Reflection

Our final blog post assignment for Walden University is to share our reflection over the past seven weeks with the class entitled " Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society."  First, I would like to thank our professor Dr. Bordelon for helping expand my understanding and appreciation of the impact of technology especially for our students within the classroom. Taking graduate level courses while teaching is both challenging and reinvigorating.  I am enjoying the practical lessons that I can apply immediately in my teaching experience. This course in particular has awaken by desire to continue my blog website which I started several years ago and left to gather dust over time.  I am very glad to reconnect with my blog and my goal and desire is to continue blogging so that I can just share my teaching experience and also share some of the technology that I am incorporating within my classroom.

The technology tools that we focused on which were RSS feeds, blogs, wikis and podcasting which are not new to me. However, I was reminded how important and creative they can be within the classroom. Due to my position as computer teacher for middle school and ninth grade students, I was very excited to take a closer look at these fantastic web tools that have unlimited potential within schools. I am seeing my role to help facilitate these types of tools not only in my own class, but also to help the teachers within my school to also use them in their classroom. I understand that it is very difficult to incorporate these types of 21st century learner skills due to curriculum demands placed on teachers. Lack of time and resources tend to push back the opportunity to give due justice to much needed technology and media literacy skills that our students need today.  However, this course helped me to rethink how I can incorporate these much needed 21st century skills within my classroom and in the process help other teachers to do the same.  One key lesson that kept coming to the forefront of my thinking each week was that in order for 21st century skills to be develop in students, it must be first incorporated within the teacher.  There is no getting around this critical factor. The reality is that if I am not blogging, or using wikis or podcasting myself then it will be very difficult to transfer the passion and skills needed for my students. This became clear to me when I stopped using RSS feeds for my daily reading and information gathering.

One of my goals for my class is to do more collaborating projects with other teachers within my school and outside of my school. This will include student blogging and connecting with community members. I believe this will revolutionize my class and open the minds of my students to think beyond just working independently.

A second goal is have our school become a 1 to 1 computer school.  Especially on the high school level I would like to have our students with laptops in hand in each classroom and really move our technology skills and instruction forward. Our students are so hungry to use these tools and we need to be able to guide them in how to use them to benefit their learning experience.

As I move forward in my graduate program, I will continue sharing my experience and focus on becoming a better connector, content creator and collaborator.

Podcasting Interviews 21st Century Leaners

This past week for our Walden University graduate program we were assigned to create a podcast and interview 3 students regarding 21st Century Skills and Technology usage.  Please listen to the following podcast.  Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to share the full interviews with each student. You can listen by clicking on the following link:

http://leftridgeteacher60042.podomatic.com/entry/2014-12-01T10_41_19-08_00


Please share your comments and thank you for listening.

A Look at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills

 My assignment for Walden University was to view The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills website (http://www.p21.org) and post a reaction and an evaluation of the website.  At first glance, I was very impressed with the broad coalition of individuals and businesses that were involved in this program.  

 The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills website is a great resource for educators to read and follow with their blog and twitter account.  I discovered the schools which are currently using the 21^st Century Skills in their classroom and was able to view videos and information on what they were doing in the their classroom.  Along with the information that helped describe what 21 Century Skills was all about, I was able to actually view what it looks like in the classroom which had greater value to me personally.   

Sometimes the challenge for educators as it relates to 21 Century Skill is that we know they are needed and are important for our students, however the focus on meeting core curriculum standards and making sure that our students are proficient in all key areas places these skills as a secondary concern.  The 21^st Century Skills website however at least provides a central location to find answers on how these skills can be incorporated within the classroom.  The implications for my students will be an enlighten teacher who has been shown that it can work within the classroom and by following the model I can transfer those skills within my own classroom. 

A Exciting New Look at Why I Should Create a Class Blog!

I teach computer classes for grades 5-12 at a private school. A webblog will be a tremendous asset for my class.  Last year I started with the concept of students having their own web page to showcase their projects.  However, the website was limited to just our class and parents and didn't have the ability of a blog interaction with comments and feedback.  After reading about the impact of blogging and the skill that my students need to have in regards to RSS feeds, I will begin having my students develop a blog page to still showcase their work.  However, the difference will be they will be able to share it to the world and look to engage their followers (classmates, parents and global audience) through comments. I am currently using a program called Weebly.com for my class weblog and now I will just give my students one page access to edit and I can still monitor postings as well. The focus will be to showcase projects verses designing a website for showcasing.   I believe this will have a motivating factor for my students knowing that their work will be seen by the world.  It will also serve as a greater purpose than just doing the work for a grade but to ultimately share it with a global community. 

Reflection on Using Google Voice

I have been using  Google Voice for several years and have found it to be a great tool for communication with parents. The features have worked well tying in with my cell phone with texting ability and note recording.  I set up my number as a voice mail for parents to leave messages or to receive calls as I was available.  This provides open communication with my parents without giving up my personal cell phone number.  I also have the ability to have all my calls go directly to voice mail if needed.  I  provided business cards with my voice mail number which creates a professional appearance and approach to my teaching profession.  The ability to have this type of open communication with my parents has been a great asset for my teaching career and I highly recommend Google Voice for all teachers.