In what ways have you grown as a professional while taking this course? How can you use the knowledge gained to increase your leadership within the corporation?
I have increased my knowledge about technology
while taking this course. I will use
this knowledge in my classroom, in my role as a member of the technology
committee, and in providing professional development for the faculty.
Philosophy and theory of how to
incorporate technology into the curriculum is one of the areas in which I
learned the most in this class. It was
not one of the reasons I signed up for the class and some articles addressed
issues I had not considered yet with 1:1 implementation. Discussions about digital citizenship or
digital reputation brought different insights into a problem that is very
frustrating to me. Responsible students
who are well behaved in the real world display behavior in the digital world
which is not consistent with their personalities. They post things online and make up
personalities or lie about their age to see if they can get by with it. Internet safety rules don't seem to have much
meaning or value to many of them.
Although digital education can offer new level 4 activities that involve
higher level thinking skills and projects not possible prior to devices, what
devices are actually being used for falls far short of those goals. Digital worksheets are just expensive
workbooks.
New websites and software opportunities
were plentiful in this course. I used
Symbaloo, Mendaley, and Padlet in class activities. I shared class articles with my personal PLC
group and with writing consultants in my National Writing Project group. My PLC group created their own Symbaloos and
a science teacher tried a couple of the websites in her classes. I took the class to learn more about current
software and website trends and to learn what some of the latest developments
are and I was not disappointed.
The third reason I took the course is
to learn about 1:1 technology projects for my technology committee. Our school corporation will probably go 1:1
in the 2015 to 2016 school year. I am concerned
about whether or not 1:1 will work. Our
greatest obstacle will be the lack of connectivity in the community due to dead
zones. Our second greatest obstacle will
be our school network. My fear is that when
we buy the devices and spend a lot of money, they won't work. The school has a history of technology
projects that were planned, purchased, and did not work as hoped. We have five i-Touch carts from a grant
project. The carts and the Wi-Fi worked
well in some areas of the building, but did not work well in other areas. My classroom is in a hall where Wi-Fi is not
reliable. It is hard to buy into a
project that will die in the middle of class.
Although I love technology myself and go back to Apple IIe, I can list
easily the well-intended projects that did not work because of
interconnectivity or the school network blocking websites that needed to work
for the webquests to be successful. Our technology
committee hopes to put several steps in place before we begin a 1:1
implementation. Our first step this
school year is a schoolwide survey of the staff to if people buy into the
proposed project. Buy-in from the
students, parents, and community will follow.
Curriculum planning, studying devices, seeing what needs to be fixed in
the network and infrastructure are other steps in the overall success. It has
been helpful to read articles and discussions from people who have actually
done 1:1. I have enjoyed this class and
happy that I had the opportunity to participate.