The Impact of Technology

Let me begin by saying I enjoyed doing this course, it has opened my eyes to lots of things in my practice as it relates to the uses of technology in the classroom. There is no doubt that technology has changed the classroom and the society that I live in today. I know the technologies are there but was still in my own way of teaching and using the basic technology that I got in my classroom. Reflecting back on this course the media has helped me to identify materials and also highlighted technologies that I must include in my classroom as it geared toward teaching and learning and improving my technological skills. The resources provided for this course is of good content the videos of teachers using technologies and web links as it helps to understand the students I teach and the environment that I lived in who embraces the uses of technology in the classroom which will help students to become digital literacy and lifelong learners (ISTE).

As I went through the course and implement the technologies I realize the students are drawn to the activities that I plan for them. They love using the technology more than the pencil, paper, and crayons it even got the ones who complain at times to participate without complaining. The more I use technology the more I get students to participate (Laureate Education 2015). This is knowledge gain how to use these technologies like blogs and podcast will surely improve my practice as I teach 21st-century learners. Many of what I learned in this are new but are a part of students’ daily lives (Purcell 2011). Therefore knowledge gain will be used in my practice in the changing classroom.

The web tool that I have learned about were a podcast, wiki, blogs, and Twitter. The one that I will use in my classroom is blog. A blog would serve an excellent purpose in my classroom. It can help with writing and reading skills. (Richardson 2010). The potential road block that I see fore coming with the implementation is how often my student can get to view or write a blog post outside of the classroom. A way that I can fix this problem is to work with my student's parents. Some of my students have devices that can help them to work on a blog and some of them depends on parents with technological devices. To fix this I will have to notify each parent when they have assignments on a blog post or when they must make comments on a post. In doing this also will get the participant of parents as their child use 21st-century skills. (Richardson 2015). The (ISTE) Standards that are being used to foster 21st-century skill is used technology to create student-centered learning environments that foster independent and collaborative learning for all learners, while they use blog in and outside of the classroom. And for the ISTE for teachers the tool uses is a blog and as it states students must become digital citizens.

For students to fully engage in using the 21st-century tool in my classroom I will have to work on the obstacles that are present and for the future. My school provides students with technologies to use in the classroom, but some have no access outside of the classroom as they would want to when web base assignments are given. My goals are as follow:

•    By the end September 2018, I will give all information via Twitter in an effort to communicate and collaborate with at least 75% of my students’ parents.

•    By the end of the school year of 2019, I will implement three new technological devices in the classroom at least 90% or the time.

As I reflect on the course in implementing technology into the classroom for the 21st-century learners an issue that needs to address is Professional Development (Richardson 2010). There is a lack of adequate ongoing Professional Development for teachers who are required to integrate new technologies into the classroom. I need also to attend these meetings because I need to learn about these devices. School districts mandate the use of specific technologies and teachers are left without the skills to effectively integrate this new skill in their teaching method (Maddux, and Johnson 2012). Therefore I will work with stakeholder and administers in my district to see what can be done to address this issue. This course has helped me a lot in terms of the many ways I can integrate technology into my classroom, as it meet the eyes of the modern day learners.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Are your goals S.M.A.R.T.? [Multimedia file]. Baltimore,

MD: Author.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015h). The changing role of the classroom teacher: Part 1

[Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Cleborne D. Maddux, and D. Lamont Johnson. (2012) Information technology Type II

Classroom Integration and Limited Infracture in schools

Purcell, M. (2011) The power of podcasting. Library Media Connection, 29(5), 48-49. Retrieved

from the Walden Library databases.

 Richardson, W. (2015). From master teacher to master learner. Bloomington, IN: Solution

Tree Press.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd

ed.).

ISTE Standards for Students. (2016).  Retrieved 12-20-2017 from

http://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

ISTE Standards for Educators. (2016).  Retrieved 12-20-2017 from

http://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators