What is one way in which you grew as an educator from this class and how will you continue it?

I think the biggest thing that I am taking away from this class is that I am more open to go out and explore different aspects of technology that I could potentially use in my classroom. I honestly, in the past, have not been an innovator. However, I think from this class, I am more likely to actively go find new things to potentially use rather than waiting for someone else to try them first. This has been a challenging yet very fun class--I have really enjoyed being exposed to what's out there!

Underage Social Networking and NSTE Student Standards

The NSTE Student Standards for Digital Citizenship are as follows:

5. Digital Citizenship

Students understand human, cultural, and societal

issues related to technology and practice legal and

ethical behavior.

a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible

use of information and technology

b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology

that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity

c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for

lifelong learning

d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship

In the article about underage social networking, it was interesting to learn how many younger students knowingly falsified their ages on Facebook to have access. What is even more interesting is that those that were on sites that have age limits and admitted to falsifying their age, their parents were either as responsible for the age falsification as the students or just ignorant--there was only 1 student surveyed who said their parents were not aware of their usage. Either way, the students (and their parents) were not practicling safe and responsible behavior. In the article, it was stated that 82% of the students using social networking sites were aware that the information/pictures they posted were visible to strangers. So, many questions/alarms arise from this for me! ["Are they uneducated about the potential dangers of strangers having access to their information?" "If so, do they just not care?" "(More likely) Are they just too immature to grasp the severity of the consequences?" "Are their parents really okay with them being on these sites where predators have access to them?" "If their parents are okay with this,what measures do they take to monitor their children's safety?"]    Maybe I worry too much, but I think that if there are sites that cater to certain age groups, then children should be limited to those sites. They shouldn't be participating on sites where they have to lie about their age--and their parents definitely shouldn't be encouraging this behavior. By allowing students to participate on these sites where they are not truthful about their age--they are just setting a precedent for their children that it is okay to lie.

Did you learn about your teaching style.....

I have found that my teaching style is kind of all over the place right now--I think I'm still trying to find my identity!  I am so excited about being back in the classroom and want to try so many things that I feel like a total spaz sometimes. I have figured out that when writing or giving instructions I have to be careful of assuming that my learner(s) have previous knowledge. I think I sometimes have a bad habit of this and maybe don't make things as clear as I could. I'm learning that I have to step back and read instructions and try to imagine any questions that they might trigger or imagine how the instructions could be received by the learner(s). I think one of my strengths is that I do keep continually re-evaluating things to see how I might make them better--I am very open to feedback!

Personal Professional Development Goals

I have several professional development goals. I constantly strive to learn more, whether it is in technology, teaching methods or ultrasound. As far as short term goals, there are many monthly "EdTech Tuesday" presentations that I have been attending here at OUHSC since January. Earlier this month we learned about Voice over Power Points which I am very excited to begin utilizing. I was hoping to use it so that students could listen to a lecture prior to coming to class and then we could spend more time discussing their experiences, questions and how to better apply what they are learning. (I think maybe it sounds a little like what Adam is doing with his class??) Another short term goal that I have is to study and pass my OB-GYN registry in Sonography. I've got the study materials and I don't think that it will take too much time to prepare but right now with 3 classes and then my job, I have no time. Hopefully in the short summer breaks I can spend more time on that!

At the end of January, I was required to attend a meeting in our Provost's office regarding professional development planning and maintaining an up to date Curriculum Vitae, etc. There were new faculty members from around the OUHSC campus at this meeting and we all discussed questions and problems that we were encountering in our new posts. While sitting in that meeting and reflecting upon it afterward, I developed a long term goal for professional development--not only mine but for others. My goal, after I obtain my master's and get a little more settled into my department, is to begin developing workshops on teaching methods for other faculty. As I sat listening to others in this meeting, it hit me that most of the faculty in these specialty areas (Medical School, Speech/Language Pathology, etc) were maybe experts in their fields but very few of them actually have any foundations in education. Most of them are hired to teach because they are good in their field, yet many of them have no idea how to organize content in a meaningful way for their learners and they admitted to struggles and frustration. This is what I envision myself helping with in the future--I want to work with these faculty to give them some of the pedagogical resources that we learn in education and help them to be more comfortable in their roles so that it will be a better situation for them and their students.

Progress on Teach a Technology Project

Honestly, I haven't had a chance to do a lot yet. I have been looking over "Voice Thread" which seems really interesting. After having gone to the website and browsing around a bit, I guess I have questions about the registration/making an account. I noticed that to use this with students and to allow other faculty to use it, there is a pretty sizable fee. Is this something that I can design my project around and get feedback from other factuly yet not have to "subscribe" to it? I really like the idea of the verbal interaction even though it is "asynchronous". I think that with online work, students feel a bit disconnected and this would probably help some with this. I can see the possibilites for doing projects with students using this technology.

I have looked a bit at iBooks Author as well. I'm still really interested in learning more about this and possibly utilizing it with my students and other areas of my work. I've been discussing it with my program director because she really loves iPad and I think that it is something that she would like to utilize too. We even had a short discussion about some things that we could possibly do along the lines of possibly collaborative projects since we are potentially going to work with the students from the Medical School on the Schusterman Campus.

Do you think that it would be too much to try to do both? Or would you like me to just focus on one and research the other on my own? Also, I know that you said you wanted us to present a draft of our project prior to meeting with you. I couldn't remember though, if you wanted feedback from those we will present this too also by that time or is that after we meet with you and included with the final project?

Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich Article

TEACHER TECHNOLOGY CHANGE: HOW KNOWLEDGE, CONFIDENCE, BELIEFS, AND CULTURE INTERSECT

By: Peggy Ertmer and Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich

 

                This article was published very recently in 2010. The main premise of this article is that even though there is greater access to computers, other technology and technology training in education today, in many classrooms, technology is still either not being integrated or if it is used it is not being used to its best effectiveness. The authors did a literature review of technology integration and focus was on this integration and how it is being spearheaded by teachers. When reviewing the list of references, you will see that the majority of the articles reviewed were from 2000 and later; there were a few referenced from the 1990’s and one from 1972. This is important because technology has exploded in the last 10-20 years and these references are relevant and up to date.

                Through this review, the authors point out that in many current classrooms, there is still insufficient integration of technology. They point out that if computers are used, they are still often used as an aid to direct instruction rather than as a source for student-centered learning. The authors discuss at length, the reasons they feel that this is the case as well as providing many ideas on how to overcome this and to more fruitfully integrate technology into the classroom.

                Some of the main reasons provided for why technology is underutilized, even today, are: “teachers’ use of technology are rarely linked to the student learning outcomes they are designed to facilitate”; teachers may know how to use the technology tools but they are still unsure of how to incorporate the tools effectively into their classroom routine; teachers are afraid of change and even when introduced to technological uses they often revert back to direct instruction because that is what they know and are comfortable with; and innovative teachers are often “peer-pressured” out of using technology. The main idea or need that the authors present for teachers to begin effectively and efficiently using technology is that they have to undergo a pedagogy paradigm shift—they have to realize the value of the integration so that they will undergo the integration. Some of the ideas that the authors discuss to make this happen are: preparing student teachers for this technology integration and then supporting them once they enter the classroom; developing support and interest groups for in-service teachers; providing specific use of technology integrated lessons with constructive feedback; and getting administrative support so that experimentation would be encouraged.

                I really enjoyed reading this article. I found it very interesting in the fact that in 2013, we are still so slow to adopt change. In the article, the authors discuss the idea that we as teachers often revert back to how we were taught and for many of us, we were taught by direct instruction and if computers were used it was basically used as a glorified typewriter. It’s been a while since I was in the classroom but I do remember that there was not a lot of administrative support when it came to technology use in my building. It seemed like it was something reserved for the computer lab not any other classroom. I think that this administrative support or in some cases as the authors mentioned, team support, is critical to bring about this integration. Like our students, I think teachers are afraid to experiment because they don’t want to look foolish and they are fearful of unknown consequences. I think also that even though schools do have computers and technology available, there still is a vast disproportionate availability of the technology. It is difficult to use technology in a consistent basis if all of the computers are located in a lab and the lab has to meet the needs of an entire school—I know this is still the case in many schools today. I really enjoyed reading about the “lesson study” idea of small groups of teachers examining and practicing lessons together. I had never heard of this before but I think it sounds wonderful—it is the same idea of student centered learning only the students are the teachers working cooperatively on how to integrate technology effectively. I think this kind of small group work could bring about a lot of change if it were encouraged and utilized. Again, this article was interesting and very challenging. I saw myself in a lot of the descriptions the authors presented and I sat there wishing I had had this class when I was getting ready to enter the classroom. I think that I would have done a lot of things differently!

Chapter 5 from Sandholtz, Ringstaff and Dwyer

CHAPTER 5: REDEFINING STUDENT AND TEACHER ROLES

In Sandholtz, Ringstaff and Dwyer

                Chapter 5 touched on a lot of similar things we have read in other reading assignments. The big idea in this chapter is again, in the ACOT classrooms, the changes that came about over the course of the study. The changes that were focused on in this chapter were how the roles of the teachers and their students changed over time. The authors discussed using the students as peer tutors not only with the technology itself but with the content as well. Reflections from the teachers touched on how in the beginning the students helped one another with use of the computers and sometimes helped the teachers too as well as how eventually they could see students helping one another to make strides not only academically but socially as well. Again, the teacher reflections are really neat to read. As with some of the content we read by Prensky, these teachers eventually had the students directing their own learning and becoming “content experts”. The students were teaching themselves as well as those around them.

                As mentioned above, I really enjoy the teacher reflections from this book. I think that probably this idea of redefining roles is one of the more difficult things for teachers who integrate technology into their classrooms. I think that we still picture the teacher as the one in the front of the room dispensing knowledge. To get away from that is exciting but requires an individual to give up a lot in order to eventually see the rewards. It is definitely something one has to undergo with a lot of faith. It also is something that would require a lot of good classroom management as well as administrative and fellow teacher support.