My Vision Statement for Technology in Education
Having been out of the classroom for the last ten years my recent experiences in the realm of Educational Technology have been truly eye opening. It is so exciting to learn about all the new tools and activities available to teachers technologically for their classrooms. From tools as simple as doc cams as replacements for the old overhead projectors, to devices as intricate as complex graphing calculators, the innovations that have been developed over the last decade seem infinite. What is even more amazing is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It seems that nearly every day there is a new and better version of the latest software or gadget. Just when a person thinks a Kindle is the be-all end-all in eBooks, along comes the iPad. As with all things that progress quickly there are positives and negatives that go along with these innovations.
The promises that technology holds for our classrooms seem limitless. I have been fortunate enough to see a fully functioning Smart Classroom in action. This Fifth Grade class includes a flat screen the teacher uses for most of his lessons that are either web-based or at the very least computer based. He consistently utilizes a Smart Board for activities that are student centered and student driven. This same teacher has been using a Doc Cam for the past three years and just this year has been able to add Clickers to his technology arsenal. In the near future he is hoping to get a Grant that will allow him to purchase some form of reading assistance device for his lower level readers such as Sony eReaders or Amazon Kindles. It is wonderful to see the positive ways students react to this emerging technology and it is encouraging to know that there are teachers out there who are actively seeking new technologies for use within their classrooms. The students from this particular class represent a student body with statistics that include a population of over 60% Free and Reduced Lunch. Regardless of their socioeconomic conditions the children are presented with an amazing opportunity to learn and grow by way of technology. .
Here is the other side of the technology coin: In the same school as the classroom I just described, this Smart Classroom is the only one of its kind.
The rest of the school is woefully lacking in technological updates and educational tools. There is at least one computer in every classroom but they are all so outdated that they struggle to run even the most basic software programs. There are televisions and VCRs in every classroom, and most of the classrooms just received DVD players, but none of the TVs are hooked up to the teacher’s computer for display. The rest of the classrooms are without Clickers, Doc Cams, Smart Boards, and there are definitely no eReaders of any kind floating around for use.
The computer labs in this school are equipped with plenty of computers, but these, like the classroom computers, are also in dire need of updating. Most computer lab sessions in this elementary school consist of twenty minute periods involving two software programs, Study Island and Success Maker, which are programs that give kids basic practice problems in Math, Science, and Literacy skills. It is amazing to watch the teachers who, despite the mildly archaic practice, are excited to be able to integrate some technology into their week.
Here is what I love about both of these situations: There is no difference in terms of passion between the first “technology heavy” teacher and the rest of the teachers in this school. Each and every one of them is doing the best with the tools they have in their classrooms. Many of the teachers are signing up for one of the two Smart Boards that are shared by the High School and Elementary School so they can show a Discovery Streaming educational video. A lot of the teachers are still ordering video tapes or DVDs from the ISD’s REMC Coordinator to supplement their lessons. And finally, every single one of them is still holding on to the hope that someday they will have a Smart Classroom too, even though they haven’t gotten a pay raise in three years and the school is struggling just to stay afloat.
When I finally have the privilege to teach in this school it is my goal to be just like these teachers. I will continue to stay abreast of all the latest and greatest educational tools classrooms. Through my educational technology classes I have learned about several sources of wonderful information for teachers regarding new advances. Whether I can actually have all the new tools or not, I will not stop learning about the potential they have to enrich the educational experiences of my students.
The teacher that I mentioned at the beginning of this Vision Statement started his career with a natural interest in all things “techie”. He worked really hard to write the grants and attend the technology conferences that would help him earn his Smart Classroom and he has done wonderful things with all of his technology tools. He is the gold standard when it comes to thinking about my goals for employing technology into my work in education. I started this class with little or no knowledge of technology in education and I leave this series of classes with a clear understanding and a real world example of the type of classroom I want to have when I finally teach. It would look something like this:
· A laptop for every student with updated memory so we could run just about any program we need.
· Clickers for instant feedback.
· A Smart Board
· A Doc Cam
· Kindles that would be available for any of my students who struggle with reading.
· A flat screen that would display the teacher’s computer screen.
· Easy access to any website I, as the teacher, find useful.
· At least one digital camera, one webcam, and one microphone.
If I showed this list to the IT Coordinator at the school I have been referring to he would probably laugh out loud. But I also know that if he could equip every teacher in the school with all these things he would with a very happy heart. Every teacher, administrator, and support staff member in this school system want their students to be able to compete with the larger schools in terms of technology experience and success. Unfortunately it is just not a reality.
When I think about the pitfalls of technology there are several that come to the forefront immediately. Money is the biggest pitfall that schools encounter when considering technology in schools. There is always a large initial investment when trying to equip schools with appropriate technology tools. The problem of money does not end there. Some of the devices that are integrated into schools need maintenance and periodic upgrades, which translates to “more money”. Also one of technology’s biggest downfalls is the fact that since there are constant innovations in technology a lot of tools become obsolete in very short periods of time. The perfect example of this within my school’s setting is the VCRs. It was really not that long ago that every classroom was outfitted with a VCR, and yet video cassette tapes of current educational films are no longer produced. Current educational films are now produced as DVDs or even more often in digital form, such as Discovery Streaming. In the school I am talking about you need to check out a media cart to watch a Discovery Streaming film, which is not difficult, but in a perfect world each teacher would have that ability already built into their classrooms. The bottom line is that, for this school, by the time they found the money to equip all of their classrooms with VCRs that technology was almost obsolete.
One issue that I find incredibly frustrating is the matter of equity among schools concerning technology. In the first class of this series my instructor was discussing his school’s discourse regarding the purchase of laptop computers for every student in the high school. That is a discussion that seems eons away in my school. The legislators and educational reformers say they are concerned about equity and yet there must be very little oversight regarding equity if one school is about to supply every student with laptops while another school is trying to figure out where to find the money to upgrade the memory on their old computers so they can run a simple typing tutor program without crashing the system. I am not begrudging my instructor’s school their funds and the inherent abilities that go along with those funds, it is just frustrating to think that those students might have an advantage over the students at my school when they finally reach college.
As these classes come to an end I have been thinking about what my future will look like in terms of my own learning and skill development. I started these classes with a basic understanding of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I can now use each of those programs with great ease and in ways that will serve me well in education for years to come. As these programs evolve I plan to evolve right along with them. I see my Continuing Ed. classes as a way of staying current with the new advances of each of these programs. When considering my total lack of experience for the past ten years with web-based technology I am a little embarrassed. I had a little experience in 1998 with maintaining a webpage in a classroom, but even that was very basic. I knew nothing about RSS feeds, Blogs, Website Creation, or Podcasts (other than how to listen to them). I have loved learning about all of these things, and am amazed at how useful they can each be in an educational setting. I have become addicted to my Bloglines page and I can now whip up a Weebly Website in no time at all. It is so encouraging to leave this series of classes and feel incredibly competent in my own abilities. That is a feeling I do not want to lose. If I get the job that I want at the school I have been referring to throughout this account, I would definitely continue with Michigan State’s Educational Technology classes.
The school I am hoping to work for needs people with technology experience and current knowledge to lead it on a path that, thus far, it has not been prepared to follow. There are many teachers that are eager to bring their students to a place of proficiency within the realm of educational technology, but they just don’t know where to start. One place I have identified within this school as a potential starting place is within the computer labs. I feel it is very necessary for the students, even the ones in the lower elementary, to begin some sort of typing tutor program on a more regular basis. I know this idea sounds very basic, but hopefully they will be dealing with computers on a larger scale as they progress through the upper grades and having good typing skills would be the first level of computer proficiency. The second part of my plan for these students would be for them to have more web based computer experiences. I was amazed to see a group of fourth graders in the computer lab one day struggle with simply typing a website address in the address bar. They had no prior experience with either the act of typing in a web address or the basic features of web addresses in general (i.e. the dots and symbols in combination with the letters). When I think of the number of times I used the internet for just these three classes I feel a sense of concern for the students in this particular school who are going to have little or no web experience throughout their elementary school years. It would be very interesting to visit an elementary school that is very tech-savvy to compare their internet experience with the students I have observed.
If I were to come up with a formal timeline for myself describing where I want to be in terms of technology I would start with the goal of just getting a job in a school. It is my hope that by the end of this Summer I will be employed a school somewhere in the area. After that the timeline gets a little fuzzy. If I get a job as a Media Specialist then it would be my plan to begin a Master’s Degree within the next year in either Educational Technology or Media Science. I have gotten a good start with my Michigan State classes, but I definitely want to expand on my experience, especially if I am going to be responsible for the technology needs of a whole school. If I get a teaching job I will still want to use my Continuing Ed. requirements to pursue classes in Educational Technology, because even though the schools in this area do not have a lot of funds for technology I still want my students to get the most out of the technology they have available to them. Finally I really want to get involved within the next year with MACUL. Everyone I have met that attends the conference has only had wonderful things to say about it. The more experience I have had with technology the more comfortable I have become with it, and the more interested I have become in learning more about it. I don’t want to let that excitement fade away. I have already learned a lot, but there is so much I still have to learn.
The thought of re-entering the education work-force is a bit scary to me, but it is also very exciting. I feel like my classes at Michigan State have brought me back up to speed on a lot of things I have missed in the last ten years. I am confident in my abilities when it comes to the possibilities that technology offer in the realm of education, and I feel comfortable presenting those ideas to a group of students and teachers. It is an overwhelming task sometimes to think about the influence a teacher has on the life of a child, but it is a task I readily welcome and look forward to, hopefully, in the near future.
The promises that technology holds for our classrooms seem limitless. I have been fortunate enough to see a fully functioning Smart Classroom in action. This Fifth Grade class includes a flat screen the teacher uses for most of his lessons that are either web-based or at the very least computer based. He consistently utilizes a Smart Board for activities that are student centered and student driven. This same teacher has been using a Doc Cam for the past three years and just this year has been able to add Clickers to his technology arsenal. In the near future he is hoping to get a Grant that will allow him to purchase some form of reading assistance device for his lower level readers such as Sony eReaders or Amazon Kindles. It is wonderful to see the positive ways students react to this emerging technology and it is encouraging to know that there are teachers out there who are actively seeking new technologies for use within their classrooms. The students from this particular class represent a student body with statistics that include a population of over 60% Free and Reduced Lunch. Regardless of their socioeconomic conditions the children are presented with an amazing opportunity to learn and grow by way of technology. .
Here is the other side of the technology coin: In the same school as the classroom I just described, this Smart Classroom is the only one of its kind.
The rest of the school is woefully lacking in technological updates and educational tools. There is at least one computer in every classroom but they are all so outdated that they struggle to run even the most basic software programs. There are televisions and VCRs in every classroom, and most of the classrooms just received DVD players, but none of the TVs are hooked up to the teacher’s computer for display. The rest of the classrooms are without Clickers, Doc Cams, Smart Boards, and there are definitely no eReaders of any kind floating around for use.
The computer labs in this school are equipped with plenty of computers, but these, like the classroom computers, are also in dire need of updating. Most computer lab sessions in this elementary school consist of twenty minute periods involving two software programs, Study Island and Success Maker, which are programs that give kids basic practice problems in Math, Science, and Literacy skills. It is amazing to watch the teachers who, despite the mildly archaic practice, are excited to be able to integrate some technology into their week.
Here is what I love about both of these situations: There is no difference in terms of passion between the first “technology heavy” teacher and the rest of the teachers in this school. Each and every one of them is doing the best with the tools they have in their classrooms. Many of the teachers are signing up for one of the two Smart Boards that are shared by the High School and Elementary School so they can show a Discovery Streaming educational video. A lot of the teachers are still ordering video tapes or DVDs from the ISD’s REMC Coordinator to supplement their lessons. And finally, every single one of them is still holding on to the hope that someday they will have a Smart Classroom too, even though they haven’t gotten a pay raise in three years and the school is struggling just to stay afloat.
When I finally have the privilege to teach in this school it is my goal to be just like these teachers. I will continue to stay abreast of all the latest and greatest educational tools classrooms. Through my educational technology classes I have learned about several sources of wonderful information for teachers regarding new advances. Whether I can actually have all the new tools or not, I will not stop learning about the potential they have to enrich the educational experiences of my students.
The teacher that I mentioned at the beginning of this Vision Statement started his career with a natural interest in all things “techie”. He worked really hard to write the grants and attend the technology conferences that would help him earn his Smart Classroom and he has done wonderful things with all of his technology tools. He is the gold standard when it comes to thinking about my goals for employing technology into my work in education. I started this class with little or no knowledge of technology in education and I leave this series of classes with a clear understanding and a real world example of the type of classroom I want to have when I finally teach. It would look something like this:
· A laptop for every student with updated memory so we could run just about any program we need.
· Clickers for instant feedback.
· A Smart Board
· A Doc Cam
· Kindles that would be available for any of my students who struggle with reading.
· A flat screen that would display the teacher’s computer screen.
· Easy access to any website I, as the teacher, find useful.
· At least one digital camera, one webcam, and one microphone.
If I showed this list to the IT Coordinator at the school I have been referring to he would probably laugh out loud. But I also know that if he could equip every teacher in the school with all these things he would with a very happy heart. Every teacher, administrator, and support staff member in this school system want their students to be able to compete with the larger schools in terms of technology experience and success. Unfortunately it is just not a reality.
When I think about the pitfalls of technology there are several that come to the forefront immediately. Money is the biggest pitfall that schools encounter when considering technology in schools. There is always a large initial investment when trying to equip schools with appropriate technology tools. The problem of money does not end there. Some of the devices that are integrated into schools need maintenance and periodic upgrades, which translates to “more money”. Also one of technology’s biggest downfalls is the fact that since there are constant innovations in technology a lot of tools become obsolete in very short periods of time. The perfect example of this within my school’s setting is the VCRs. It was really not that long ago that every classroom was outfitted with a VCR, and yet video cassette tapes of current educational films are no longer produced. Current educational films are now produced as DVDs or even more often in digital form, such as Discovery Streaming. In the school I am talking about you need to check out a media cart to watch a Discovery Streaming film, which is not difficult, but in a perfect world each teacher would have that ability already built into their classrooms. The bottom line is that, for this school, by the time they found the money to equip all of their classrooms with VCRs that technology was almost obsolete.
One issue that I find incredibly frustrating is the matter of equity among schools concerning technology. In the first class of this series my instructor was discussing his school’s discourse regarding the purchase of laptop computers for every student in the high school. That is a discussion that seems eons away in my school. The legislators and educational reformers say they are concerned about equity and yet there must be very little oversight regarding equity if one school is about to supply every student with laptops while another school is trying to figure out where to find the money to upgrade the memory on their old computers so they can run a simple typing tutor program without crashing the system. I am not begrudging my instructor’s school their funds and the inherent abilities that go along with those funds, it is just frustrating to think that those students might have an advantage over the students at my school when they finally reach college.
As these classes come to an end I have been thinking about what my future will look like in terms of my own learning and skill development. I started these classes with a basic understanding of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I can now use each of those programs with great ease and in ways that will serve me well in education for years to come. As these programs evolve I plan to evolve right along with them. I see my Continuing Ed. classes as a way of staying current with the new advances of each of these programs. When considering my total lack of experience for the past ten years with web-based technology I am a little embarrassed. I had a little experience in 1998 with maintaining a webpage in a classroom, but even that was very basic. I knew nothing about RSS feeds, Blogs, Website Creation, or Podcasts (other than how to listen to them). I have loved learning about all of these things, and am amazed at how useful they can each be in an educational setting. I have become addicted to my Bloglines page and I can now whip up a Weebly Website in no time at all. It is so encouraging to leave this series of classes and feel incredibly competent in my own abilities. That is a feeling I do not want to lose. If I get the job that I want at the school I have been referring to throughout this account, I would definitely continue with Michigan State’s Educational Technology classes.
The school I am hoping to work for needs people with technology experience and current knowledge to lead it on a path that, thus far, it has not been prepared to follow. There are many teachers that are eager to bring their students to a place of proficiency within the realm of educational technology, but they just don’t know where to start. One place I have identified within this school as a potential starting place is within the computer labs. I feel it is very necessary for the students, even the ones in the lower elementary, to begin some sort of typing tutor program on a more regular basis. I know this idea sounds very basic, but hopefully they will be dealing with computers on a larger scale as they progress through the upper grades and having good typing skills would be the first level of computer proficiency. The second part of my plan for these students would be for them to have more web based computer experiences. I was amazed to see a group of fourth graders in the computer lab one day struggle with simply typing a website address in the address bar. They had no prior experience with either the act of typing in a web address or the basic features of web addresses in general (i.e. the dots and symbols in combination with the letters). When I think of the number of times I used the internet for just these three classes I feel a sense of concern for the students in this particular school who are going to have little or no web experience throughout their elementary school years. It would be very interesting to visit an elementary school that is very tech-savvy to compare their internet experience with the students I have observed.
If I were to come up with a formal timeline for myself describing where I want to be in terms of technology I would start with the goal of just getting a job in a school. It is my hope that by the end of this Summer I will be employed a school somewhere in the area. After that the timeline gets a little fuzzy. If I get a job as a Media Specialist then it would be my plan to begin a Master’s Degree within the next year in either Educational Technology or Media Science. I have gotten a good start with my Michigan State classes, but I definitely want to expand on my experience, especially if I am going to be responsible for the technology needs of a whole school. If I get a teaching job I will still want to use my Continuing Ed. requirements to pursue classes in Educational Technology, because even though the schools in this area do not have a lot of funds for technology I still want my students to get the most out of the technology they have available to them. Finally I really want to get involved within the next year with MACUL. Everyone I have met that attends the conference has only had wonderful things to say about it. The more experience I have had with technology the more comfortable I have become with it, and the more interested I have become in learning more about it. I don’t want to let that excitement fade away. I have already learned a lot, but there is so much I still have to learn.
The thought of re-entering the education work-force is a bit scary to me, but it is also very exciting. I feel like my classes at Michigan State have brought me back up to speed on a lot of things I have missed in the last ten years. I am confident in my abilities when it comes to the possibilities that technology offer in the realm of education, and I feel comfortable presenting those ideas to a group of students and teachers. It is an overwhelming task sometimes to think about the influence a teacher has on the life of a child, but it is a task I readily welcome and look forward to, hopefully, in the near future.
Check out more of my Educational Technology Classwork at my Personal Website
