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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Horizon Report Review

As a middle school librarian, I chose to review the k-12 edition of the horizon report. The writing below reflects the changes I want to make, not how I consistently teach my middle school students now. Though many of the trends are relevant, I chose to focus only on 3, lest my post be 10,000 words.

Trend 1: Coding. The first thing that struck me in this report was the idea of coding as a major platform for teaching computer science to students. It is listed as a short term key trend, but also that the level at which it is taught will lower. Rather than beginning with this technology in middle or high school, elementary students will be learning basic coding so that rather than being a trend in 3, 5 or 10 years, it will just be a part of the knowledge base that students have when they get to middle school. As of now, I teach coding as more of a fun break from our normal curriculum (using the Hour of Code week mentioned in the article), but this needs to change. Coding has to become a major part of curriculum in every school meaning that the technology has to be there for every child in our country.

Coding is something that will "move students from simply interacting with devices to controlling how those devices interact with them"(2016). This is a major part of learning by doing and knowing how a computer works and how to code may inspire students to want to learn about how much of the world around them works and then control those. This could lead to learning about how disaster relief is handled and figuring out a way to make it better. It could lead to learning how diseases run through a human body and figuring out a way to heal. Being inspired to learn will lead to great things.

Trend 2: Redesigning teaching. Another key trend is just how lessons are taught in general. No longer teacher centered, classrooms are embracing the students as collaborators and active learners which means not only a change in curriculum, but a change in physical layout. If a teacher graduated from college more than 5 years ago, they were most likely taught in a way that implied that they would be the center of the classroom, so moving into these new ways of teaching require letting go of "tradition". Not surprisingly, this report, like many others, mentions the success of schools in Finland, Norway and Denmark where students have more time outside, more time to explore what it is they are interested in, and no mandated curriculum. If we teach students what they are interested in learning about, they will take more knowledge away from our lessons.

We, as teachers, need to know that what is important is learning how to learn and how to inquire and how to solve problems. There are always facts available, there are tutorials and books and web pages available all the time. But if students don't know how to find this information or figure out how to determine what is fact and what is opinion, they will be lost. Knowing about our nation's history and science and math and how to speak and write properly are not things that should not be taught, but they should be learned while solving real world problems and through collaboration with peers because that is what is going to prepare students for the real world. As a middle school teacher, I should not be the first person to teach my students this way, but rather, they should come to me prepared to have the freedom to learn in a way that makes sense to each of them.

Trend 3: Makerspaces. These spaces are another way, like coding, for students to see how things work and what their minds are capable of, given the right tools. My library has recently turned one of its computer labs into a makerspace and the goal of the space is to allow students to come into the space to tinker and play as well as come in with classes to learn curriculum in a new way. I have been out on maternity leave during the beginning of this phenomenon at our school, so I cannot speak to its success, but the hope is that students will have a place to go and have fun while learning, perhaps without even realizing how much they are learning.

My plan for our makerspace is to learn more about our curriculum for each subject and level and find a way to make the space appealing to teachers, especially those who are set in their ways. Giving students more freedom to learn the way that will be most effective for each of them may seem to some like play time, but in reality, it is preparing them for the work force, making it so that rather than asking for help all the time, they are figuring out how to solve problems. This trend of learned helplessness needs to disappear and perhaps makerspaces are one step in the right direction. I can see this trend only lasting a few years, but rather than going away for good, I think it will evolve throught he years.

Resources

Adams Becker, S., Freeman, A., Giesinger Hall, C., Cummins, M., and Yuhnke, B. (2016).      NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Vision-Mission Statement

With the ever changing landscape of education, it is vital to know when and how to use technology to improve the education of students. The focus of using technology in education, as well as with every other part of education, should be to allow students to discover what they know already and to figure out what they don't know without simply being told. Students need to research, explore and create in order to really take in what it is that educators want them to learn and keep it with them for years to come. 

Retreived from http://technologyintheclassroom21stcentury.blogspot.com/

Technology is totally changing what it is possible to accomplish within schools. There is nearly an infinite amount of technology available for use, much of it free, but just using technology is not enough. We have to use tool and technology to make things better for learners (Edutopia, 2012) and not simply use them because they are the newest thing. If taught and used properly, technology integration in education can make it so that every student can truly work at their own pace and master each lesson or activity before moving on. This also shows that teachers "believe in their students' abilities and validate (their) contributions to class (Blair, 2012)

In this situation, which offers students more independence, teachers must begin to think of themselves as facilitators and guides and not as lecturers or the only fount of knowledge. Teachers must know that their students may know more than they and have students become teachers if necessary for the benefit of all. This is not to say that teachers are not needed; on the contrary, we need teachers who, when it comes to technology, "are prepared to take advantage of its power and recognize its limitations (Roblyer, 2016)" so that each student's potential is reached. 

This type of classroom, with a teacher as a guide and allowing students to explore and create on their own really flows with a constructivist approach to teaching. Students need hands-on experience to really remember what they have learned and they need others around them to help them to reflect on those experiences.  This will encourage students to continue with their learning and in learning with technology, they are also learning how to better use technology. 


References

Blair, N. (2012, January). Technology integration for the new 21st century learner. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from National Association of Elementary School Principals website: http://www.naesp.org/principal-januaryfebruary-2012-technology/technology-integration-new-21st-century-learner
Constructivism as a paradigm for teaching and learning. (2004). Retrieved January 19, 2017, from Concept to Classroom website: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/
Edutopia. (2012, December 12). An introduction to technology integration [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d59eG1_Tt-Q

Roblyer, M. D. (2016). Integrating educational technology into teaching (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

EdTech 541-I AM

I hope everyone enjoys my "I Am" poem. The requirement was that it show who we are. I started out thinking about mostly my husband and kids. Then I started asking my husband for some help and we just started cracking each other up. I realized that a silly poem would indeed show who I am because that is how my life at home is and it's the best part of my life. I have a feeling that most of the rest of our coursework will not just allow me to be silly, so I am taking my chance now!
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