Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society: Refelction

• Walden 6710 has helped me develop my technology skills as a professional teacher in more than one way. I am able to inform my students that technology skills can be used for more than entertainment purposes only. The media advertises new and innovative technological resources for picture taking, moving watching, and social networking. However, not too many media outlets promote the resources to be used in an educational arena. The skill I developed the most was trying to extend technology use outside of the classroom. I see myself attempting to incorporated more blog posting and feedback for my students, with the attempts of preparing them to be high-performing employees in the 21st century workplace. 

• My knowledge of the teaching and learning process has deepened in ways that can only benefit my students and make teaching easier. With the help of the Internet and other technological resources, I able taking my lessons to a more efficient level. My teaching goals involve students being able to respond to prompts on a classroom blog, placing my students in groups to complete a task that involves creating a podcast, and giving individual assignment which involves presentation via a wiki.   

• My perspective changing from being teacher-centered to learner-centered has not happened for because I have always been a learner-centered teacher. No matter what I have to teach, my first question to myself is, "Am I going to present the lesson so my audience can understand it?" I teach in a Team Taught classroom setting where there are special education students and regular education students. Everything piece of information that comes from my mouth is geared toward the complete comprehension, understanding, and retention of knowledge for my students. 

• The ways I can expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology with the aim of increasing student achievement is to keep incorporating ways students can learn using technological resources and teaching the necessary skills to use the resources effectively. Because the ideas are new, there are going to be a lot of trial and error situations that I will look forward to. The situations will mean that my students are enjoying our new way of learning, therefore wanting to be successful in the classroom. 

• Long-Term Goals: 
• One goal I have in mind is to extend the technological resource usage beyond the classroom. I have students who do not have access to Internet or computer use. There are many situations where I am making phone calls home and I want to exchange email addresses with students' parents and it is impossible simply because the parent does not have an email address, let alone a computer. I hope to have a technology literacy learning sessions where students can invite their parents to school and the parents can learn about the technological resources their children are using at school. Hopefully, the sessions can increase motivation amongst parents, so they can find ways for their children to use the same technological resources at school, at home. 
• Another goal involves using innovative tools and technological resources in the class at efficient level. I want the level to be so efficient that we have a paperless classroom setting. All assignments will be turned in via email, blog posting, wikis, and PowerPoint presentations. All directions and due dates for assignments and rubrics will be distributed electronically, along with teacher feedback and grades. However, I will not let the personal connections diminish to our classroom going green. Students will be able to communicate face-to-face in the classroom to complete assigned tasks. Also, anytime a parent wants to discuss issues with me, I will promote there will be no problem setting up a face-to-face meeting time. Who knows, the meeting might take place via the iPad! 

• In comparison to the list of blogs I responded to at the beginning of the course, my list has not change much. I will continue to research information on effective ways to incorporate technology usage in my classroom. Once the technology is incorporated, I then will be able to make sure it is used at an efficient level. In order for me to reach the goal, more researched on blogs, wikis, and podcasts is needed. I am willing to take the extra step because I know the learning process will be more feasible for my students because most of them use technology for fun, but they will realize it can be used to learn in a fun way.

Walden University 6710

Week 5 Application: Podcast

Podcast: Profiling The Students of Today

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The website for The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has excellent ideas for implementing technology in the classroom with direct correlation to specific skills that are needed to increase the chances for student success. Some of the specific skills include critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation. I am surprised how P21 is able to involve federal, state, and local legislation is involved to incorporate the idea preparing students for 21st century learning. If there was area of improvement for the website, I would say there are not many suggestions for schools who are in districts where the funds may not be available for implementing the technological tools that come with creating a learning environment that prepares students for 21st century learning. There are schools in the U.S. that have priorities, due to their current financial situation, that will not allow them to make changes toward a 21st century-type school. 


The website also implies the importance of being able to integrate 21st century type learning skills into the classroom in order for students to be prepared for working in the 21st century. So, if students are expected to have certain 21st century type skills, teachers are challenged to teach students these skill effectively on a consistent basis. Hopefully, teachers will be provided learning opportunities via  workshops and professional learning communities that will teach how to prepare their students for a 21st century learning environment. 

Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society

ATTENTION DISCUSSION GROUP #1:

Somehow, my original blog was deleted from blogger.com! I am creating a new blog in order to replace the one that was deleted and keep up with the pace of the class. Please bare with me as I get my blog back together!

Thanks!