Through the materials presented, the discussions, and the blogs I have visited throughout this course, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society, I have first of all been able to gain a much clearer view of the importance of learning, and then teaching, 21st Century skills. Whereas previously I thought that technology was fun (but perhaps not entirely essential) my viewpoint has broadened (Laureate Education 2008). I can now relate to the fact that when my students race for the laptops, it is not only because it is entertaining to them, but technology is an authentic part of the way they learn. Due to much of the reading made available to me through this course, and in particular the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website, I can appreciate how important it is for educators, and therefore for me in my classroom, to channel the technology skills students have, and their desire to learn more about technology, into constructive research and problem-solving, and into the creation of media products that enhance their learning and that of others. According to Levy and Murnarne (2006) the loss of blue-collar jobs and the rise in the numbers of jobs that require critical thinking skills means that students will need to develop these skills more than ever in order to compete. Not least of the considerations I have about technology is that it is fun, as Thornberg and Davidson pointed out, and since for me a principal motivation for work is the extent to which it engages me and to which I enjoy it, integrating technology into the classroom means that I will be in this profession for quite a while to come.
Therefore my own skills have undergone a radicalization. I appreciate the importance of blogging when I feel the need to sound out other people, and so now blogging has become a part of my life. Finally, I now know how to publish a podcast online, whereas last year I only knew enough to make the podcast. I can now appreciate the concept of a website as a living entity, or wiki, that many people can create, as opposed to a source of information posted on and controlled entirely by one person. I can direct students who love to create art to enhance their projects to websites where they can create images online. The conservation of paper and trees, one of our vital resources, has long been a major concern of mine; now much of my students' work is accomplished online, through blogging and other posts, and the printer in my classroom sees much less use.
Some things that I still need to learn more about are wiki sties that do not require students to have an email address, but which do require identification such as a login so that I can monitor their posts and contributions, since many of my students are under age 13. Some sites I need to explore more are Knowledge Forum (Kirschner, 2006), and ePals (Trask, 2010). I would also like to understand more about embedding HTML code so that podcasts and music can be played directly from a site as opposed to being linked to somewhere else.
I believe where I have arrived until now with technology integration and my future goals follow what Cramer describes as the "Three Phases of Technology Use": Print Automation, Expansion of Learning Opportunities, and Data-Driven Virtual learning (Cramer, 2007). In regards to the second phase, one of my future goals is to make research on the Internet easier for my students. Although many of them enjoy technology and use it every day, some have a fear that using technology in school will be boring and the joy of it will be sucked out because they will have to perform "work". Others have a lack of confidence, and their biggest fear is that they will not be adept at tasks that require using technological tools. I have already allayed some of these fears by demonstrating how to make a podcast, and how easy it actually is to do on Garageband; my next step is to show them sites like Clusty, where their topics can be narrowed down and tailored to their needs. So I want ot start off the school year by showing them these tools right away, so that they will gradually become used to them.
Another long term goal is to engage students in creating class wikis as a regular part of the curriculum, beginning from the start of school. Students always have so many questions, and although digression is frowned upon by some district administrators as an inappropriate use of classroom time, I find the opposite is true: the more questions students have that are adequately answered for them, the more they are learning. What better way to have those questions answered than to create a wiki, where students can contribute information, pictures, podcasts, video and so on? One way for me to integrate this in the classroom as a language arts teacher is to create wikis around literature that we are reading. For example, students interested in short stories could create a wiki around both literature under study and around their own stories; the same could be done for poetry, for novels, and for mythology. Since there are many sites that have already been created for the literature we read, students could borrow from those and add their own. This is another area I need to explore further: there is a site named Trackstar where links for research can be stored by teachers, and although I would not necessarily want to limit students to sites I have chosen for them, I think it is important for the younger and less experienced ones to have a basis to start from. In any case, they will be reading and writing. Along with creating wikis, I would like to use ePals, a link provided by our instructor, Judy Trask, to communicate and share with students in other parts of the world. Beyond that, I believe that student wikis should be a forum where students can engage in discussing and problem-solving for issues that concern them, and since some of the questions asked by my students concern these very issues, I would start with their questions.
While I am excited about these goals, I also know they will require careful planning and well-structured class management. Providing students with tools for self-management is one solution that I have found useful for many of them. A log of their activities and a checklist of goals and deadlines to meet them helps them to focus on their tasks, and to accomplish what they need to do within a reasonable time framework. Also, since there are students who are ready to start on project-based learning without any further encouragement, I plan to have these students model for the others how fun and exciting it can be, and what wonderful results it can have for them and for their learning. In this way, my class will become even less teacher-centered, and more focused on what the students can accomplish with just steady guidance, a little advice, some directed risk-taking, and a lot of passion for breaking into new territory.
References:
Cramer, S. (2007). Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills. Clearing House, 80(3), 126–132.
Kirschner, P., & Erkens, G. (2006). Cognitive tools and mindtools for collaborative learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 35(2), 199–209.
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.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Program number 2. Transforming the classroom with technology, Part 1. [Motion Picture]. The emergence of educational technology. Baltimore.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Program number 23. Bringing the fun into teaching with technology. [Motion Picture]. The emergence of educational technology. Baltimore.
