Reflection: Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society
When I began the Masters of Integrating Technology in the Classroom
Graduate program in January, I knew I would gain irreplaceable knowledge to take back to my classroom and improve the awareness at my school for the importance of the use of technology to educate our students. I just recently received my Masters degree in Mathematics Education and was eager to begin this graduate program, because this is an area that I am weak in and know that I need to educate myself on in order to provide my students with the best opportunities for their future. I have my strengths however using technology in the classroom is not one of them. I am familiar with technology and do not have a fear of it, but need to explore how to use it in my daily lesson planning and how to incorporate it within my students work to ensure they are meeting the content standards necessary for success in their education, and in their future in our society and workplace. This course has helped me develop my own technology skills, deepen my knowledge of the teaching and learning process, and gave me a new perspective on having a teacher-centered to a learner-centered classroom. Throughout this course, I obtained valuable information through all of the resources; the textbooks, journal articles, video programs, discussion boards, and my professor. I learned new strategies to strengthen my classroom use of technology. Through the knowledge I gained in this course, I can effectively incorporate technology in my lesson plans, using technology to engage my students’ and teach them the concepts, as well as, allow them to gain experience using the 21st century technology skills they need. I will provide my students with confidence and experience in the area of technology.
This course helped me broaden my own knowledge of the use of technology in my classroom. Thornburg, 2004 explains how technology has changed the way things are done in our work environment, and the teachers’ role in the process of educating students. Thornburg also explains that the focus for teachers should be to use technology to do “different things” rather than just doing “things differently” (2004). Dede reinforces this idea by stating that technology should be used as an agent of “innovation as opposed to “automation.” When we think about educational technology, changes in “content, pedagogy and effects” should come to mind (Laureate, 2010)(a). This helped me understand that using the Interwrite board in my classroom to review vocabulary, and review skills is a way to use technology to do things differently, however, using a wiki page or blog to have my students write down their thoughts and ideas on a book club discussion, research a topic, or review and edit their classmates work, is a way to create doing different things in the classroom to teach content and help my students master the concepts being taught. In addition this allows them to get experience using the technology they will encounter in society and in their future in the workplace and gives them the ability needed to help them master these skills.
As far as the classroom no longer being teacher-centered, and now being learning-centered I gained a better understanding for this in week seven of the course.. Teachers are expected to be facilitators in the classroom, and allow their students to learn and teach other the concepts, with guidance only. Dede explains teachers no longer need to lecture, and are facilitators in their classrooms (Laureate, 2010)(b). Thornburg reinforces this statement when he states “Our capacity is to facilitate learning, rather than direct it” (Laureate, 2010)(b).
In conclusion, this has been a valuable course for me as an educator. The information I have gained is priceless, and will prove to help enhance my professional career as an educator. The textbook and journal articles provided information to help me in all areas of my profession. Also the video programs provided valuable information as well. My classmates gave the most insightful and creative ideas to expand on what was taught in the resources, through intense communication on the discussion boards. My professor provided me with feedback on my applications to help me broaden my thinking and responded to my discussion posts so that I could engage effectively in the conversation that was going on. To sum up this course, it broadened my knowledge and ability in the area of using technology in my teaching profession. I will continue to grow as an educator, and by using the methods and strategies taught in this course I have already become stronger as a teacher, and by taking what I learned from this course, I will become a leader in my school.
Two goals for my future of integrating technology in my classroom:
1. One goal that I plan to implement at the beginning of the new school year in the fall, is to create a classroom website for my parents, my students, and mkyself to communicate about homework, classwork, upcoming events, and classroom procedures.
2. The second goal that I plan to achieve within the next school year, is to provide feedback from my student created wiki’s and blogs, and take that information back to my team members and colleagues to bring more educators on board in the school, so that hopefully within the next two years every teacher will be using wikis and blogs in their own classroom to teach 21st century skills to all of our students. I have already begun by discussing this with my principal.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program number 1: Emergence of educational technology [DVD]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). The changing role of the classroom teacher part 1. (DVD). Baltimore, MD.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). The changing role of the classroom teacher part 2. [DVD]. Baltimore, MD,
Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf
