I will not lie and say that this process is going to be a piece of cake, but I do appreciate the time and energy others will be putting in for my benefit in assisting me through the next 18 months. It's all a bit overwhelming, but I'm sure that by the end of this course, I'll have managed my time well enough so that I can go back to the classroom and stay on top of my coursework.
I do have several choices for my internship site advisor, but I'll have to read the handbook before deciding which one will serve me best. Hopefully, whoever I do choose will be able to recommend conferences and activities that will satisfy my one hundred hours.
As far as the conference itself, I know there were some hicchups, but that's bound to happen for a bunch of first timers, and I know as the months progress, it'll get easier. I really appreciated Dr. Borel taking some time out to assist us this evening.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
National Educational Technology Plan
Learning is changing at an accelerated, and, some would say, exponential rate. To meet this shift, educators must be willing to learn new methods for engaging a wide variety of learning styles, demographics, and learning deficiencies for the sole purpose of conveying information effectively to create a generation of true and excited learners. To this end, President Obama and has set a couple all-encompassing goals:
• By 2020, the proportion of the population with a 2 to 4-year degree will raise from 29% to 60%.
• The achievement gap will be closed so that everyone has the same opportunity at success. The goal is admirable, surely, but the real question is “How do we achieve them?”
Learning
“All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and outside of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society.” Through the use of technology, a student’s background, disability, or learning style will no longer stand in their way as learning becomes personalized and interesting to them. Although the tried-and-true methods and content we teach has served our students for years, it is now outdated and outmatched by current technology evolution. Understanding students need learning that adapts to change rather than that of stagnancy.
Teaching
“Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that can empower and inspire them to provide more effective teaching for all learners.” Teachers and educators of all type must become “connected” teachers, interacting with students, fellow teachers, administrators, and experts through technological networks in a 24/7 process and gaining access to and training for up-to-date technology to better engage and motivate student learning. Professional development must shift from episodic to “collaborative, coherent, and continuous” in order to make a meaningful change in teachers’ personal philosophies.
Issues and Concerns
The issues and concerns maintained throughout the plan deal with obstacles keeping the plan from achieving fruition. Large drop-out rates and disengagement from learning, as well as emphasis applied to non-real-world-applicable material is major hindrance in learning that must be overcome. Additionally, lack of technological “know-how” of not only teachers but administrators and policy-makers has led to a bureaucratic nightmare that threatens to halt technological progress in its steps.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
School or District Technology Plan
Pearland ISD’s technology plan contains the following goals: (1) to enhance the quality of instruction through district wide implementation of industry standard technology hardware and software as an integral part of the learning environment, (2) to utilize technology as an integral part of educational improvement and curriculum enhancement, (3) to provide high quality, on-going staff development and support, and (4) to provide administrative and support services. To achieve these goals, the district will provide on-going assistance in the implementation of district-wide and commercially available technologies, as well as provide new technologies for integration into the various curriculums and classroom instruction. Additionally, the district is currently investigating distance-based learning for students, technology seminars for parents, and a few online courses for teachers available 24/7.
Although few technology professional development opportunities are offered, the plan expresses the desire to improve and expand upon the technologies already available as well as implementing new technologies. The technology director, her department, instructional technology personnel, and campus principals are directly involved in organizing and managing professional development. However, it appears much of the time and money resources dedicated to technology improvement is still pending board and superintendent approval. The plan provides both time and budgetary suggestions, but ultimately, the decision belongs to the board. Furthermore, in section 1.4.7 the director of technology will identify E-Rate qualified technology and secure funding for qualified purchases.
Assessments of student-learning success and evaluations of the plan’s progress towards district-set goals are conducted by teacher, campus, and district STaR charts, curriculum and technology support staff, as well as a school’s technology committee. Furthermore, inventories, professional development evaluation forms, infrastructure evaluation forms, and external audits will also assist in evaluating Pearland’s progress to determine success, failure, and possible alternative avenues to ensure money and time are spent wisely in improving student development.
Although few technology professional development opportunities are offered, the plan expresses the desire to improve and expand upon the technologies already available as well as implementing new technologies. The technology director, her department, instructional technology personnel, and campus principals are directly involved in organizing and managing professional development. However, it appears much of the time and money resources dedicated to technology improvement is still pending board and superintendent approval. The plan provides both time and budgetary suggestions, but ultimately, the decision belongs to the board. Furthermore, in section 1.4.7 the director of technology will identify E-Rate qualified technology and secure funding for qualified purchases.
Assessments of student-learning success and evaluations of the plan’s progress towards district-set goals are conducted by teacher, campus, and district STaR charts, curriculum and technology support staff, as well as a school’s technology committee. Furthermore, inventories, professional development evaluation forms, infrastructure evaluation forms, and external audits will also assist in evaluating Pearland’s progress to determine success, failure, and possible alternative avenues to ensure money and time are spent wisely in improving student development.
Technology Assessments
Technology knowledge and skills are an essential part of today’s modern life-style, and although children and adolescents are utilizing these technological skill sets in their everyday life to play video games, text message, interact with Facebook, and check out stupid videos of people hurting themselves or being obnoxious on YouTube, they are not using modern technology to learn necessary information for their futures, nor are they acquiring good technological skills and beneficial practices that they can improve upon in the years to come. It is an absolute must that we offer our students a way to meld their understanding of modern technologies with the knowledge we, as educators, have to offer.
To achieve this end, we must first develop a means, and we must gauge where our skill sets lie in tandem with our students’ abilities. Mary Burns shows in From Compliance to Commitment that teacher proficiency with technology is not necessary to provide technological opportunities to students. As long as teachers have a general understanding of the technologies available to them and their students, the students will meet, and usually exceed, expectations.
The downsides to technological ability assessment is that much of the time, a student or teacher will label themselves as novice or low, when really they are above average amongst their peers. When it comes to technology, newcomers (or “Digital Immigrants”, Marc Prensky, Adapt and Adopt) often feel discouraged concerning their own abilities. On the other hand, the upsides include the ability to better communicate and collaborate if we understand our abilities and how they can coincide with our students’. Additionally, we can utilize the students’ expertise with 2.0 technology tools to better narrow the gap between instruction and absorption. The path we must take to improve is one we must take with our students, or as Mary Burns puts it, “The distance between teachers and students – academic, emotional, and physical – had diminished as teachers became co-learners with students.”
To achieve this end, we must first develop a means, and we must gauge where our skill sets lie in tandem with our students’ abilities. Mary Burns shows in From Compliance to Commitment that teacher proficiency with technology is not necessary to provide technological opportunities to students. As long as teachers have a general understanding of the technologies available to them and their students, the students will meet, and usually exceed, expectations.
The downsides to technological ability assessment is that much of the time, a student or teacher will label themselves as novice or low, when really they are above average amongst their peers. When it comes to technology, newcomers (or “Digital Immigrants”, Marc Prensky, Adapt and Adopt) often feel discouraged concerning their own abilities. On the other hand, the upsides include the ability to better communicate and collaborate if we understand our abilities and how they can coincide with our students’. Additionally, we can utilize the students’ expertise with 2.0 technology tools to better narrow the gap between instruction and absorption. The path we must take to improve is one we must take with our students, or as Mary Burns puts it, “The distance between teachers and students – academic, emotional, and physical – had diminished as teachers became co-learners with students.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)