My head has been spinning with all this new stuff I now have at my disposal, what with trying to figure out how to make it all work and then what to do with it. But I think the light bulb just turned on, hopefully it will shine bright and not dim. I'll write it down and you all can comment to tell me where my thinking is flawed.
The RSS is for our personal use, keeping track of web sites we like to visit.
The delicious web site is for places we like to visit AND we can share them with others.
The blog is where we brag about all the cool stuff we know. Aha I believe that's it in a nutshell for me. Now that I have the big picture what can I do with these resources?
I'm thinking that the social bookmark part can be used as a homework hot line kind of thing. Parents and kids can find all kinds of help in one place. The teacher could have a personal web page that lists the homework for the night, or week or whatever. The pages that need to be read, perhaps problems {math} or questions that needed to be answered. Also, some web sites for homework help, places the kids could go to ask questions from a real live person, or places like Wikipedia where they could find informational answers. The Social Studies and Science teachers could have links to places like the History channel or National Geographic to see videos of whatever topics are being discussed in class.
This could also be a place where students grades could be posted, anonymously of course. I am assuming all students have some sort of student ID number, using this number the grades could be placed on the internet. Parents and students know their own number and can see their current grade, perhaps using a Word table document or an Excel spreadsheet. Small comments could be added, i.e. wastes time in class, has many missing assignments, poor test scores, etc.
Chapter One, What Field Did You Say You Were In?
I know this is dating myself but here goes. I can remember when it was a big deal to watch a movie in school. There really weren't that many films for education thus we didn't see a lot of them, thus it was a big deal when we did. I must also say that we had the most recent technology when the film projector was self threading. The teachers made a big deal out of that, wouldn't they be surprised to see a video streaming through a computer. We even had an audio visual aide-- some kid who was allowed to deliver the film projectors to the class rooms.
I believe we are still struggling with part 2 of the 1970 definition today. How are we as teachers going to bring the use of technology into the classroom to be used as an aide in the learning process? Presently most of the educators I know are still teaching how to use computers, showing the students what a computer can do and how to make it work, that is much different than using technology as a learning tool.
It appears to me that as the use of technology increased in schools the need to re-define the name of what we are doing became essential. A few years ago we had media specialists who had taken over for librarians, now even that name has disappeared because the media has become so broad no one can be a specialist in the whole media realm. Just as the person working in the library has broadened their horizons, so also has the field of Instructional Technology. It can't help but to keep re defining itself as the use of technology continues to expand. Every year the possibilities of learning and growing with technology increases it's almost impossible to keep up with it all, it's growing so rapidly. So then the definition must also grow and change with the times.
I noticed that very little if anything was said about students and education, the focus seems to be more on the workplace. I don't really have a problem with that, I believe the schools are trying to help make people in the workplace better employees by giving them some instruction with the technology available. Apparently the state government agrees because they have written into the law that computer benchmarks must be met before a student can graduate.
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2 comments:
"I can remember when it was a big deal to watch a movie in school."
Having stated the above in your post, I think it's interesting that many of today's teachers are just becoming familiar with new technologies... so, how is it that we can expect teachers who themselves struggle with understanding advances in technology to be doing a good job of implementing technology in the classroom?
Unless teachers take the initiative, in their own time, to learn about all that technology has to offer in the classroom, are they letting their students down by not being "up to date" with all that's out there? It makes me wonder what type of technological training, if any, will end up being required of teachers in the future.
"A few years ago we had media specialists who had taken over for librarians, now even that name has disappeared because the media has become so broad no one can be a specialist in the whole media realm."
...also a good point. The field of educational technology can't be concretely defined anymore as the definition of the field varies depending on a person's job duties, area of expertise, media used, etc. It's constantly changing situation by situation.
I liked your idea for using social bookmarking for a parent hotline. I never thought of that. My parents are asking all the time where i get my info. I am going to use your idea. Hope you don't mind :)
I loved your take on Chapter one. I agree...Technology is growing so rapidly. How do we keep re-defining technology in the schools? Just the 4 weeks of this class has my head spinning with all the technology I had no clue about. My thoughts go to the students that may feel the same head spin with all the tech tools in school. I hope I can keep up and keep students up to date. I actually still have students that don't have a computer in their households. And as for the definition...sometimes the definition is more confusing than the term alone. Let people decide for themselves how to define educational technology.
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