Apples for Education: August 2009

Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society

This is a final posting for a graduate class that I am taking with Walden University.

This class has provided the step-by-step instructions to create, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and has developed my own technology skills as a professional teacher. The book by Will Richardson, Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, was a great resource to explore how to use these 21^st century tools with my class. I enjoyed working on a group project, with other students in my graduate class, to make a Wiki of resources of recommended technology web sites. We were able to complete this task without a face-to-face meeting. The three wikis that were created will be a great resource for me and to share with my fellow teachers.

After setting up a googlereader, I found an amazing amount of information from my graduate classmate’s blogs. I will continue to check their blogs and hope to add some more to my reader for continued support in technology.

With this knowledge I can better assist my students in learning the 21^st century skills they will need. After reading many articles about 21^st century skills, many of our students lack the ability to problem solve because they are not given the opportunity to explore problem solving skills when not using technology. The seven C’s- 21^st century Lifelong skills include: Critical Thinking-and-Doing, Creativity, Collaboration, Cross-cultural Understanding, Communication, Computing, and Career & Learning Self-reliance.

My knowledge of the teaching and learning process has been strengthened by the understanding of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Realizing that our students have the ability to navigate with ease on the internet and for my generation it may take some practice will help when explaining to my fellow teachers how to integrate a lesson in technology.

The lessons I have been teaching include teacher-centered to learner-centered and will continue to be more learner-centered so that my students can have an active role in exploration of facts and information. Problem solving and collaborating with fellow classmates will be one way to keep my lessons learner-centered.

I can continue to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement by continuing my Masters in Technology and also by sharing my knowledge with my students and colleagues.

This year my hope is that my students will be creating a class blog. With the new skills I have learned I will try to get my parents more involved with my class newsletter. It will be sent home on paper and by email.

I have two long-term goals for transforming my classroom environment.

To maintain and continue to have working computers in my classroom for student projects.
With my class blog, I would like to link with other 1^st grade classrooms.

There are some obstacles that may slow the process, but I will not stop trying to bring technology into my classroom. First, I will ask my administration for the access to the necessary web sites, and then I will be working closely with our media specialist and technology department.

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Cramer, S. (2007). Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills. Clearing House, 80(3), 126–132.
Use the Teacher Reference Center database, and search using the article's Accession Number: 24660524

Keengwe, J., Onchwari, G., & Wachira, P. (2008). The use of computer tools to support meaningful learning. AACE Journal, 16(1), 77–92
Use the Education Research Complete database and search using the article's Accession Number: 28513453

Kirschner, P., & Erkens, G. (2006). Cognitive tools and mindtools for collaborative learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 35(2), 199–209.
Use the Education Research Complete database, and search using the article's Accession Number: 2007-00267-007

Nussbaum-Beach, S. (2008). No limits. Technology & Learning, 28(7), 14–18. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8466

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the natives. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 8–13.
Use the Academic Search Premier database and search using the article's Accession Number: 19270008

Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.
Use the Academic Search Premier database and search using the article's Accession Number: 31926035

Trilling, B. (2005). Towards learning societies and the global challenges for learning with ICT. TechForum. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/pdf/events/techforum/ny05/Toward_Learning_Societies.pdf

Web Sites