Webinar

I really appreciated the visionary component of this web seminar. I felt that the general message of the discussion was that the ends of student engagement are more important than the means (how the reform is implemented, technology or not).  I especially enjoyed the challenge of reforming educators trapped in traditional teaching routines by asking them to look backward at their own experiences in school at what captivated and motivated them.

The panelists seemed to agree that project-based, interactive education was the most meaningful, engaging form of learning, which is exciting because a project-based learning experience is something I would like to cultivate in my own classroom at the School of Arts.

I'm hoping to have my students work towards a larger project of creating a piece of art that either serves the purpose of providing a vision to inform scientific progress or by suggesting ethical guidance for current scientific issues (Suggestions for other options would be gratefully accepted.)

The seminar certainly expanded my thinking regarding my approach to the project, particularly the discussion regarding creative technology. Despite being artistic individuals, my students seem to revert to mass technology for science projects. I'm looking forward to engaging them in meaningful projects that encourage them to explore other resources and means of expression within the science classroom.

Tech-free Technology

I must confess I was surprised to see that our last class of the summer included not one remnant of technology, besides the artificial lighting and the frigid air being pumped into the classroom. Our meeting today was entirely discussion-oriented and involved a panel of former MAC students who shared their experiences with teaching with a focus on their utilization of technology in the classroom. Something I struggled to wrap my mind around was the variation of access to technology amongst the teachers speaking today.  I can’t recall specifics but I know a story was told involving a novice teacher whose computer failed three weeks into the school year and was basically informed it would not be fixed. Interesting. I guess, with all my apprehension about technology, I should be careful what I wish for! Along that line of thought, I really appreciated the comment made by one of the former MAC panelists about the chalkboard being the only other entity in the classroom on which she could depend. Hearing these confessions actually makes me feel more comfortable with the idea of technology in the classroom. Prior to the discussion today, I felt a bit ostracized by my hesitation to embrace technology, almost to the extent that it seemed I was the only one who was aware of its unpredictable nature. But after hearing from teachers in the field that, despite the pressure from the top to create a model of the 21^st century classroom within your four walls, sometimes it just doesn’t work and you’ve got to go with your backup plan, well, that made me feel a bit more secure, or maybe it’s better to say it made me feel a little less crazy. Everyone knows technology is unreliable and now we finally got the chance to talk about what to do when your plans collapse. I appreciated hearing the other side of the technostory. I think bringing in guest speakers is a great idea for this course and I’m excited to see more of it in the fall!

Skiigo, Everbox, Diinote & Dropype.

A joke, a joke. I know the differences between the programs despite the seemingly high proportion of overlap. The names are just a teeny bit amusing to me, maybe only Diigo. Anyways . . .

In keeping with the theme of this blog, I'd like to take this opportunity to address my flip-floppage on the subject of technology. With the "This I believe" podcast approaching, I feel a little like a politician who's being pressured to take a stance on a controversial issue with the upcoming election looming over her head. I know sometimes people refer to personal struggles as being a battle between the mind and the heart. So using those terms, consider the ideas presented forth in this class as being the thoughts in my brain and consider my fundamental desire for a natural, sustainable world as being my heart. So, because most people's views do not resonate with my own, I just want to tell my side of the story.

I believe our society is too dependent upon and too distracted by technology. I think there is an underestimated, invaluable amount of knowledge to be learned from the natural world that immediately surrounds us and people have lost sight of the richness of organic experiences. From my perspective, the digital world's dependency on coal negates any good intentions of "going paperless." I do my best to consume small amounts of energy despite living in our modern world; at the very least, I can say I consciously weigh the benefits of any energy-consuming form of technology before incorporating it into my lifestyle. I know not everyone takes this stance and some might find it silly. But I wanted to share these thoughts because this is the core of my struggle with this course and with teaching with technology in general. I want to engage my students in meaningful ways and, therefore, I have no intentions of blindly ignoring valuable technological tools and applications for the sake of my mantra. But for some reason, this course has quite often left me feeling guilty that I am not as eager as others to invite technology into my classroom, as if this is an indicator that I am not an eager, excited teacher. Because I am! I'm just more cautious than some . . . Another residual effect of this stance is the lack of familiarity with technology that causes additional floundering when trying not to sink in this course. I'm new to this Mac, to taking notes on a computer in class, to blogging, to podcasting, to using Evernote, Diigo, Dropbox and the list goes on. And I try. I really try.

Then there's the other side of me who wonders that, since my disposition to not use technology is so firmly planted in my worldview, if a decision to not use a certain form of technology in my class constitutes as imposing my beliefs on my students? Keep in mind that I would not ignore something that has obvious benefits, I just want to hear your thoughts regarding my internal debate. Thanks for listening, guys.

Endeavors in Edublogging

Looking at the list of Edubloggers had me a bit downhearted . . . where are all the science-themed blogs?! But I managed to check out a couple:  Jody Bowie's, A teacher's adventures in cyberspace, and the NSTA Blog.

I really liked Jody's approach to her blog; it isn't entirely science themed. It has more of a cross-curriculum feel to it, where she talks about issues that span the breadth of high school classrooms and even advocates for portfolio-based assessment to combat our current "era of grade inflation." And it doesn't take long to catch the underlying gist to all her posts:  life-long learning. She mentions the continual process of evaluating individual students and shaping each year's instruction to meet their needs and she alludes to a naive time in which she thought her teacher education was complete. Overall, I'd label this one a "thinking" blog; she explores problem-based learning, constructivism and instructivism, always comparing theories with her personal experiences and desires for her classroom and wrapping up her thoughts with allusions to physics. I like it. 

The other two blogs were fun, too. Cyberspace provided a ton of online tools for science teachers, like RAFTs, which allow you to search for project ideas by subject and grade, and YouTube for School. I encourage you to check out these sites! Last of all, the NSTA blog was completely different than the first two blogs, containing everything from science teacher tidbits to researchers blogging from the field to posts commemorating the legendary Sally Ride, an inspiration to women in science and math everywhere.

I've bookmarked these and a few others, might even add them to my new Google Reader. I must say that this has been a worthy endeavor. Edublogging, who knew?!

A Night in Columbus, or the Continual Flipflopping of my Technology Mindset

Last Thursday, the Woodrow Wilson fellows attended a conference in Columbus with workshops and sessions designed to help make us better teachers. We heard various speakers give personal recaps of their experiences teaching, most of which I found to be very inspiring. So let me say this first:  overall, the conference was a wonderful opportunity and experience. However, since this is a technology blog, I'd like to share a blip about one of the sessions I attended in which the presenter attempted to make good use of technology but, instead, the application hindered our engagement in the activity.
This particular session was oriented around the ideas of power and culture and privilege and how these phenomena manifest in our classrooms. It had potential to be a very enriching discussion but the facilitator chose to play it safe at first by asking the audience (a small crowd of seven) to respond anonymously to questions regarding race and prejudice by texting responses to an online polling service. A great idea, I'm sure. However, surprisingly, no one had very strong reception inside of the conference center and, thus, the polling activity did not go as planned. But instead of redemption, the presenter focused on the technology, trying again and again to have it work, telling us how it's such a great tool when it does work. And I was cringing. Why couldn't we just discuss the questions? And I'm sure this will be a shock to you all:  the presenter never initiated discussion. The technology failed and we waited and waited and patiently lingered on the screen, hoping that one message would pop up to justify the time we had wasted . . . 
Now, this is an extreme case of misusing technology in the classroom, I know. Seemingly there was no backup plan and, in my opinion, had the polling worked, I still would consider this a misuse since it inhibited the exchange of ideas in the first place. But that's not my point. Why did this woman feel so compelled to incorporate this technology into her presentation at all? Why is so much emphasis placed on including technology in our classrooms, in MY classroom?  It's unreliable, frustrating, and ever-changing. Even as we learned about making podcasts, we were told sometimes your recording will be saved, sometimes it won't. Why should I ask my students to perform a task using such a device that could cause them to become frustrated? I'm familiar with the argument that my students will have been reared in a different, more tech-savvy world but I just don't know how far that inclination extends especially considering the rapid pace at which technology is advancing. I mean, I was raised on TV, VCRs and PowerPoint presentations (all valid forms of technology) but that doesn't mean I don't get a teeny bit perturbed when I try to edit a movie in Quicktime or convert files from one perfectly useful form to another. And isn't negativity associated with school something I should want to avoid? So, commentators, I have two requests/questions:

1) Do you feel it is important for all teachers to incorporate technology into their lessons?
2) What is gained by this? In other words, how will my effectiveness as a teacher be inhibited by choosing not to use recent technological advancements in my classroom?

Wow. I would have never considered applying gaming to education. My perception of gaming was 100% negative. My fiancé used to play quite often but I think I’ve pestered (playfully and respectfully, of course!) him enough that he must hide it from me now. The games seem so silly!  I guess I was comparing them to the mindless games my friends and I played as kids when we should have been climbing trees in the backyard. So I never even gave modern games a second thought. I was amazed to hear the applications to education, the learning that occurs and the skills that are developed through this underestimated form of technology. Amazing! I loved the Ted Talk but I’m a sucker for those anyways. The games that were developed by the Institute for the Future were a little . . . I don’t know, just not what I expected. But seeing the examples really helped me to understand this woman’s vision of gaming saving the world. Afterwards, reading the article about the characteristics that are promoted by gaming allowed me to place it all within the context of the classroom, whereas the video left me in awe, but hard-pressed to design a captivating game for my classroom that would accomplish all the proper goals as well as address physics content.  Hmmm . . . maybe I’ll still keep that on the burner for now. This topic could resurface in a later blog.

My main point is, and this seems to be a recurring theme, “Way to go, profs. You may not have had me at hello but I like where you’re going with this.”

Oh, and more Ted Talks would be delightful.

Class on Friday was not what I expected. In fact, it didn't really feel much like an actual class at all. It began with an informal session during which the middle-schoolers visited and shared some highly valuable thoughts and perspectives. The messages that the students communicated us surprised me in that they aligned perfectly with our readings and the ideas we've been contemplating in our ED classes:  assigning manageable amounts of homework and creating a safe environment in which students are comfortable making their voices heard.  It's eye-opening to realize that these students are actually invaluable resources of knowledge, more so perhaps than our texts. This experience helped me to realize the importance of exchanging ideas with the students. They may be young, but they know what they want and need from a teacher or a classroom.

Our next activity had us form groups with our classmates of similar content areas in order to design a lesson around the NYC soda ban. The previous blog post was preparation for this activity but the result of my group's combined genius was outstanding! We designed a semester long project in which students become acquainted with all the workings of scientific investigation, from the literature review to experiment design to peer review of classmates' papers and a school-wide "conference" in which students convene and share their findings. I'm looking forward to using a similar project template in my classroom and letting students generate topic ideas. Fun fun fun. Oh and, of course, it was suggested that students maintain a reflection blog throughout the project and for the first time, I saw the benefit of this using this form of technology within a classroom. I guess I needed an external, real-world setting in which a blog could allow students to thrive, to think deeply about their work, to voice opinions that don't seem to fit within classroom walls, and to engage in student-led discourse amongst themselves. So yes, I admit that this course is accomplishing its goals despite my initial resistance. I never thought I'd say that I see some good in blogging... makes me wonder what else, technology-wise, is out there that I have yet to consider its application in my classroom.

Lastly, we made practice podcasts on a topic of our choosing. Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun doing it. And I now know how to make a podcast. And my boyfriend loves Aviary. He's been tinkering with the different tools all weekend. So thanks, tech class. You are revolutionizing my technology mentality.