Week 1 Video Conference Reflection

Today's video conference cleared up a lot of questions I had regarding the class, first weeks assignments and the degree plan.  This is a course, as all my courses should be, about learning, not the grade or submitting the assignments. Those will happen as I learn the materials, read, watch, watch, listen and collaborate with my peers.  Finding others with similar questions and concerns about the assignments and team project was reassuring, the same as being informed that even with it being a "group" project, only the part that you as a team member are responsible for will be what the grade will be reflective of.  I know that eventually I will be required to write a paper that will include information from my reflections and that all I absorb from my classes will allow me to create even better projects.  My goal is to be a Director of Technology, and to do this I must be able to understand, analyse, evaluate and create on a higher level.  Just as we ask our kids to do now, we must be willing to try different things and continue to experience learning not just repeating what we read or are told. Lots of good ideas and information was shared and I am looking forward to the next Video Conference to be even more inspired.

5364 Week One -- Reflection 1

5364 Week One -- Reflection 1

During week one of 5364 Teaching With Technology, I learned that technology is something that in growing at an exponential rate, and that as educators we must learn to incorporate the technology into our instruction to have effective lessons.  Students of today live their lives linked in with technology, an example, my 22 year old daughter watches streaming television on her cell phone instead of the television in her room. As a digital immigrant I find this confusing, but to the digital natives it is expected and acceptable. To catch and hold the students attention today, we must become able to adjust to their world where technology has always existed and used. By using the theory of connectivism, technology with connections  will begin to allow us to move the learning theories into a digital age. When we include the use of constructivism, we use the students own knowledge to build upon, allowing them to reflect and build additional knowledge through this thought and collaboration. The students then can make additional connections and their learning experience becomes richer.

As the theories change so do our own ideas, the Blooms Taxonomy has been revised to adapt to the new changes that have taken place, now showing the steps as remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create. No longer is being able to recite and grasp understanding going to be enough, the students of today must be able to  analyze what they learn, evaluate the value of the learning and create even more through collaboration.  This is an exciting time to be in education, but with that excitement can come fear, overcoming the educators fear is the real challenge in my opinion.   

References

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

Update to Action Research Plan

Thanks for all of the comments on the ARP, they are greatly appreciated.  I have added to my plan a historical component.  It was pointed out I did not have a baseline to evaluate improvement from.  I have since added analysis of campus computer usage reports from last year.  These are available for each lab and cart in the building.  I am looking at a baseline to see increase/decrease in computer usage.  The reports also include activities that work preformed with the computers.