Week Three Responses

So, this week I am changing things up a bit.  Instead of responding individually to you all, I am compiling a post where I take the most interesting, thought-provoking points from each you.  After you guys review it, send me a comment at the bottom of the blog telling me what you think.  What is most interesting/thought-provoking?  What would you add to it?  What do you disagree with?

I think we may be the lucky ones who will be able to find just about anything to be able to integrate technology into our classroom. Ongoing professional development is the only way to ensure teachers receive the tools they need to deliver content and implement practices. Teachers must also be willing to make those adjustments to the curriculum as well as more formative assessment to test the strategies they use. Having a lot of technological knowledge is great, but if a teacher cannot make it relevant to the classroom discussion it does not enhance anything. Concurrently, if a teacher does know the subject and the content area but not the technology they cannot enhance the students learning.  I definitely agree that I do become entranced with new technologies as I am playing with them. I am usually much more concerned about finding the cool shortcuts or learning how I can show off my skills with the program instead of seeing the ways that the program or technology can be used to enhance our classroom and our curriculum.  First and foremost, a teacher needs to set content as priority number 1. Many teachers have no idea how to use technology in their curriculum because they have not been taught to use these different techniques, and not just that, but the actual technology like computers, overheads, and smart boards are more of a problem than an actual program.. . . So, I think that technology, if it is going to be used in the classroom, needs to fit the needs of the teachers just as much as the students, because a teacher using technology just to use it, without knowing how to, takes away completely from the content and pedagogy.  When planning a unit if you, as a teacher, don’t know the content how can you even hope to begin a unit on material you aren’t intimately aware of and able to use? For this reason I would pick content to start with, but without the pedagogical knowledge of teaching and learning you wouldn’t have a unit or lesson plan, you would have a mess.  I appreciated that it noted how, at times, the technology aspect is treated as an “add-on.” As if a teacher had something in mind already for their lesson and realized there was no technological element. . . . Not using these great resources to their full potential is like handing Leonardo Da Vinci a flower pot and asking him to paint it red. . . . It really does go back to the harmonies of all of these Knowledges. A weakness in one area disrupts the basis of the principle. Unfortunately, the technology aspect is often what is lacking.  Everyone always has a friend that is “good with computers,” and we come to rely on those people to deal with these opaque technologies. In order for students (and teachers) to achieve the highest possible levels of success, we have to take it upon ourselves to acquaint ourselves with these technologies so that they will cease to seem so complex and incomprehensible.  I believe it is definitely important for teachers to familiarize themselves with technology in order to incorporate it more effectively in the classroom. I don’t think that understanding HTML has much to do with this though. Harris and Hofer mentioned that an issue for teachers was knowing how to use technology in conjunction with their lessons; not just using it for the sake of using it to meet standards. When you talk about this in an education standpoint those are two things that never happen at a rapid rate. For the most part funding is minimal and gets schools by, so buying everything when it comes out is probably not going to happen. Secondly, whenever something new is bought it must first be learned by the technology people at a school who then instruct the teachers on how to use it. And even then we have all had that teacher that still has no idea how to work that piece of technology. So I would say, find a piece of technology that teachers enjoy using and works for students and stay with it until it is absolutely necessary to replace it or something so much better has been released that it can not be done without. I don’t think that teachers should have so much technology in their classroom that it distracts their students and defeats the purpose of purchasing the equipment. I think that teachers need to know their students, know how to keep them focused on the proper usage of the technology, and have great classroom management if the class is going to be decked down in technology. Part of TPACK’s main ideas is using technology properly for your educational needs. So, my suggestion is to put those cell phones and laptops to work. If you can’t get them off facebook have them create a page for a character and make it a requirement that they must write on other character’s walls, post pictures, pick out quotes and those character’s favorite songs. If you can’t get them off their cell phones have them use online polls where they have text in an answer.  Technological knowledge is not a hiring requirement (for most schools), nor is it a classroom requirement - so you cannot be held accountable for it by the school. I believe if we are wanting to be /great/ teachers, the kind that make us stand out, the kind we say we want to be now (but may forget about in 5 years), then we need to go that extra step. Teachers are learners as well so there should not be the issue of how adept they are in the different technologies available – just that they have more practice in some areas.  But if we are not accountable to teach students technology knowledge then who is? The students? Should all and/or more schools have classroom or technology tutoring programs?  Technology is one of the driving forces in the advancement of our world, in order to tap into that force it must begin in a classroom. These students are coming to school from homes where technology has been the forefront for as long as they remember. When they come into the classroom and the teacher isn't teaching up to that speed he/she will lose their student's attention very quickly.  The problem with attempting to introduce digital tech in schools, as with integrating anything new in schools, comes from the idea that whatever the new thing is, it must take over totally, completely, and will require tons of painstaking time to training those unfamiliar in its use.  I understand that some teachers put so much information online that their students could stay home and get just as much out of the course. But the solution to this is still making class time valuable, not eliminating all technology from the classroom.  I’m not saying that teachers should not make resources available to students; I strongly believe they should, but as a teacher you should be using your knowledge of content and pedagogical knowledge to provide something in your class beyond the technological resources, something that students could not get elsewhere.  I feel like our students would be a perfect idea for helping us and updating us about new tools, updates, and technologies that are out there; since they are the ones that will be most exposed to it. I also feel like having a nice community within the school with the teachers would be very beneficial.  As a student, there are many downsides to having such a teacher. They feel much less accessible than your other teachers. First, it’s tough to get into contact with them as they only check their email once every other solstice, and second, you feel a personal disconnect because they cannot relate to your natural inclination to technology.  We need teachers to stick to lectures once and a while so students learn to take proper notes, and we need students to have to go to office hours to ask questions and not always rely on email and expect instant response. I would definitely let my students know that I am human, I am still learning, and I want to work with them, not against them, for each assignment.




So, my questions after reading this are the following.  You don't need to answer them, but I do want you to think about them (because we will return to them a few more times):  What is technology?  If we believe that technology includes items such as pencils (i.e. Pencils to Pixels) or even bound books, can we ever truly teach without technology/tools?  If so, how?  What would that look like?