Teaching+with+Technology-+FINAL+REFLECTION

FINAL R EFLECTION

So often, you hear teachers complain about integrating technology. They say that they don’t have time to come up with completely new lessons for their course. They forget, or may not know that “Technology is used as a tool to help students solve the problem (Meyer & Rose, 2002)”. Instead of using technology as a tool they think that it should become the teacher or that is should replace what they are already doing. As educational technology leaders, we realize that this is not the case. We need to help people understand that integrating it is like adding chocolate syrup to ice cream. The ice cream is still good without the syrup but the syrup makes it better, just like technology makes our lessons better. A couple of weeks ago our PE teacher came to me and asked me how he was supposed to use a Wii game console in his classroom if it only had 4 controllers for 120 students. He didn’t realize that the Wii was there to enhance his lesson not replace the lesson. We need to make sure that more people understand that we should be using the technology to help the students (and ourselves in the process) that we are servicing.

I enjoyed learning more about constructivist thought. I was really taken back with the idea that students need social interaction within the classroom to succeed to the best of their ability. This idea makes sense to me. We need to be able to discuss and argue ideas and thoughts constructively. The old “teacher centered” classrooms are no longer the way to teach. We need to let the students set the bar for themselves.

After I started my first class in the Masters program at Lamar, I was really excited after reading some of the articles. It was interesting to me to see how kids’ brains are physically wired differently than in the past because of technology. It wanted to share the learned information with everyone. I remember one day sitting in my AP’s office and sharing the information with her (about the new wiring of the kids’ brains). After what I thought was a great conversation, she ended the conversation with “well, I still think we should use mostly pencil and paper”. It made me so angry. I showed her the evidence and she still thought the “old” way of doing things was better. She didn’t understand that we are to use technology as a support not a replacement. “The task for educators is to understand how students learn and use the technology available in this digital age to provide selected where they are needed and position the challenge appropriately for each learner. In this way, we can engage more students and help everyone progress (Rose & Meyer, 2002)” She clearly doesn’t understand this. If we use the technology correctly for each student’s learning we are sure to succeed.

I teach 6th grade Art and over the last few days we have been creating 3D Paper Mache letters. After the students complete the Paper Mache process they must design and paint the letter. Last semester was my first semester to teach Art so I have had to learn quite a lot this year. I didn’t have “examples” to share last semester like I do now. “Much of the art of teaching patterns lies in selecting and presenting numerous, effective examples (Meyer & Rose, 2002)”. It’s unfortunate for those students that I didn’t have those examples to share. This semester my students are fortunate that I do have the examples. The examples from last semester aren’t that well done but it is the only thing I have (so far). Today I was explaining how the students so go about the actually painting of their projects. I didn’t realize that I was actually using “examples” and “counter-examples”. Giving the students the various types of examples led to better art being produced. I was able to show that what worked and looked nice compared to what didn’t. They obviously didn’t want to emulate the works of art that weren’t well done. Having that example gave them a thought/idea in their head of what they wanted to strive for (or not strive for). As of this afternoon, the pieces of work far surpass most of the ones from the first semester and this I believe this is because of the examples I was able to show. It’s great to see what we are learning in our courses here are being used so deeply in our teaching.

I had an “aha” moment when I read the quote “Most current assessments are not designed to accommodate individual differences (Southwest Development Lab, 1999). It makes complete sense. We aren’t all the same so why should we be assessed the same? I am a terrible test taker but know the material. My brother is a great test taker but may not always know the information as well as I do. Doesn’t seem fair.

I just wonder if the “suits” in Austin ever read articles or books on education.

This is my first year as an Art teacher (I taught social studies and P.E. in the past) and I must admit I have struggled a bit with incorporating technology into my classroom this year. It’s most likely because I am just tying to get comfortable with teaching a new subject. I found the idea to do the following assignment very interesting :“Art students can prepare art projects using a certain artist’s style and then, through videoconferencing, have that artist critique their work in real time. The artist can see all the subtle details because of the high quality Web 2.0. (Soloman & Schrum, 2007)”. I love this idea of using videoconferencing with the artist. It allows for high quality collaborating of their work. I really feel that I need to start thinking outside of the box with incorporating technology with art. Yes, I use the Promethean board, digital cameras and Ipads, but need to use more. This example is a start.

This course has been very interesting. I was excited to start the group work because of the group that I was in. We have worked together and knew that whatever we came up with would be of high quality. This happened. I was very please with our final product. I will personally be using the lesson in my Art classroom but using famous Art figures instead of historical figures. I have very please with the information that I have left the course with.

Resources: Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html

Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning, 27(1). Retrieved January 28, 2011 from the International Society for Technology in Education at http://imet.csus.edu/imet9/280/docs/dede_constructivisim.pdf