going to be similar among many models as the discussion is based on doing just that, replacing traditional methods. 

Amplification -- I like this step specifically and the way it is described. Increasing efficiency without any fundamental changes to the lesson. I think this is crucial and the examples given above are great. 

Transformation -- again, similar ideas to SMAR but putting it in a perspective of enhancing the students learning from the traditional methods.

Overall I think I prefer the SMAR method, because I think the steps dig a bit deeper into why you're making the decisions you are in regards to integrating technology, but they both lend some examples and ideas for educators to consider when going through the process of integrating technology into the classroom. 

Does Technology Influence Learning?

This question, stated above, in the title of this blog entry, has sparked a debate in the education realm of the technology world. Richard E. Clark and Robert B. Kozma both make valid arguments on both sides of this debate. Clark argues that media is essentially a vehicle that merely delivers instruction, but fails to influence achievement within the students. He also poses a question, does the media that is being utilized actually influence the students, or is it the method? Clark's question essentially being, are we changing our methods to incorporate media and in turn influencing change not through that media but through the change of method? Kozma's big idea is shifting the question from, "does media influence learning," to more of a how can we utilize media to influence learning. Kozma acknowledges the cons, but creates an argument more about shifting the mindset.

For myself, I see both sides. Growing up as a kid born in the 90s, I was not raised surrounded by media. We had a couple TV's in our home, did not get a desktop computer until I was in upper elementary school, and my teachers (until middle school, approx) still used old school projectors that rolled around on a cart. Teachers were challenged a bit more to use different and unique methods to get through to their students, however I have always been a visual learner, and as the years went on and technology grew, I felt I was able to become more successful in the classroom when technology was utilized in the right way. Math was never a strong subject for me, and I remember several computer-based games that I loved, but taught me math. My parents even credit many of these games for helping me improve in the area of math.

I take Kozma's side and agree with his stance, and here is why. In my personal experience, with math, and utilizing these computer games to help improve my skills in this area, I also realize that I needed more than just using media to be successful in math. I chose Kozma because I like his question and his idea of shifting this to how can we utilize media to influence learning, and I answer that by saying no relying on the media. My teachers and my parents did not rely on the media methods to help me improve in math, these used media as supplemental material, I still needed the instruction from the teacher. I think Kozma's argument supports this the best.