Week 5 Reflection Paper

Many of the courses that I took in my undergraduate studies to become a teacher revolved around the use of technology in the classroom. I loved hearing about all of the ways that teachers were incorporating technology into their instruction and looked forward to having a classroom of my own where I could implement many of the ideas that I had learned. However, I was quite surprised to find how many of the tools that I had learned about in those classes were not available at my school.
Going into this course I really expected it to be more about the development of technology policy than about technology itself. However, I was happy to find out, after week one and throughout the remaining weeks, that the course was really about the technologies that should be used in classrooms that many schools seem to be afraid of. This was a really refreshing viewpoint to come from an educational institution.
One of the main goals that I had for the course was to learn at least five new technologies that I could personally put to use on my campus. I can say that after reading the articles, blogs, presentations, round-table discussions, video conferences, and discussion board posts, I can come up with a lot more than five new technologies. Blogging, teacher-created web-sites, podcasts, wikis, and video uploads and all ideas that I have brought to different teachers in my building who have the hardware at their disposal but who weren’t sure how to put it to use. If I had to pick one goal that I was not able to reach it would be to change the district policy on blogging and podcasting. Although some teachers still use these tools, they are against school policy. I can say, however, that I brought this issue up with the Superintendent of our school (Dr. Wanda Bamberg) and she has asked me to put together a list of websites that would need un-blocked and some research that shows that these are indeed educational tools. Thanks to many of the readings done in week 3 and 4 I am fully confident in my ability to get the policy changed sometime next semester.
I felt that I was successful in carrying out the assignments for the class. While they were time-consuming I felt that they all dealt with very relevant issues and were therefore interesting. I really enjoyed the assignment for week three (and four) which required me to talk with various people on my campus and in my district about technology. I really doubt that I would have had the meaningful and insightful conversations that I had if it were not for the class.
One of the better interviews that I conducted for the work done in weeks three and four was held with the technology specialists at my campus as well as the technology director for the district who happened to be on campus that day. We ended up talking a lot about blogging and the benefits that blogging could have on students performance in classes ranging from English to science. As it stands right now, (and this conversation happened before the one that took place with Dr. Bamberg) all sites that are used for blogging or contain blogs are blocked by the district. The policy is in place due to the fear that school districts have of being held accountable for what students may read or see on a website accessed from school. However, that argument is, to me, the same as saying the students should not be permitted to breathe the air at school as there could be contaminants in the air. There is simply no way to control everything that students see when they are on the internet. What the students are missing out on educationally far outweighs the results of our efforts to “save” them from seeing something negative online.
One of the readings from week one pointed out that students tend to write more and better when they do so on a computer versus on paper. I conducted an interview with the teacher who runs our virtual school computer lab and she said the same thing. She told me that she has been amazed at the increase in both the student interest level as well as the productivity when writing on the computer has been an option. This fact, coupled with the interest students show in seeing their own words appear on the internet to be read by everyone, is reason enough to unblock sites that allow teachers to set up free blogs for their classes. It is always an uphill battle to get students interested in what we are teaching in our classrooms. If we find a tool that could help peak that interest level then why are we not utilizing it?
If a student wants to find something bad on the internet they are going to find a way to do just that. I would say that blogging sites should be one of the least of our concerns when it comes to monitoring the internet. Aside from it’s use in the classroom, blogging could also offer stakeholders in the community such as parents and business owners a quick and easy opportunity to voice their opinions about matters concerning them and the school. Parent and community involvement is always a goal at our campus and offering them a quick and easy way to communicate their feelings could really strengthen the ties that the school has with them.

Week 4 Flow Chart

Flow Chart for Week 4 Assignment:

Professional Development Planning

Based on the data and lessons learned from the about the campus technology needs from the week 3 research paper I can say, without question, that the greatest staff development need that the campus has is making sure that we are providing staff development for teachers when they receive a new technology in their room. Far too often a new technology is installed in a classroom and it is then left to the teacher to figure out how to use it.

Even if a teacher does figure out how to use a newly-installed technology, chances are they are not using it to its fullest potential. Schools are always trying to do what they can to make sure that each dollar is stretched as far as it can and this is an easy and cost-efficient way to ensure that the money that is spent on technologies goes as far as possible towards the goal of enhancing technologies. The technology specialists needs to work in close coordination with the principal to plan out staff developments based on the calendar of purchases of new technologies dictated by the needs of the various departments in the school.