One technology class down, a lifetime of learning to go . . .

I am finishing my technology class this week, and as I have been sorting through all my completed course work, I can’t help but be proud of what I accomplished this semester.


I have never felt at ease with computers or any other technology for that matter, and yet after just four months, processes I used to feel were completely beyond my abilities are now practically second nature. While there is still much I don’t know, I think the most important thing that I have gained form this class is my new found feeling of technological competence.


Admittedly, this semester I spent more time tinkering with and exploring new technologies than I spent actually completing my assignments. With little prior experience with these tools, the unfamiliar language and processes required a lot of trial and error. However, this exploration of the programs resulted in me feeling much more comfortable with their use, and while this was time consuming, it was definitely not a waste of time. Going to the wrong menu for a command helped me learn more about where the various functions were located, and what functions, beyond those required of my assignment, the tools could actually provide.


As new technologies are created everyday, the tools teachers will have available to them are also going to be expanding. Teachers will have to stay informed about new technologies and how they are used. Knowing this is the future I face, I am glad that my university required an instructional technology class. I would never have taken one by choice, and not only would I have missed out on how to create many wonderful lessons, but I also would have retained my fear of technology. I now feel that it is extremely important to incorporate technology into my teaching, and I plan to continue to stay current on new methods by taking technology classes throughout my career.


While I know this class couldn’t possibly provide everything I need to know about technology tools for the classroom, it has served me well by encouraging me to overcome my discomfort with computers. The willingness to play with an unfamiliar tool without fear that I’m going to cause irrevocable damage is a huge change for me, and I truly believe that this sense of technological competence will be vital to my teaching career. As the technologies themselves will change with time, my willingness to learn and adapt my teaching to the current technologies will be the most important skill I will take from this class.

Technology allows teachers to teach beyond the classroom

On my classroom website, I have included a page of learning opportunities for students and their families to take part in outside of school. As I am planning to teach science and social studies, it occurred to me that just about any city in the country would offer activities that would reinforce these subjects.


After a bit if brainstorming, I was able to come up with several planned outings for families to participate in during their time together. For example, for a history-oriented outing, I included a trip to our downtown history museum, a self-guided downtown walking tour of historic places, and either a meal at one of our downtown restaurants that capitalize on their historic past, or a picnic in a nearby park. For science, I encouraged families to visit a local nature center and either hike or bike the nearby trails or greenway. In order to provide options for different family budgets, many of the activities I included offered free options and suggestions of nearby picnic spots.


I also included links to the websites for all the places I suggested, and suggested parents help their students research the sites and develop their own planned visits. I think it is important to encourage parents and students to look through the websites together, as each will learn something from the process. This would give parents an opportunity to guide their children on how to responsibly use the Internet, and to convey how they expect their student to use modern technology. Parents will probably be surprised at how much they too will learn from watching their students interact with the websites.


In my experience, children like to show adults how much they know about computers and modern technology. Using websites to plan an outing together would also show parents how computer savvy their children already are, and could initiate more active monitoring of their children’s computer use. This could help them better protect their children from dangers and misuse of the technology they can access.


I had a great time developing the outing ideas for my future students, and I hope that one day these resources will be of use. I relocated to Knoxville, and was not aware of most of the city’s educational offerings. I hope my website will help new families in the area discover some of our town’s amenities, and I hope all my students’ families will take advantage of my ready-made activities and enjoy them with their children.


I know teachers really have no control of what happens in their students’ home lives. However, by providing activities outside the classroom, I think we can show that we truly care about all aspects of our students’ lives by providing meaningful educational experiences that promote family interaction.

Classroom websites create classroom communities

My final assignment in my technology class was to create a classroom website using Google Sites. I was relieved to discover that this process was fairly simple and straightforward, and all I really had to do was to pick a website template, my colors, fonts, and then create a few pages. Once the pages were completed, all I had to do was to add my text, links and images.


While my new website is supposed to mimic my future classroom website, it also is a place to showcase all the technology projects I completed in the class, and to maintain the collection of web resources I plan to use in future lesson planning. I am relieved to have a sound location for these documents and resources, where they can be easily accessed in the months and years to come, without having to recall a file name on my personal computer. As an added benefit, students, parents and other teachers can also use my website to find pre-selected websites and activities.


The website also gave me the opportunity to practice building a classroom community.
As it was created with student and parent use in mind, it was important to provide personal information about myself, and my professional experience on the website. While links to my resume, and a short biography were included, the link to my blog, and my collection of technology lessons will give parents more insight into who I am and what my capabilities are.


In my future classroom website, I will also include a classroom blog to keep parents, students and other school staff informed about my class and our progress. By following me on Twitter, parents and students can also receive homework and assignment postings and reminders. I will encourage my students and their families to be regular visitors to the website, and will probably even assign homework that requires the use of the resources available on the site.


I feel fortunate that I am learning to be a teacher at a time in history when technology can assist me in creating a classroom community. The accessibility of a classroom website will make it much easier to maintain communication with my students and families, and therefore will help me create closer and more cooperative relationships with them. I think classroom websites are a wonderful tool that I definitely look forward to using.

Digital movies take student presentations to new levels of creativity

This week I had my first experience working with movie making software. I used iMovie, which was not the easiest to figure out, but in the end I was convinced that it would be a useful tool for classroom use.


With iMovie, you can time narration to moving photographs, which makes still photos more interesting and provides a presentation format that works for visual and audio-based learners. Adding a soundtrack further enhances the message of the presentation, and makes the movie seem more like a real documentary.


I also experimented with the web-based GoAnimate animation maker. After simply signing up, I was able to access ready-made animated characters and settings. The site also lets you create your own characters, and admittedly I spent over an hour dressing and trying different hairdos for the animated me.


The wide variety of options for character and scene development might pose a time-management issue for classroom use, as it is easy to be distracted by all the different possibilities. However, since GoAnimate is web-based, students can access it from any computer. Students could work on choosing their characters and backdrops as homework outside of school, and then could focus on putting the project together in the school computer lab. This would make the homework portion fun, and would still allow the real work to be done at school where the teacher could offer technical and academic assistance.


Despite the difficulties I had with iMovie, I ultimately enjoyed creating something from old photos I had scanned. This activity really inspired me to think about the creative presentations I could create for my students, and the projects they could create themselves with this application. Having students create their own digital movies will allow them to incorporate their creativity, their own learning style, and fun into their schoolwork.

When technology fails, learning doesn't have to stop

As a student, it's still a common experience to watch professors struggle with classroom equipment. In their attempts to show PowerPoint presentations or video clips, they often go through the exact same motions of checking wires, turning knobs and mumbling under their breath while their faces steadily redden and their composure quickly melts away.


Since I'm studying to be a teacher, this is worrisome to me. It's hard enough to stand in front of a group of people and try to keep my calm and their attention at the same time, without having the technology fail me. While these difficulties can happen to anyone, no one likes to be embarrassed, and I don't relish the idea of my students perceiving me as incompetent.


Furthermore, when technology fails, it costs more than just the teacher's pride--it also costs time. Teachers are under considerable pressure to ensure their students are learning and performing well, and often have limited planning and class time with which to accomplish this. I'll admit that I'm concerned about planning activities around technology, because if it doesn't work, I either have to spontaneously adapt my lesson in class, or need to have an alternative lesson already planned. As I'm already being told that I won't have a lot of planning time, the idea that I will have the time to create backup lessons doesn't seem realistic.


However, I ardently believe that it is important to include technology in instruction, and will do so despite any glitches I might encounter. If malfunctions are part of the use of technology, then at some point our students will encounter these difficulties themselves. Just as I have recognized the frustration in my own teachers, I know my attitude toward failing technology in class is going to be conveyed to my students.


However, I have also learned a lot from teachers who have explained what is happening, and what to do about the equipment problems they encounter. If I use malfunctions as an opportunity to demonstrate to my students how they can go about rectifying a technological difficulty, then at least some learning will occur, and class-time will not be wasted. I just need to remember that as a teacher, I am always teaching with my attitude, my actions and my words, and therefore any problems I encounter with instructional technology are also opportunities to teach my students how to overcome them.

Is learning more fun in a technological age?

Learning to use spreadsheets in the classroom reminded me of a math class I observed recently. I left the observation with the impression that today’s students are enthusiastic about any activity involving a computer. During my visit, students were divided into groups to play a game. The objective of the game was to get a point by finishing a problem faster than the other groups, and the team with the most points at the end of the game would get stickers.


I played similar games throughout my education, and received similar rewards. However, when I was a young student, scores were recorded as marks on the chalkboard. The math game I watched used a computer-based horse race graphic to keep score, and as a team correctly answered a problem first, their horse would move forward toward the finish line. While the game was no different than ones I had experienced, I was amazed at the difference in the students’ response to the game.


All the students were eager participants, and they alternated rushing to solve the problems, with frantic hand raising in hopes that their team would be called on first. When a point was scored and a horse moved forward, some students actually cheered. While growing up I might have enjoyed some of the games, but I don’t remember anyone cheering when another chalk line was drawn on the board. What a difference a computer made.

Spreadsheet-based interactive materials increase student engagement

I recently learned how to use spreadsheets to make interactive materials for students. While it made sense that spreadsheets could be used for math or graphing exercises, I was impressed to learn that they could also be used to make interactive worksheets for practice activities or even quizzes. I included an image of the simple worksheet I created to help fifth-graders practice the planets at right. Since students seem to embrace activities involving computers, they might find these activities more engaging than their paper counterparts.


I like the idea of being able to create my own worksheets, especially as this will enable me to tailor the material to my curriculum. Since these worksheets tell the student if they gave a wrong answer, the feedback is immediate and allows for multiple attempts to supply the correct information.


I am also impressed that clip art and images can be added to spreadsheets. This has the potential to help students who struggle with text-based activities, have reading difficulties, or respond best to visual images. Digital images can also serve as a visual reminder that can help students recall the correct answer. With the variety of images available, they can be specific to the focus of the worksheet. For example, a music lesson on the composers could include faces of the composers, and an unlabeled graphic of the carbon cycle could help remind students of the different elements of the cycle during a quiz.


Regardless of the content areas, computer-based interactive materials have the potential to make learning more exciting, engaging and more accessible for all students.