Reflection on EDUC-6710I-1 Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society.

In Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society, the experts shared and spoke passionately on the significance of technology in the 21st - century classroom, as well as the importance of exposing students to technology in order to prepare them for the life ahead after graduation. As (Prensky, 2010) noted, the future of education is digital, not linear. The millennia learners as coined out by (Dede, 2010) work together to solve problems, they think in video and digital forms rather than texts, and as such, 21st century students thrive in a media based learning environment.
 Teachers who will teach these “digital natives” will have to adopt the digital language if they like to communicate with their students in a meaningful and enduring ways.

Technology Skills Development:

After exposure to this course, my understanding of integration of technology in the classroom has changed for good. Before experiencing this course, I used computer and technology to do things differently in my class, and then I assumed I was fully using technology appropriately. (Thornburg and Dede, 2010) exposed the fallacy that using technology to do things differently are really not utilizing technology to its fullest in the classroom. They established the difference between using technology to do “things differently” and using technology to do “different things.” There are clearer indications of what both mean, I have developed a deeper understanding of using technology to do “different things” in my teaching practice. Before this course, I have heard about wiki, podcast, blog, and flickr, but I never attempt to research how these tools can be used in my class, in fact, I always think they are meant for the business world.

My knowledge of teaching and learning process has deepened beyond my own imagination. I know better now that students learn differently as a result of their massive exposure to technology and that there is a need for teachers change their perception of students and how they learn in order to connect with their students. 21st century students think and learn differently, they even speak differently these days, and that teachers need to have a paradigm shift in their pedagogy in order to promote students’ learning. (Dede, 2010). The debate over whether the exposure to media has permanently altered kids’ brain are still ragging on, experts have not agreed to the proposition that the millennia learners brains have been rewired because of media exposure, but they all agree that, students now are days learn differently and unless the new way of teaching and learning is embraced, there will always be a disconnect between students and school.

The exposure to this course definitely made me to shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered mode of teaching. As (Prenskey, 2010) pointed out, I now put students’ “engagement before content”, instead of deciding for students, I now decide with students. Also following (Harris, 2000) advice, I have changed my beliefs in learning and about learning process. My role has changed from that of “dictator” to that of moderator, facilitator and guide. Students explore, gather, analyze, aggregate and try to synthesize with the help of the teacher. I only come in to guide students to separate biases from real information, and help students to become critical consumers of information as well as modeling to students how to create their own knowledge and contribute to the body of knowledge in general. I am trying to become what Vygotsky called “mediating influence” that provides the “spark” to push the learner to the next level.

Expanding my knowledge is a lifelong process, to do this; I will continually engage in study and inquiry type of teaching practice, familiarize myself with latest research findings and avail myself of the accrued benefits. I will belong to body of professional associations, I am already enjoying my membership of International Society for the Integration of Technology in Education (ISTE), I will join online learning community groups, engage in habitual net-working with professionals to keep developing and updating my knowledge and learn how to use latest technology tools to service and improve my students’ learning goals.

My Two Long-term Goals

In the present jet age of computerized actions, the use of technological tools cannot be over- emphasized; as such “technology in education is no longer an option but an expectation. (Thornburg, 2004).

The two long-term goals I like to set for myself are:

1. To secure at least 10 to 15 computers fully functional and fully connected to the internet in my classroom. As at now, I have only one computer in my class which is grossly inadequate for my students and I. When my students are doing some research, I have to give each group about 8 minutes on the classroom computer. The computer lab is always booked, always busy and as a result, we do not have enough computer time in the school.

The way I plan to do this is to have dialogues with the school Administration, and School Board Technology Team to share my plan of transforming my classroom into a “digital and virtual” classroom where students can use state of the art technology tools to collaborate with one another and learn the 21st - century skills using the 21st century tools they need to acquire the new digital language for future use. My plan B is to appeal to parents and community groups to donate computers to my class and I will share my dream of how I intend to use the computers to promote the culture of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving strategies among students.

2. My second goal is to create a class website that will promote learning in my class. I know this idea will face opposition and resistance among all the stake holders, parents, school Administrations, School Board authority and even among fellow teachers. The School Board, School Administration and parents are always concerned about students’ safety on the internet, as well as other internet abuse cases by students; I know I will have to adduce evidence to support my points about how to make it as save as possible to students.

The way I plan to do this is to have meetings with all the stake holders and present to them the need to give students all the necessary skills and tools they require to have a competitive advantage in the 21st century economy and labour market. I intend to use a lot of material from Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I will give out the web site for all conference participants to check and find out reasons for my initiative. (http://www.p21.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf)

I will also share internet safety strategies that I plan to use with parents and co-opt parents as members to promote safe use of internet among students. I plan to carry out an inquiry study that will survey students’ interest about the idea of having a class website, I will ask students to identify as many educational activities they can use class website for, and I will also ask them to identify those things that they cannot use class website for. Furthermore, students will be asked to prescribe disciplinary actions that could be taken against any culprits that violate the rules of the use of class website. All this will be shared with the stakeholders. I will site all academic work of scholars and experts such as (Dede, 2010, Thornburg, 2010, Prensky, 2005, Davidson, 2010 & Harris, 2000) that supported acquisition of 21st century skills such as information literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, self-direction etc. to convince people and carry them along to support my vision of 21st century classroom.

New way of Using Technology:

There is no doubt that most of my answers during week one had changed after completing this course. Before my exposure to this course, I used Microsoft Power Points to present some of my lessons, and I encouraged my students to the same thing during their presentations, I used Excel spread sheet, I logged unto educational websites and asked students to view information, couple of video clips, Microsoft Publisher, Corel draw, digital camera, geometer’s sketchpad, etc, and I pride myself that I have used technology adequately in my classroom! During this course, listening to experts about the use of technology, I realized that I was merely using technology to do “things differently” as opposed to using technology to do “different things” (Dede, 2010, Thornburg 2010, & Richardson, 2010). Prior to this course, I did not know what web 2.0 mean, let alone use it in my classroom to help my students. Now I know the difference between using technology to do things differently and using technology to do different things and I have fully embraced the latter. I have benefited immensely from this course; I can now use technology to help my students develop the 21st –century skills that are vital to their survival in the 21st century economy.

I was contended with using power points, desk top publisher in my class, now after almost completing this course, I have not only become familiar with these tools, I have used them during the course to complete many assignments, I have actually introduced them in my class and my students are enjoying these new tools to complete home work and projects.

References

Cramer, S. (2007). Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills.

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Keengwe, J., Onchwari, G., & Wachira, P. (2008). The use of computer tools to support

meaningful learning. AACE Journal, 16(1), 77–92

Kirschner, P., & Erkens, G. (2006). Cognitive tools and mindtools for collaborative learning.

Journal of Educational Computing Research, 35(2), 199–209. ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:

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Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program number 21: The changing role of the

classroom teacher: Part 1 [DVD]. Understanding the impact of technology on

education, work, and society. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program number 22: The changing role of the

classroom teacher: Part 2 [DVD]. Understanding the impact of technology on

education, work, and society. Baltimore, MD: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8–13.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom

(3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California 91320: Corwin A SAGE Company.