Technology Today

Technology Today!

Last week my 2nd graders sent their parents emails telling them about the story they had read and what their favorite part was. Today my students use the computers in the classroom to practice their math facts, iPods to practice spelling, and a few listened to a CD on at the listening center. And I had the last parent add their name to a conference slot online on the website volunteerspot.com without me having to do anything in terms of scheduling since the dates and times were already set up by me weeks ago. The students' activities made their day more exciting and interesting and the teacher's activities were made easier and less stressful because of the ease of using volunteerspot.

Elmos and Wikis and Blogs? Oh, My!

Six and a half years ago, I walked into my classroom for the first time.  I looked around, taking note of my materials, furniture, and surroundings.  First thing I noticed- the chalkboard mounted at the front of the room.  I did a double take...a chalkboard?! Second, the pile of computer parts collecting dust under the wall-mounted television (complete with VCR).  Where was the whiteboard? The document camera? Projector? Apple computers?  I thought to myself, "Jessica, we're not in Kansas (aka the glorious, brand new building I was privileged to student teach in) anymore."

Since then, I have been gifted a projector, laser printer, new-ish student computers, and lots of professional development for new technology.  My classroom website has evolved; the blog is updated (though not regularly enough) with photographs and anecdotes from the classroom.  Conference sign-ups and volunteering opportunities are managed with ease using volunteerspot.com.  Students are well-versed in technology- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Parents anticipate updates instantaneously via email. Discovery Education provides a video for every topic, standard, framework, unit, lesson under the sun.  Technologically savvy students are more and more commonplace and I've had to keep up.  I tweet, Instagram, and Facebook with the best of them!

I still feel like my classroom is in the dark ages.  The new projector blew a bulb, therefore is unusable.  The wi-fi connection is spotty and temperamental.  The laser printer is black and white- no color ink in the room. No document camera, no Elmo, no iPads in sight.   While I appreciate and value what I've learned at PD days on the Elmo projector and Wikis, I feel I don't have the right "infrastructure" in my classroom to address the shift to the 21st Century.  Baby steps, I suppose...

Cautiously Shifting

Having grown up in the Middle Ages, well not quite that long ago but close, my experience with technology was quite limited as I began my journey into the field of education. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that I even had regular access to a computer. The operating system and connection to the World Wide Web, as it was referred to then, was archaic, making it possible to walk away from a search for a significant amount of time before an actual connection to a website occurred. Of course that has all changed with the arrival of fiber optic cables and the like. As time passed and with a husband in the computer field, I was always being exposed to new-fangled advances in technology. Truth be told, I didn’t really appreciate this until I began watching my own children use various technological gadgets at home and in school.

When I first began my course of study as an adult learner, I had experience on my side, or so I thought. What I didn’t realize is that even though my husband and my children were quite technologically savvy, I wasn’t nearly as well versed. The first course up was a computer class to bring me up to speed with basics like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, email, etc. Since that first computer course thirteen years ago, I am now fully capable of using all of these tools, and then some, having participated in many online courses through my journey with various levels of expectation. I am also quite comfortable helping others trouble shoot problems which helps me become more and more competent.

So given my experience, why do I continue to have mixed feelings about allowing students to use some forms of technology? While many would disagree with me, some technology creates an atmosphere that an instant result can be achieved for just about anything attempted, giving at least younger students a false sense that everything is easy or can be done quickly.  I believe that with the use of technology comes a responsibility that students must first achieve some basic understandings, reading competencies, social skills, and the understanding that not everything can be done instantly. Though I sometimes have mixed feeling about technology’s place in the classroom, I have no problem choosing or using the forms that I feel will benefit students most.  My hope is that I can teach them that there is a time and place for everything, even technology. I feel it is important to reinforce the fact that not everything we do requires technology to complete it and offer reasonable alternatives when the situations warrant it.  

As an educator my principle goal is to ensure that my students attain the skills that are necessary to question when appropriate, persevere when challenged and achieve happiness while striving for productive happy lives.  If this requires the consistent use or exposure to various types of technology, “I’m in” with the understanding that whichever choice I make is always made with the best interest of my students in mind.

"What did teachers do before the Internet??"

Many of my colleagues can confirm that this is a question I pose often.  I think of my own teachers during the years that I was in elementary school, the years when I was the age my students are now.  They gave us countless worksheets to complete... first ones that came from the mimeograph that we would hold to our faces so we could inhale that inimitable inky-chemical smell, and then later ones that came to us warm from the Xerox machine.  They showed us film strips on the projector, with the accompanying cassette tape; if it was your lucky day, you got to turn the projector knob every time the cassette beeped.  They took us to the library, where they taught us to find the information we were looking for in card catalogues, indices, and encyclopedias.  They requested our "final copies" be hand-written with pen, in cursive.

Because of the rapidity of technological advancements and the incorporation of these into daily life, the learners my students are, and the learning they do, in many ways, has very little resemblance to my own experiences.  The world is a different place.  Therefore, though I had many teachers that I loved and learned very valuable lessons from, I cannot be the teachers they were.  Worksheets have not been entirely replaced, but if the one I photocopied for homework isn't going to work because we didn't get as far as I expected in the lesson?  Give me a minute and a half (tops), and I can google and print out from my computer 27 copies of one that will.  We're having a discussion in literacy about fairy tales, and the class wants to know, well, if neither the Brothers Grimm nor Hans Christian Andersen wrote the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, then who did?, let's just take five seconds and look on Wikipedia.  If the kids want to know whether a fleece is sufficient for recess, or if they need a "real coat," I'll check the temperature for Ashland on weather.com a few minutes prior to going out.  The math class is having trouble remembering the steps of subtraction with regrouping, so on Pinterest the night before, I'll find a song to sing with dance movements that act out each step, and then we'll watch a Youtube video.

Though I am a self-proclaimed technophobe, this is something I realize is not really going to work.  Fortunately, my love of teaching and my enthusiasm for really reaching my students trumps this reluctance.  I am little by little learning new skills, adopting new philosophies and understandings, and doing what I can for now to make use of the abilities I have.  The Internet alone has made me a more resourceful, well-rounded, and creative teacher.  If used properly it will do the same for my students.  As I become more proficient with new skills and platforms -- blogs, wikis, creating websites, using the projector and the document camera, and on and on and on, everyone in my classroom, students and teacher alike, will be all the better equipped for life in the 21st century.

...but I'm a people person.

When I first started teaching in the school district ten years ago, we were required to attend teacher workshops on topics such as communicating with parents, ELL, and Special Education (that’s right...no technology). While in the Special Education workshop, we took a Multiple Intelligence quiz. We were shown a series of slides with dots and asked to explain what we saw. Our answers determined how we learned best. I had taken many of these tests before, so I knew I was a visual learner. This time I also learned that I was an interpersonal learner. This means I work well in teams and when I discuss curriculum, I have a better understanding of the information. It made sense. That’s why I always did well in class if I joined a study group. It was confirmed: I was and still am a “people person”.

Then the shift came. Technology boomed and was integrated into education. In class discussion turned into Blackboard posts and comments. I struggled. I missed seeing people, hearing their tone of voice, and watching body language. I still miss it. I felt that I was losing one of my strengths as a learner...human interaction. Communication was now through a computer, phone, or tablet. But our world is constantly changing, and as a teacher in the 21st  Century, I need to change with it. I recognize that if I do not constantly push myself to learn more about technology, my students will suffer. This is our world now, and this is their future.

I am just realizing how I can put my interpersonal skills to good use. I am beginning to understand how to “connect” people by using technology. Just yesterday, we were discussing how we can get more presenters for our Science Symposium. My idea was to have virtual presentations. Maybe students have scientists in their family that live in other states or countries. They could present via Skype or have a podcast with someone at NASA. As I sat there in the meeting, I gave myself a silent pat on the back. Though reluctant at times, I am becoming a 21st Century teacher.

21st Century...Who Me?

You know that line in "Rat Race" where Rowan Atkinson says "I'm winning! I'm winning!"  Well, that's me only "I'm blogging! I'm blogging!" At least I think I am, because as much as everything has changed with technology, some things remain the same. One of them being that I'm not exactly sure what the heck I'm doing.  For example, earlier this week I couldn't get anything onto this blog. Why? Because something was wrong with my google set up, which Chad just had to help me fix (thank you Chad) over the telephone (certainly not 21st century) and when he suggested I  might put him on speaker phone rather than keep putting the phone down I had to admit I was afraid I would hang up on him. To his credit there was no laughter that I could hear.

My 21st century technology successes have been small, but they have impacted my teaching greatly. Number one for me is simply the access to information, ideas, images, everything that's out there. I am 10 years into teaching and in that span I've stopped buying teaching resources at Barnes & Noble because I just don't have to. Everything I could ever need is available to me as I sit at my computer at home. As I mentioned in a reply to another post, my class website it a success for me. I use it every day and it has strengthened my communication with students and parents more than I could have imagined. My digital projector has become an invaluable tool as well, something I use every day, albeit probably not in the sophisticated ways I could be.

So while these are baby steps, I am working my way into the 21st century, which is becoming ever more important as the days go by.  Example #216-My students are working on a poetry anthology and every day they select poems, place a sticky in the book and I photocopy the page for them. The other day my student said to me, "Mrs. Fiandaca I think I'll take my books home. My dad said he'll just take a picture with his phone and I can use that."  Now why didn't I think of that?

Shift Happens

When I was in school, undergrad and graduate, I remember the professors always reminding that we forget so much of what we learn in school.  We are really there to learn "how to learn".  Many here have noted how with the 21st Century Learner we are moving away from rote memorization to more learning how to learn, research and create.  In fourth grade, students are still learning basics, reading, math, etc..  I used to teach third grade and I always felt that up to there they were learning to read.  Now as a fourth grade teacher, they are reading to learn.  But even more now with the ever-increasing use of technology.  A few years back, I was having a conversation with Claudia about the internet.  She made an interesting point.  She asked me if I remember what it was like as a kid to wonder about things.  I did.  She pointed out that kids today don't have to wonder, they just whip out their smartphone or tablet and Google it.  How true.  Is this good or bad?    I think with the proper use of these tools kids today have so much potential.

In another conversation with Mrs. Bennett (she's like a guru) she showed me a YouTube video called "Did You Know? / Shift Happens" about the shift in technology, and economics in the world today.  It was originally shown at a high school faculty meeting in 2006 and then went viral.  It has been updated 5 times and is on it's 6th revision.  Some of the fascinating things it points out include:

• The top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 didn't exist in 2004
• We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist using technologies that haven't been invented
• They will have to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet

And then it gets into a lot of economic stuff that shows how we really need to step up to China and India.  And another article I read points out other changes that may be coming.  In the near future there may be no checks, newspapers, books, land line telephones, or even cable TV.  Our students need to be ready, wired, connected, and able to adapt.

Finally, with regards to publishing student work.  I like having the kids make blogs.  I look forward to them post something on the wiki.  Maybe if they know more people are looking at it they will consider their audience more, make fewer mistakes, and learn to use these new tools to their highest potential.

 Did You Know? / Shift Happens video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVQ1ULfQawk

                                            

Audi-thentic

[Author's note:  I cut off part of my right index and right ring finger yesterday in a cooking accident.  Most typos will go uncorrected for now, because typing is hard.]  

When students submit formal essays, they are usually written for an audience of one - the teacher.  Sure, there are peer editors along the way, and maybe mom or dad give it the once-over to make sure all the commas are in place and that the sentences don't end in prepositions.  But even then, at the end of the day, the target demographic is the teacher who assigned it, resulting in a slow and stilted conversation that begins with the student submitting the work and ends a few days later with a marked up paper - perhaps continued to a second draft, perhaps not.  This leads to drudgery and dread -- and most importantly a lack of retention of the lessons intended.

However, when the student has the opportunity to present their thoughts for a wider audience, the appeal of writing increases.  In general, when a student is turning in an essay to me, they just want to get it done.  There's no pride and little sense of ownership in the work - it is simply another task to check off of a list.  However, when the same student has written something in the school news paper, or prepared a speech to be delivered, they often can't wait to share it with their teachers and friends.

The difference is in the audience.  When a student knows that their work will be widely read they are more invested in the process.  We as teachers can facilitate this progress by making publication a part of the class - not a one-off idea, but as a regular tool for assessment.  When everyone is writing and everyone is publishing, more students will be reading what their peers have written and will respond in kind.

The 21st Century Learner

What is the 21^st century learner look like?  How is education changing to meet these types of learners?  I think these 21^st century learners are students who do not just “spit back” memorized content or recall details but students that are beginning to be creative, insightful and collaborate with peers to make meaningful connections about their learning.  It may mean using certain software programs like Prezi to collaborate with a peer to present their understanding of the content they just learned in social studies class. 

I feel that the internet has really changed education.  The internet’s ability to have information readily available to anyone that needs it and wants it has helped students go beyond learning facts and recalling information.  Social networking sites and other social avenues have also changed how students display their thinking to a more global audience.  Students may ask themselves, “If I post this, what will others think.”  Students can make waves with their comments not just ripples. 

I also think the 21^st century learner has to also learn the new etiquette when it involves technology as well. When I went to school, cell phones were not a norm to have.  Nowadays, even fourth grade students and even younger have cell phones at the ready and some are even Smart phones.  I think students need to learn new social etiquette around using technology.  It is not okay to have cell phones ringing during class.  It is not okay to be on Facebook or Tweeting when we are taking a test.  It is not okay to copy and paste others ideas and present it as your own.  Technology is a tool and should be used as a tool.  

Technology Shift

It is fascinating to look back on how technology has changed over the years and how it's role has changed in education.  15 years ago I was in 5th grade.  I remember my middle school quite well, every classroom had one computer with one 3 1/2 drive (they don't make technology like they use to), the library had two computers and there was one computer lab with 15 computers in it, but it's only purpose was for typing class that took place once a week.  3 years later a new middle school was created and I was in 8th grade.  Looking back, this is the first time that I noticed the technology boom in education.  Instead of one computer lab that only had one purpose, we now had two computer labs filled with computers and even a technology teacher in the classroom.  The library had 10 computers and every classroom had at least two computers. 

It was fun to take a trip down memory lane and see how much technology has changed but also how much it has changed education.  I can't imagine education without technology (then again I really can't think about much in this world without technology).  I use technology in my classroom everyday, from emailing parents, to collaborating with other faculty members, to devising helpful strategies for my students, it is all done with technology. 

Technology in the classroom has transformed the education field.  From smartboards to mobile computer labs, technology is everywhere.   In 15 years there have been numerous changes to technology and the way that technology is used in the classroom.  I wonder what the next 15 years will bring?

21st Century Learning

As a School Psychologist, the use of technology is highly important.  Scoring that used to take hours now only takes minutes.  In addition, the scoring is now much more accurate, given the reduction of human-error.  Technology is also imperrative for sharing testing results, ideas, and student-progress.  Not only does technology make the job easier and more efficient, it makes it more accurate.  Accurate data leads to more effective student-support. 

"How will we use this in real life?'

It seems that nearly every day of teaching 8th grade students, in one way or another, a student questions how the content we are teaching them is going to be applicable to their future. Try as I might, I have not yet formulated the perfect response to this question. There is the obvious, "Well, it will be on your MCAS test, and you need to pass that to graduate from high school" or "You need this information to do well in high school and get into college". But those answers are not good enough. If we are going to continue to teach our students and assess our students as we did in the 20th century, we are doing them a great disservice. We do not need to teach them content because the content we are teaching them will change. Anything that we think they need  to know,they can research on their iphone or smartphone, and find the answer, 5 minutes into our lesson. We do not need to assess them on the rote memorization of some content, because that is not a skill that is necessary to their future.

The Impact of the Shift in Technology

Tape Recorder

A Huge Shift in Technology!Since I started teaching 20+ years ago, there has been a huge shift in technology. When I first started teaching in Ashland, there was no computer lab. I didn't have a computer for my desk, or one for the students to use. I did have a tape recorder and some headphones and I scrambled around to find some books on tape for the students to listen to. But even this was difficult because there wasn't Amazon.com, at least that I know of, to purchase the books and cassettes from. I had to physically go to the bookstore or to Hammett's Teacher Store to purchase these. If I didn't need them immediately, I could put in an order with the office for the following year, back when we were given a small classroom budget to order things for the classroom that we personally wanted. This was time consuming. This listening center was tricky to manage too, and needed a lot of teacher direction so the students could use them safely, without damaging them. Now we have 2 computers in the classroom on which they can listen to stories  and a listening center with a CD player for listening to stories as well. The school has purchased many books on CD, and some teachers have gotten grants for more, which they offer to share, which helps greatly. The CD's are much easier to use and therefore require less teacher direction so that my time can be better spent on something else.

Publishing Student Work

After reading the "Authentic Audience' article, I began to see the value in publishing student work online. I had never before thought of the fact that students spend weeks, months, and even years working on a paper, article, or thesis that will only be read by one person. It seems like a great deal of work to only be viewed by one person. I like the idea of sharing published work on the blogs and wikis listed in the article.

The Evolution of Technology

When I stop to think about technology and its impact on all of our lives, I am amazed by how much it has evolved and changed even over the last 10 years.  When I went off to college, my peers and I all had computers, cell phones, and some of my friends even had myspace.  We used the internet to find information and to communicate via e-mail, but we also still went to the library and searched through the stacks for books and scholarly journals to do research.

The Impact of Technology on 21st Century Learning

Students in the 21st century learn in a global classroom and not necessarily within four walls anymore.  Students can now find information by accessing the Internet through cellphones and computers, or even by chatting with friends on a social networking site.  Similarly, many teachers are now monitoring and issuing assignments via virtual classrooms.  Students today are very lucky to have learning tools at their disposal that allow them to locate, acquire, and even create knowledge more quickly than in the past and they can primarily do this anytime and anywhre.  Learning is basically borderless. 

Impact of Blogging on Reflective Practice for Students

In this article by Lucy Philip *(Reflection), (School of Earth and Environment, University of Leedshttp://www.gees.ac.uk/planet/p17/lp.pdf) she explains that "reflection is a valuable tool that allows students to get the most from their education and that it sets the scene for and creates life-long learning. She borrows a definition from Boud, et al., 1985 and describes reflection in this way:

The 21st Century Challenge

As technology changes the face of everything that touches our lives, education struggles to keep pace.  Consider the students of today and the world in which they are growing.  Their daily experiences include checking in with their parents on one of many wireless devices they own or use, playing video games with virtual characters in virtual worlds with their friends on the other side of town, watching videos starring their friends, video chatting with their grandparents who are thousands of miles away, listening to a playlist chosen from 1,500 songs they carry on a device in their pocket, and having the answer to any pondering be just a few mouse clicks away. 

Technology in Algebra II 2013

How do we apply 21st century technology to our curricula, classrooms and schools all of which are still set up for 20th century learning?
This conundrum is a problem so many teachers in our schools, districts, states and country are facing.   The easy solution would be more money! Buy all the technology! But of course this isn't going to ever happen.   So then what can we do?  When I am plugging away, trying to get work done for my students, I keep in mind what Therdore Roosevelt, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."  I think many teachers use this idea, and keeping this mantra in mind, we can produce 21st century learners.  Would I like to do more, of course.  But this is my start, year one, on the journey to a 21st century classroom.

Practicing What I Preach

Teaching other educational professionals how to use technology tools is actually a bit daunting. With the rapid change of technology and how educators across the globe are integrating technology, the role of being the technology instructor, or integration specialist is about staying current, flexible, and participatory. In some regards I am a preacher, and in order to have a meaningful connection with my 'students', I need to know what I'm talking about.