I am well on my way to meeting my goals of teaching my
students how to ethically use information from the Internet as well as being a
leader for technology integration in our school. Over the past couple of weeks,
I have evaluated the information and resources needed to carry out my plan. I
have found much of the information I was looking for and have developed
additional questions to be answered.
The first goal I set is to teach my students how to ethically use the information of others by paraphrasing and giving credit to their sources. I began an inquiry project with my students requiring them to find information from a variety of sources and put it into their own words. I am happy to report that all is going well. I have learned that this is a skill I will have to teach my students in a series of stages. As my students become better able to paraphrase information, I will then begin teaching them how to formally cite their sources. My students are at the point that they understand the rationale behind this process.
My second goal was to become a leader in my building for integrating technology. I have found that there are a handful of teachers who are willing and eager to start using technology. I shared a technology rich project that I developed with several teachers at my grade level. They seemed excited about using it. I am continuing to develop my own skills with technology so that I am better able to help others.
While striving to meet this goal, I have come across a few roadblocks. I have found teachers who are simply uninterested in using technology in their classrooms. These teachers are set in their ways and approach the concept as making their jobs more difficult. I know this is because they are uncomfortable with or unknowledgeable about technology. I think I need to start small with these teachers showing them simple yet meaningful ways to integrate technology so as not to overwhelm them.
The first goal I set is to teach my students how to ethically use the information of others by paraphrasing and giving credit to their sources. I began an inquiry project with my students requiring them to find information from a variety of sources and put it into their own words. I am happy to report that all is going well. I have learned that this is a skill I will have to teach my students in a series of stages. As my students become better able to paraphrase information, I will then begin teaching them how to formally cite their sources. My students are at the point that they understand the rationale behind this process.
My second goal was to become a leader in my building for integrating technology. I have found that there are a handful of teachers who are willing and eager to start using technology. I shared a technology rich project that I developed with several teachers at my grade level. They seemed excited about using it. I am continuing to develop my own skills with technology so that I am better able to help others.
While striving to meet this goal, I have come across a few roadblocks. I have found teachers who are simply uninterested in using technology in their classrooms. These teachers are set in their ways and approach the concept as making their jobs more difficult. I know this is because they are uncomfortable with or unknowledgeable about technology. I think I need to start small with these teachers showing them simple yet meaningful ways to integrate technology so as not to overwhelm them.
I have also done some searching into sites that are and are
not blocked by our school filters. I need to do some additional research here
because the results were somewhat surprising. I need to understand why certain
sites are blocked while there is open access to others. This has been a
long-standing problem at my school for the past few years. The administration
is really pushing for teachers in my building to use new technology and
Internet-based application in their classrooms. However, many Internet sites
that can be used very affectively for education are blocked, and many for not
just reason in the minds of many teachers.
Some additional questions that have started to form for my
GAME are dealing mostly with my second goal of becoming the technology “go to”
person in my school. The first question that I have is, what types of
technologies are my colleagues currently using and would like to learn how to
use? I think that by answering this question it will help me better prepare for
answering a questions that might arise with fellow teachers. The second
question is, How is the staff using technology in their classrooms? If I am
going to be the person to come to help integrate technology in other teachers
classrooms, I need to be able to have a long list of what people are doing and
what they can be doing with technology.
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI think all teachers have teachers at their schools that are uninterested in technology. This is the case because they are completely set in their ways because they have been doing this for so many years already. It is not that they do a poor job because they do not use technology, they just are unable to learn how to.
In a previous class, we talked about this idea of older teachers and younger teachers and compared this to the idea of being a citizen of a technology world, or being an immigrant of the technology world. I do not remember the exact terms at this time, but I think this sums it up quite well. I have teachers at my school that are great teachers, but because they do not know how to learn how to use technology, it is a real struggle for them to be able to use it in their classrooms. Just this past week, we had a teacher that I thought would never want to start using technology show a couple of different video clips off YouTube. This was a huge step for her because, as a school, we are purchasing laptops right now for all the teachers, giving all the teachers SmartBoards to use in the classroom, and telling them they need to find ways to use technology. She was able to find a few clips on YouTube, and the students in her class really enjoyed it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and progress. I enjoyed reading about it.
Dan,
DeleteYour absolutely correct. What I struggle with at my school is that most of the teachers that are extremely interested and experienced in using technology are the older teachers. So for me to pick out teachers based on age and say they are the ones that are not willing to implement new technology would be incorrect. I struggle with teachers that refuse to use or learn it because of the time and commitment that it requires. I have a hard time with teachers that do the same thing over and over again because it is the easiest way for them. This is usually not the best case for the students. As an educator I have dedicated myself to improving myself for the benefit of my students, and I find it hard to face teachers that refuse to do the same only because it is difficult. Thank you though for your insights, they were very helpful in giving me a different perspective on this issue.
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of being the "go to" person for technology. You are a great asset to your school and have so much knowledge to share!
Dan is right about almost all teachers have others at their schools that just aren't interested in using technology. They probably figure "Why fix something that isn't broke?" when they think about their own teaching practices and incorporating technology. I think offering little mini workshops on different aspects of technology would be great. For example, you mentioned a teacher using YouTube clips who was struggling with using technology in her classroom. Maybe for some teachers it's the idea of knowing the technology is available, but they aren't quite sure how they can use it or what the students can get from it.
My experience, I work closely with another teacher who doesn't utilize showing clips very often for his students and now, when I find something online that I'm going to show my students, I share it with him and other teachers as well. For this particular teacher, he doesn't want to take the time to look up clips for his students so I just figure... sharing is caring ;) - lol. But really... I am glad to share and I think it helps him to incorporate more of it and then he realizes, there are some really cool videos or songs out there that are catchy for students!
Thank you for your post!
-Emily Chandler
Emily,
DeleteSometimes sharing is the best way to get other teachers interested in using technology. Sometimes I feel like teachers that do not use technology in their classroom only because they are afraid to use something different. By showing them how engaging and the impact that it can have on students sometimes leaves them asking for more. And pretty soon they are asking me not only to share what I am doing, but to show them how to do those same things on their own. Those are the moments when you know you got them hooked.