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Educational Technology in the 21st Century 1

Educational Technology in the 21st Century Donald Murchison Lamar University

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 I am currently working at Cypress Fairbank ISD, in a technology liaison role at my campus, The Adaptive Behavior Center (ABC), where I also teach High School Science and Language Arts. I plan to pursue a district level technology position, integrating curriculum and technology to make lessons that teachers can use to engage students in the world they live in. One position I plan to strive towards is the Iexplore director, which is a program that Cypress Fairbanks uses to share great ideas about learning, as well as the use of technology. I enjoy the use of technology in the classroom and in doing so; many other teachers see the level of student engagement that comes with the understanding of student needs in technology. I already provide one on one or group support to staff at the AB Center, to help them provide their students with technology driven instruction.

 The educational needs that I must address, to achieve the district position I desire, is a Masters Degree in Educational Technology. This degree will supply me with the skills required to be well rounded in a wide variety of technology tools, to better serve the students. My accomplishments thus far have aided me in sharing information about the educational process and using technology to deliver relevant, engaging lessons. Students of today will be the workers of tomorrow and knowing this, drives me continually expand my knowledge about the educational process. There will always be times that paper and pencil are important but our students of today do not live in a paper and pencil world, which is where we need to take our turn of the century thinking into the 21st century.

 Technology in today educational environment should be as diverse as the students in our classes, fortunately, recently we have seen many improvements in the way curriculum is provided with the use of technology. My vision for education technology is the continually upgrading to newer technology to match what the business world is working with that enables the student’s to achieve new levels of creativity. I feel that with this this statement comes the true reality that corporations and for profit company's have a much larger pool of money that is available to them but with innovative ways school districts could match the technology.

 Information systems was a very informative class in the that I was asked to interview people that have seen much change over their career as educators and develop an idea for how the classroom should look in five years. What I found so interesting about this class is that I completed it almost 4 years ago and when I think back about it, the classroom has changed little just in the last 4 years. For one of the projects I interviewed the Read 180 teacher, Mrs. Temco at the Adaptive Behavior Center (ABC) about the many changes in the processes of communication, planning, and delivering of instruction throughout her 28 years in Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District. Mrs. Temco and I began discussing that, first and foremost 28 years ago “there was not a computer in any of the schools” and if she were told that there would be machines that would help you prepare a lesson, communicate with staff, and deliver a lesson she would of not have believed it. The author of Critical Issue: Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement discusses change and the critical need to introduce new technology into the classroom.

 I also create my idea of what the 21st century classroom would look like in 5 years I stated my hopes for my classroom in five years is that I can continue to improve on providing a collaborative environment where all students involved are capable and feel safe sharing. Collaboration in tomorrow’s classroom would also entail using blogging and other software to share ideas and discuss topics selected by the facilitator. (McCrea) Technology has already greatly influenced the ability of educators to diversify their lessons to better suit individual students but I feel that the future will not only help diversify learning but alleviate the pressures on teachers and students.

 Just in the last five to ten years, online communication has become the new way of seeking outside sources of information and opinions outside of school. In this same way, I intend to bring that type of collaboration into my classroom by opening my doors through software programs such as Wiki and blogging. I have already introduced my students to the idea of blogging within the district but hoping that one day we will be able to blog about subject that we are studying such as History, Science, or Geography. How great would it be to be able to blog about China with someone living in China or when studying our solar system, blog with an actual astronomer. Visit Matt describe how he allows children to stay connected to the internet using their smartphones during his classes to interact in blogs that he has set up specifically for the class.

 With the introduction of mobile devices, people are now able to stay connected to the internet and the wide range of information it can provide. Technology is becoming so much smaller and due to this, students would be able to stay connected to the school intranet so that textbooks could be accessible via net as well as assignments, projects, and interactions with teachers no matter where in the school the teacher or student may be. A great example of using different types of media besides the hard copy of a textbook is written by Malissia Bell. Ms. Bell describes in her article that many schools have begun putting textbooks on iPods and other sources so that students have this media with them at all times.(Bell)

 Cloud computing in the classroom would be used so that all the information such as readings, homework, and other data can be held or stored off site but easily and quickly accessible through a network. Media is becoming smaller and there for we have access to so much more information so cloud computing will help ease the burden of the individual schools. Smart objects are used to place a person that is speaking on an overhead projector or review a test that was taken and turned in minutes before. If teachers have the knowledge to create tests or quizzes through programs that can automatically grade them, the options for review would be limitless. Students would no longer have to go home worrying about how they did on the test. The students would have automatic feedback through some type of computing device. After the software grades the test, the teacher can project the percentages of passing and not passing onto a smart object such as a smart board or screen. Anyone who has any type of experience with the internet has found the amount of information that is produced when searching a topic may be daunting but with the use of Personal Web, the type of information can easily be focused to the desired information. (Morris)

 Teaching with Technology was a class that focused heavily on the use of technology within gifted and talented classrooms and best practices. I gained many new ideas about how to critically look at my teaching strategies and apply new concepts such as differentiation, R.A.F.T. activities and online group work. I watched a short video by Mr. John Abbott where he discusses how a true learner will build on past material and expand on what has already been learned. I gained the knowledge that a learner will build upon frameworks until a concept is truly learned. Although I did understand the importance of using technology in the classroom, I did not fully comprehend what activities I should be doing to really help my students achieve the next level of understanding. With Teaching with Technology I began to understand that it is OK for students to develop their own ideas and concepts that were not the same as mine. I also began to see how important it was for me to be the facilitator and take a step back for my students learning. It is OK for me to check for students learning but to give the learner more freedom to research and learn in ways they understand. I use to feel that I needed to be a driving force in my student learning career but I have since learned it is more important for students to be engaged in their own learning, through self inquiry.

 I struggled greatly in this class with the online group work. I found it very difficult to work with people collaboratively online due to not meeting face to face and time restraints of all team members. Although as time went on we developed a way that we could all contribute at different times and still have meaningful conversations where everyone was a contributor. I learned a great deal from the use of online collaboration such as ways to maneuver around obstacles such as time restraints. We used Googledocs to post questions and reflections for our different responsibilities and whenever we would email one person we would CC all the other team members so everyone in the group would be up to date with how the projects were proceeding. Googledocs was a very valuable tool in that we all used it to put the project together as we built our individual parts. Once we had perfected our lessons and activities one of the other team members posted it to our website.

 I have already begun using what I have learned in my classroom such as having students build projects using Googledocs. My students love this because they already spend so much time on the computer when they get home. Students find that instead on trolling around the internet and chatting endlessly with friend on instant messenger they are developing projects with a group online long after they have gone home. I have had several students state they feel like they learn so much more while on the computer developing new ideas with their friends.

Some questions did arise when I was working on this project with my team members such as how do you know if all members are pulling their share of the weight of the project? I really need to find out more information about how to avoid one or two group members doing all the work while others in the group that have not put as much effort into it reap the benefits. I am still trying to critically look at this and let all of my students know it is an expectation that everyone in the group works efficiently and honestly.

** EDLD 5366 ** EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics, Animation and Desktop Publishing was a hands on class where we created a digital version of ourselves and visited a place called econd life. EDLD 5366 opened my eye up to a whole new side of technology and the uses. Although I am not sure why people would spend a significant amount of time on the computer ingageing with made up people, it really taught me about video games and the use of avitars.

In adition to the creation of the avatar we also completed a new letter activitiy that we had to create using different pubishing tools in Microsoft Publisher and Word. Some of the most important lesson I learned from this course is the self guided rubric and learning the tools that Microsoft has created for the purpose of designing a nice looking professional product. I learned a great deal when it came to this class such as table and graph building for the purpose of showing statistical data.

During this course I relyed heaveily on the discussion boards for guidance from other students. I would say I enjoyed using the discussion board the most during this class while participating in the Simple Life activity. I continue to research new ways of presenting information and becassue of this class, the basics have been laid out for me. Due to my current position at my school I am expected to present new data that has been given to me in ways that will be appealing to our teachers. Using what I have learned in EDLD 5366 has given me that edge I needed.

Bibliographic Citations

Bafile, Cara. "School Races to Promote Reading Through Podcasts." //Education World// Education World, 10 May 2009. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. .

Honey, M. (2005). //Critical Issue: Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement//. Retrieved January 15, 2010 Jamshed, L. (2007, April). //Technology In The Classroom, TEAchnology//. Retrieved January 15, 2010

Ivers, Karen. //A Teacher's Guide to Using Technology in the Classroom//. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. N. pag. Print.

Matt, Visit. "Mobile Technology Goes to School." //Education World// N.p., 2009. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. Path: [].

McCrea, Bridget. "5 K-12 Technology Trends for 2010." //Technology Trends for 2010// 2.2 (2009): 1-4. Print.

Morris, Carol M. "Loud Computing, Big Data, and Open Access ." //D-Lib// Jan. 2010: 1-4. Print.

Ullah, A. (2003, June 24). //Critical Issue: Using Technology to Support Limited- English-Proficient (LEP) Students' Learning Experiences//. Retrieved January 15, 2010

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). //ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards://

//What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do//. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education