Reflecting on the Impact of Technology in Education, Work and Society.

 

    As technology is advancing in society, it is also changing the way students are learning. I started my master's in technology integration, learning, and discovering new ways to use technology in the classroom. I want to have a curriculum that prepares my students for the 21st-century college or career path they choose. This course opened up my mind to many new opportunities and tools that I can use in my classroom. It has given me the time to try new ideas with my students and broaden my understanding of different education web tools. 

Going through this course has opened up ideas and resources that I did not imagine using in the classroom. I have been a learner, collaborator, designer, and facilitator of student learning through technology (ISTE, 2008). I have learned how to use blogs, wiki’s, and social bookmarking to enhance my students' learning.  I have collaborated with classmates on finding resources that can be used in the classroom through social bookmarking. I will be using a social bookmarking site to organize my resources and online tools that I would like to try and use in the classroom. I was a designer by creating a blog and wiki lesson for my class. These resources have shown me new ways to use technology in the classroom that I would have never used before this course. I want to create a blog to post resources for students and parents to support their children in my classroom and in the world of technology. I want to use more wiki lessons, especially for remote learning. It is a great way to get the lesson, directions, resources, and practice work all in one place for the students to access. “It's a great opportunity to introduce students to the concepts of open-source software, community collaboration, respect for other people's ideas, intellectual property and public domain, and much more,” (Richardson, 2010, p.63). These resources and web tools have improved my technology skills as an educator, and I am excited to use them in the future.

           My knowledge of teaching through technology has deepened by understanding how a teacher and student's roles have changed.  Classrooms are changing to student-centered learning where they can be self-directed learners (Walden University, 2015a). With technology, students can learn and discover information on their own instead of the teacher delivering the lesson. As technology is changing, the students' life skills need to know are changing, and teachers need to adapt. Twenty-century students need to learn beyond the curriculum to succeed in the college or career path (Blair, 2012). After learning about adapting the classroom, I want to find more ways to have more student-centered lessons to discover the learning objectives while using learning 21st-century skills.

           A web tool that I want to use in my classroom is Desmos. Desmos is an interactive graphing application. It allows students to discover, graph, and learn about equations. In 8th grade algebra, half of the standards center around graphing. I think this tool will open up opportunities for more self-directed learning in my classroom for students to discover how slope and linear equations work. A roadblock in using this tool is that I will need to teach the students how to use it and take more time to have them work by discovering the information. I will overcome by allowing more time in this unit because the students will benefit more by learning independently through technology than teaching them through lectures. This tool will allow students to discover, explore, create, and use critical thinking, which are all 21st-century skills (Blair, 2012). This tool will allow students to be empowered learners, knowledgeable constructors, and innovative designers as they create and learn all the differences in graphing linear equations (ISTE, 2016). It will also allow me to be a collaborator with my students and a facilitator as they learn through technology (ISTE, 2008).

           One SMART goal I have for using technology in my classroom is by the end of the school year, I will make a social bookmarking page where I have posted and organized resources that I can use for each unit.  I will set aside time for each unit to find resources that can enhance student learning and be used inside and outside the classroom. By the end of the 2021 school year, my second SMART goal is to have two self-directed technology-driven lessons per unit. I will collaborate with my colleague to find and create these lessons to use for this year or next. Both of these goals will help be start more integration of technology into my classroom and curriculum. As I integrate more technology students into my learning environment, students will be gain new skills throughout the process.

                      A topic that I would like to study is student’s digital citizenship. As technology is increasing in society and education students, need to learn the proper use. Students are starting to use technology in a self-taught manner. “There is a gap in everyday practice and best practice that needs to be addressed if we are to be successfully developing informed members of the online community and citizens of our societies,” (Egresitz, 2020, p. 9). They are discovering it on their own and using it without any guidance. I feel it is essential to teach students appropriate use inside and outside of school. Not only is it important to teach students how to use technology properly and how to post on it, but it is also important to teach students how to interpret what they find on the internet (Walden University, 2015b). Overall, students are using technology every day, but most are not being taught how to use it properly, I would love to learn more about this dilemma and find ways to improve student technology use.

           As I synthesize what I learned in this course, the resources I used, and my future goals, I know my journey of enhancing technology in my classroom has begun. I am excited to take the knowledge that I learn and start finding new ways to improve my learning environment through technology. I am becoming a modern technology learner, so my students can benefit later (Richardson, 2015).

           

 References

Blair, N. (2012). Today’s students need educators to re-envision the role of technology in the

classroom. Retrieved from https://www.naesp.org/principal-januaryfebruary-2012-technology/technology-integration-new-21st-century-learner

Egresitz, J. (2020). teaching digital understanding and citizenship: modern skills for the

            classroom and beyond. Technology & Engineering Teacher, 80(2), 8–12.

International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE). (2016). Standards for students.

            Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE). (2008). Standards for educators.

            Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators

Richardson, W. (2015). From master teacher to master learner. Solution Tree Press.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd

            ed.) Corwin.

Walden University (Producer). (2015a). The changing role of the classroom teacher:

            Part 1 [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Walden University (Producer). (2015b). The changing role of the classroom teacher:

            Part 2 [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.