Walking Away with Something I Can Use

Now that my course, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society is coming to a close, I’ll take time to reflect on how this course has shaped me as the computer/technology teacher in my school.  I don’t know what made me believe this, but prior to taking this course, I thought my focus should be on teaching my students how to use programs on the computer that can be used to prepare projects and reports for their classroom teacher.  This kept my focus mainly on Microsoft Office.  My focus has completely changed.

By me designing projects using Microsoft Office applications that followed a specific set of guidelines, I was limiting my students to learning very specific skills and was closing the door to any type of feedback from them that might change the direction of future lessons.  My focus up to this point this year has been how to use different web 2.0 tools.  My students seem to be more involved in this process, and the guidelines aren’t as constraining as they were last year.  If I give a topic, they are freer to take it in a direction that makes sense to them.  They are also able to communicate with each other and share ideas.  I’m also able to give them regular feedback that not only helps them, but also helps others who read the suggestions I may leave a classmate.  While teaching things like Microsoft Office are important, I now think I’d better serve my students by exposing them to a variety of software and online activities rather than teach them to master just a few.  I only need to think back to my early years of learning how to use a computer to realize that this was the method used for me and this method is why I’ve had success in this field.  I was given enough information from my professors to master certain applications on my own.

My long term goal over the next couple of years is to continue to what I’ve started this year, to expose my students to a wide array of programs and technology.  I would also like to put myself into a leadership position so that I may guide other schools and teachers toward effective uses of their technology.  Presently, I think my school district wants to see a higher level of use of technology, but their policies are outdated and a hindrance to this goal.  I would like to be part of a team that could help the school district update their policies so that our children can do more and the parents of our students can do more.  Ultimately, my goal down the road, past the 2 year point, would be to become some type of technology consultant/staff developer for my district.  I enjoy teaching the students, but if this direction takes me out of the classroom, then I will have to do that in order to give direction on the district level where very little direction regarding technology exists.

Upon evaluating my practices to support 21^st Century learning, I can now say I’m almost always doing everything outlined by ist.org.  My greatest weakness was in having my students work collaboratively.  All of my projects this year have had opportunities to collaborate.  Most of these projects have an online communication component that allows my students to share and discuss ideas.  What I have had trouble with, up until this point, was to find other professionals who teach in my content area to share ideas with.  Online communities have given me some assistance, but communication is slow, and in some cases, my reaching out doesn’t yield results at all.  At a recent workshop for technology teachers, I touched base with a few teachers who are very enthusiastic about technology and have also been seeking out others to share ideas with.   The information we’ve shared with each other has been very valuable.  I also have the wiki I worked on with several of my classmates form this course.  We can continue to share ideas there and other possible contacts.

Overall, this course has moved me back on the right track, the one that will best help prepare my students for the 21^st century.  Prior to beginning graduate school, I stated that working on this degree wasn’t just about getting a raise or fulfilling a requirement, I wasn’t to walk away with something I can use.  So far, I’ve been walking away with a lot I can use.

Student Technology Interviews

My apologies for the low volume.  I only realized how low the volume was set after I went through the videos when I got home for the weekend.  Basically, I asked my students about how they used technology at home.  I asked them if they had a game system or not, and if they had a computer or not.  I also asked what they do or play on their computer and/or game systems.  So many wanted to do the interviews, which is why I had more than I needed. I actually didn't use all of my videos.   I also had around sixty or so students take a more detailed survey online about their use of technology.  The survey results are linked below.  What I didn't include in the survey was that I teach in a 100% African-American student population.  My school is a Title 1 school with a high rate of poverty. I did not give my students any rehearsed answers, and felt that they were trying please me with their answer rather than be candid.  I quietly urged them to tell me more.  The only thing I edited out of this were the constant interruptions over the loud speaker that is probably common in most schools at the end of the day.  Permissions for video are taken care of at the beginning of the year and at enrollment.  We have a lot of TV people in our building so we cover this issue right away.

Most of what surprised me didn't come from what I learned from the interviews, but rather from the surveys.  I was surprised by the number of students who claimed they had a computer at home, though a large number of them don't have internet.  I pointed out that there was no way for me to see who took the survey, nor could other students see how they answered, so I'll assume that these answers were honest.  I wouldn't mind finding time to survey the parents of these students next.  I was most surprised by the large number of students who'd rather create a project by writing it out or putting it together with paper and other materials.  I was also surprised by the number of students who'd like to orally present to their class.  This indicates to me that they don't have the highest comfort level on working with the computer yet.  This is something I can work on with them.  I'm going to share this information with the faculty at our staff meeting in two weeks.  This might give them a little insight about our children.

 Survey Results

Vodcast of Me Discussing My Previous Post

Evaluation of Partnership for 21st Century Skills Website and Organization

This week, I was asked to evaluate the website, www.p21.org and principals of the creators of it, the  Partnership for the 21^st Century Skills.  I’ll start by saying, as a computer teacher, of course I agree with the initiative.  They push for teachers to teach 21^st century readiness skills to their students so they will be ready for the world they have to face.  I love the initiative, but wasn’t crazy about the site.  Focusing has always been an issue for me, and teaching the students that I teach, I know I’m not alone.  That is what made this site difficult for me to spend long periods of time on.

I was very unimpressed with their graph.  I love graphs, maps, scales, and other graphic representations of data, but this graph was a little too much for me.  I went to the interactive graph to try and understand it better, and once I did, I had to ask myself if this was the best way they could represent their information, or was this more for show, “bells and whistles.”  I prefer things to be straight forward, practical, and helpful at all times.  These preferences of mine also lead me to dislike the rest of the site.  I just felt that there might have been a lot repetition that could have been condensed so that my interest wouldn’t have been lost so easily in the many sessions I tried to devote to studying this site.  Lastly, the online resources seemed to be nothing more than an elaboration of the information the site was already explaining, paragraphs and paragraphs of the same thing.  I thought that section was going to point me to activities, videos and collaborative sites of schools already using these principals, lessons.  I am already doing much of what was pushed on this site, now, like they said, I need to sell the idea to the rest of the staff at my school; this is my challenge. 

I love the initiative, however, and hope it succeeds.  I know I’ll continue to teach by this model.  Teaching these skills is the direction all schools need to go if our students are going to be prepared for the real world.  I found it a little ironic that they based some of the skills on the core curriculum and 8^th grade technology literacy skills of No Child Left behind (NCLB), considering how badly that legislation failed our students.  P21 encourages critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation, as outlined by the 3Rs and 4Cs, something NCLB inadvertently deprived of our students and teachers.  Without mastery of these skills, how will our children succeed in the workplace, especially since so much of this will be done online?  We must prepare our students to not only be familiar with this style of work, but to also be so fluent at it that it becomes second nature.

I also found the videos very inspiring.  These were very straight forward and made very powerful points.  The video, Above and Beyond, was the perfect video to sum up the entire website.  It especially demonstrated the power of cooperation and creativity.  To me, the boy represented the present situation of the students following a very specific set of directions, and not being able to see beyond that.  The girl represented the drive to think critically about a situation and possible solutions.  Of course, in the end, this all comes together because they can collaborate the two ways of approaching the problem; one of the goals of The Partnership of the 21^st Century Skills.

Overall, I will teach to the principals discussed on this site and their pamphlets.  Whether an initiative tells me to do so or not, I will continue to push my students to understand and use the skills in my lab that they will need for the 21^st Century.  I just wish this site was less repetitious and more informative on exactly how to teach these skills, perhaps give me ideas I hadn’t thought of.  Perhaps those ideas were there, and I just didn’t dig deep enough, but there lies the problem, I shouldn’t have to dig at all.