I was never a fan of technology, which is ironic because I work in the IT department in Mammel Hall here on campus. Neither my elementary nor my high school teachers used any sort of digital technology beyond Microsoft Office, projectors, and the internet. I turned out fine. So, I could't understand why it was so important that I incorporate so much technology into my lessons. I suppose I always felt that, since I was able to successfully navigate the transition into higher education and the development of digital technology, my students would be able to as well.
I was wrong.
This course has helped me to realize the rapidly-changing, technologically-driven society that is no longer a choice, but a reality for everybody. Not providing my students to interact with information in multiple ways and through multiple mediums isn't just me being stubborn; it's being negligent. As much as I hesitated during some parts of this class, I've gained so many valuable lessons that have forced me to grow as a student and as a teacher.
For my final project, I choose to explore the Edublogs as a tool within my classroom. I've always been a writer (or at least liked to think of myself in this way). Writing always seemed to be the way for me to figure out what I was thinking, to keep track of my ideas to come back to later. My high school English teacher made us journal every week. One entry had to be a reaction to a current news event. The other was completely up to us. We could write about random topics, a difficult moment we were having, our reactions to something that had recently happened. Anything. Through these entries, I was able to work out some pretty tough situations. Even the kids in my class who ha-a-a-ted writing enjoyed using the,. And I knew, in the not-so-distant future when I have my own class, I wanted to incorporate this journaling into the curriculum. So when I was searching through lists upon lists of educational technology lists, I came across Edublogs. Journals and blogs are basically the same, except for the fact that one of them has kids writing privately, while the other has students sharing their work with an authentic audience and practicing their digital and technological skills at the same time. Perfect! Using this almost seemed too easy. I thought it would be a cop-out to use something that was structured so similarly to something I was already using. But then, I realized that the purpose of this assignment was to explore potential technologies that we would use in our own classes. And this was something I could see myself using in the future. So, I said, "What the heck?", and went for it. And I'm glad I did.
In the context of the assignment, I looked at using the blogging forum during a book unit. While students would be reading the novel, they would be completing a series of personal and character-viewpoint posts responding to different prompts. If you're curious, you can check out my student example site here. I was able to do some exploration of the site while working on the various parts of the project. The most useful, and my favorite, aspects were the ability to save save multimedia files to the account (multiple representation!) and post them within blogs, the easy to access favorited blog newsfeed, the privacy features and safety filters, and the ability for instructors to create individual classrooms for separate sections or courses. Unfortunately, that last one is only available with a paid subscription. But, at on $7.95/month or $39.95/year, it might just be worth it to save some stress on my end! (FYI- Anyone interested in learning more about the platform itself can look at this handy little brochure I made.
I think this project was so important because it helped me to realize that the technology I choose to use in my classroom doesn't have to be complicated or super fancy, at least not early on. I'm still in the early stages of exploring technology integration into school, but I think this gave me a good start. As I was looking for the right platform to use for my project, I came across a lot more education technology systems that I also felt could be a good fit for me and my class. But, focusing in on the final project, it got me excited to use technology, not only the ones that I found, but also the fantastic resources that my classmates were able to dig up from the bottomless pit of information that is the internet. I feel much more comfortable now that I've been taught how to use technology and how students benefit most from it, rather than just being told to use it because we have to. Though a slight tangent, I also learned that it's really hard to account for every possible technology failure and plan for it in advance! Blogging tends to be especially difficult. There aren't that many other ways to get a blog-style community built outside of a blog. GoogleDocs works in a pinch, but it's probably the most un-blog-like substitute out there. It made the idea of planning for the worst very real for me!
This isn't the first time I've been forced to explore technology. In my Planning for Effective Teaching class last semester, we were required (or forced, but that's beside the point) to create at least one lesson plan that utilized technology. My instructor, Kelly, said something very simlliar to what was repeated over and over again in this class: don't use technology just to use it – it has to be for a purpose. And, just like this project, I spent a lot of time being overwhelmed by the myriad of options available to use. Then, I ran across a site called Todaysmeet.com, which was a simple responding tool that let students ask questions or respond to prompts silently during class. I could have the answers show up on the projector, or I could keep them private and have them just show up on my computer screen. It was simple, it was easy, it had not fluff. It did just what it needed to do, no ridiculous bells or whistles attached, like some other technologies I had experimented with (cough, cough, SMARTboard). I was drawn to Todaysmeet for the same reason I was drawn to Edublogs: for its simplicity and for its practicalness. However, I clearly have grown in technology since then, because, even though Edublogs is really easy to use and school-friendly, there are a lot more elements to it. To be honest, I never would have even considered using any sort of blogging site, Edublogs included, had it not been for this class. I think some of my digital technology aversion is slipping away.
Now that I've had time to reflect over this class, I feel lucky to have been forced out of my comfort zone with this final project, as well as everything else we had to complete. Our flipped classroom lesson showed me that there are times and topics that I don't need to waste time on in the classroom. There are some things that students can learn on their own and would benefit more from homework help during class. This was such a hard concept to grasp for a control freak like me! But, in the end, I'll even admit I had a little fun with it. My new Twitter account has provided me with a great starting point for professional development, even before I enter the classroom. I want to stay connected with my peers because a lot of my ideas and inspiration came directly from them. Collaboration is key, especially with something as rapidly-changing as technology. And of course, my app review gave me a thorough list of apps I actually want to use in the classroom! All of these–the Twitter, the flipped lessons (at least open-mindedness about them), the lists, the blogging, the final project–are things I hope to carry with me as I continue forward in my career. Through my personal experiences, I've been able to see the good they can provide students of any age. I'm not as scared of technology anymore. I've got real tools and applicable skills under my belt that will help me. I sort of feel like a happy customer in one of those infomercials: Thank you TLDE for making me a prepared educator for the modern world of technology! But, I suppose it's the truth. Comfort and understanding the importance came first. Now, I can get to the good stuff: experimenting and teaching my students how to be citizens of the digital age.
