Week 8 Reflection

I am so very grateful to have had this opportunity to immerse myself into a different way of learning technology. So often I have used technology in the class for the sake of technology, mainly as a filler, and I haven't incorporated teaching students how to do different things with technology. Now, I believe I have a basic foundation for teaching my students how to utilize technology for different purposes, while also incorporating our state's curriculum standards.

This course has helped me develop my technological skills in several ways. First, I have been given explicit instructions and links on how to create pod casts, WIKI's, and blogs. Secondly, once they were created, I now own this knowledge, because for me, it took several hours just to get from point A to point B. However, as I muddled through and didn't give up, I know I can now create these and show my class how to do it. Further, encouragement from my instructor and classmates is a blessing. Thanks everyone!

I have deepened my knowledge of the teaching and learning process from our listening and reading resources these past 8 weeks. So often, they explained how students come to the classroom having already immersed themselves in social networking, that "regular school" is very boring for them. As educators, we have to grab this social networking and also bring into the curriculum academic networking, and we must allow our students to help us with this. Our classrooms will really become "a community of learners" when all of us know we can learn something from each other every day.

My perspective of teacher-centered to learner centered is slowly emerging. Because I am a digital immigrant I still have an underlying fear that if I give my students too much control, all control will be lost. So...I am slowly loosening the reigns of being the center of instruction. All of these resources and discussions from my classmates are showing me that I must do this in order for my students to benefit from their learning. One thing that helps me is the fact that I don't mind asking for help with any sort of learning strategy that can be used in the classroom. The obstacle I run into is finding the time to do it, and lack of support from administration. I believe this is largely because of a lack of knowledge of the resources available to them.

There are several ways I plan to expand my knowledge of technology, teaching of technology, and increasing student achievement with technology. First, I am looking forward to learning even more about integrating technology in the classroom through this degree I am obtaining from Walden. Secondly, my plan is to introduce blogging to my students when school begins in the fall of 2009. I know this will take some time to accomplish because of administration approval and parental permission as well. Student achievement will be increased because as students know they can create and publish for an audience bigger than their classroom, I believe they will know their learning is important to them. It will be authentic.

I do plan to implement a couple technological goals over the next two years. Again, I will plan to introduce blogging to the class. My goal is for students to have a means of reflection for their lessons. In these reflections, students will explain what they learned or didn't learn, if the learning strategy was useful for them, and in what ways I can teach it better the next time. A second goal is to integrate audio pod casting in the curriculum. In order to accomplish these tasks, the school administration must be given proper information and sources that explain how it will be done, and that their students' identities will not be harmed. I know this will have to begin with me doing some research via information I've already gathered from this class, and also through our technology coordinator and teacher at school. School systems must realize that technology isn't going away and that it is only going to become more and more advanced. Our students already know this and they use it every day.

My checklist is a little different from week 1. I want to be a more student-centered, learner-centered educator. This will be my most important goal.

Hi everyone, I posted an episode to my podcast, Angie Cashs Podcast. Click this link to check it out: http://angcash.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-06-05T10_17_12-07_00 - Angie

http://angcash.podomatic.com/ Hello everyone. Check out my first podcast.

I believe the main idea for the 21st Century Learning venture is based on the fact that the world is quickly moving and already has, to digital learning. This resource is extensive and exhaustive; however, it does contain valuable information for educators. Again, although it was very wordy, the graphics and colors lend themselves to guiding the reader to specific educational sources. What was surprising to me was the fact that it mentioned several times of how core learning was still at the heart of education. I assume this should not have been surprising, but it made me realize as an educator, that although our world is digital, we must teach the foundations of our core subjects to our students before embracing 21st century skills. 21st century skills' authors understand this as well and seem to know the basic core curriculum is key before advancing to the 21st century. There are implications for me as a teacher. Rote memorization of facts and skills is quickly becoming a learning style of the past. 21st century learning requires that students understand technology as never before, that they are more independent learners and thinkers, and that they can solve problems with returning solutions. Wow! Therefore, I have to be trained for the 21st century, too. School districts must become aware of this advancement and their school boards must provide adequate training for their staffs. Is anyone out there already receiving training on The 21st Century Skills? Is there really such a thing? In our school district we teach according to a theme called "Learning Focused." This is similar. However, 21st century skills has more breadth and depth.
May 26, 2009 5:51 PM

Blogging in the Classroom

Blogging is very new to me, but there are some ways I plan to implement it in my classroom. First, I want to use it as a place to post assignments and other important links. Also, students can maintain eportfolios of their work. This would save on a great deal of paper work and disorganization would be minimal. Blogging will serve several purposes. First, it will be a resource that will help students critically analyze their work, based on the fact that the whole world evaluates it; and used as a digital tool to organize their thoughts. Additionally, I am hoping to provide my classes access to other students' writings in different cities or countries so we can all work together, creating pod casts, etc. This will happen soon...but not right away. After much instruction on how to utilize blogs and their safety, plus beginning with small uses such as posting assignments and links, will they be able to post content. I know that many of them may already be blogging and could teach me a thing or two, but I wish for them to have a desire to think critically through blogging, not just as a social tool. Further, blogging will enhance my lessons because we will get to interact with others all over the world. And, as an educator, I can learn a great deal from national as well as international educators. We can collaborate with our lesson plans by blogging about different pedagogies we used; ones that worked or didn't. I can post a lesson for an international teacher, while he/she does the same for me. Albeit I would take the ideas and plug in my state's standards. Blogging just makes sense in today's world. I can understand schools' reluctance for not encouraging it. After all, it's for everyone to see. There would have to be a safety program in place that would include permission slips signed by parents, and explicit rules regarding students' use of blogs. However, due to our digital age, students long for this sort of a different learning experience. I teach 4th grade and my content area is Language Arts.