Reflection on Technology Use in Education

The role of education should be to prepare students to enter the global community and economy.  Over the past twenty years or so, the advances in technology have led to great changes across the world.  As Scott McLeod explains, the job market in the United States has shifted from manual labor and cognitive labor jobs to upper end service and creative end jobs.  This means that workers need to be able to analyze and problem solve, not simply reiterate facts that can otherwise be looked up on the internet.  The advances in technology also allow for greater collaboration amongst people throughout the world via e-mail, video conferencing, Skype, and social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn.  For these reasons, the structure of education needs to change to fit the evolving world.

The first step in making our education system more current is to make 21^st century learning environments a reality.  My professional goal for myself this year is to create student-centered learning experiences for my students that are enhanced by technology.  One way that I plan to accomplish this goal is through the use of the wiki (http://msdmathonline.wikispaces.com) I created.  This wiki will serve as my home base for my classes.  It is a place where students can go to get an overview of the class, learn about topics and goals we will be covering, find extra help resources, and collaborate with their peers through the discussion features on the wiki.  Even when students are not in the classroom, they have multiple ways to learn about the concepts we are covering at any given time.

In addition to the wiki, I have been trying to incorporate other new technologies into the classroom.  As part of my technology implementation plan, I created a pre-assessment survey on exponential functions through Survey Monkey and exit tickets through Socrative.  I created discovery activities on exponential functions through the use of graphing calculators and the graphing calculator app on the iPad.  Students will be creating their own videos through Educreations explaining a problem to their classmates.  In addition, I will be having my classes create a virtual poster or Keynote/PowerPoint presentation displaying what they learned about a real world application of exponential functions of their choosing.  They will be working collaboratively with a group to create this project, much like the experiences they will likely be having after they leave high school.

Admittedly, I was skeptical of integrating technology as much as I have, mostly because I didn’t know how to use technology effectively.  By no means would I call myself an expert, but I am beginning to feel more comfortable and my students are becoming more acclimated to the use of technology in the classroom.  Will Richardson writes, “Instead of simply handing in countless assignments to teachers to be read, graded, handed back, and most likely thrown away, we can now offer our students a totally new way of looking at the work they do.  It’s not meant for the teacher or the class or even the school.  It’s meant for the world – literally” (Richardson, 153-4). With blogs and social media being so prevalent and easy to use, anyone can be a content creator. I think this is something important we can all teach our students, especially to help prepare them to be the best that they can be when they enter college and the job market.

Resources:

McLeod, S. (2010). Tedxasb - Scott Mcleod - 2/25/10 [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yA6oTU1emM&feature=youtu.be

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

Schrum, L., & Levin, B. B. (2010). Leading 21st-century schools, harnessing technology for engagement and achievement. Corwin Press.