My Flight Path
Technology is an ever-growing asset in the world of education. It facilitates educators in, among other things, creating strong learning networks, sharing ideas with peers and engaging learners in a relevant and meaningful manner. However, in my experience, technology is often brought into high school education as an afterthought; a high tech bauble to dazzle and hopefully motivate the students. In spite of access and funding to make technology ubiquitous in the classroom, technology is still mainly being used by both teachers and the students for low-level tasks (Ertmer, 2005). Such practices contribute to the inability of schools to keep up with the proper implementation of modern technology and to the inability of the educational system to fully prepare students for their integration within a technologically advanced society.
Departure Destination: Who am I
As a teacher, I have always enjoyed trying new technologies and I have tinkered my way through a working understanding of educational technology (ET) by attending various conference sessions and webinars. With this knowledge I have attempted to combine many resources in a mock LMS; class website for content delivery, GoConqr and Edmodo for managing assessments and Padlet for additional social interaction. The result was understandably somewhat chaotic. This technological experiment led me to apply to the MET in the hopes of ascertaining the necessary tools to build and manage effective online learning environments.
Arrival Destination: Goals
I hope to use the knowledge and learning opportunities presented this course, and in the MET, to create better learning environments for asynchronous learning. I also aspire to guide my fellow teachers in their own discovery of ET. Although these might seem quite vast as far as aspirations they all come down to one basic goal: to gather and familiarize myself with the tools necessary to select and implement technology effectively within my context.
In-flight Technology: LMS, assessment, social software and multimedia
Honestly I know very little about LMS, assessment or social software in a formal context, as my past experiences have only led me to putter with programs and platforms I happened to hear about. I am looking forward to explore these technological tools, to study their affordances and constraints, to discuss their pedagogical merits/pitfall and finally to assess whether these tools are right for my context. In addition, I have always been leery about social software and therefore hope to gain a better understanding and more confidence in regards to this tool.
Lay-overs: Required Resources
“To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail” (Mark, Twain)
Technological tools are sometimes over applied when educators and other stakeholders do not have the time or resources to properly each technology. To master these technologies one needs time to reflect, analyze and evaluate their context, their current pedagogical practices, their content knowledge and their use/preferences/preconceptions of technology. As Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2002) mentioned on page 206 of How People Learn ″inappropriate uses of technology can hinder learning″.
Analysis of my context, the technology and myself:
In order to properly implement technology, I need to reflect on my myself and on my context. This self-analysis is extremely important for the manner educational technology is viewed affects its implementation in the classroom (Puckett, 2013). Both the feelings of overconfidence and intimidation in the presence of technology, can lead to the poor implementation of technology (Clarke & Zagarell, 2012). Ertmer (2005) mentions that technology needs to be integrated gradually starting with technologies that support the teachers’ current practices with a strong support system. This will make the technology relevant to the educator, the context and the students and avoid the adoption flavor of the month forms of technology (Lux, Bangert, & Whittier, 2011). Therefore to ensure an effective integration of technology, I must reflect and analyse my current situation to ensure that the technologies implemented will truly answer the needs of the learning context.
Blog/journal and PLC:
A useful tool/resource for such analyses would be a blog or journal. In the past, the pedagogical reasoning behind my use of a specific technology would often get lost in the implementation chaos. After that, it was very difficult to determine if the technology was effective. A blog/journal could help track and enable quick access to the evolution of my thoughts and context. I also believe that participating in a PLC will greatly increase the odds of selecting, designing and successfully implementing technology.
Good Pedagogical and Content knowledge:
In order to properly implement ET, I require a firm grasp on the curriculum and on pedagogy. It is only in this manner that I will be able to incorporate technology to help deliver the content and design educational learning environments in accordance to TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
Time:
The final, and most essential, resource I need to master and implement educational technology is time: time to properly experiment with, assess, analyze, implement and familiarize myself with the technologies and tools needed. Very few teachers take the necessary time to fully analyse technology and integrate it within the curriculum (Barbera, Gros, & Kirschner, 2012). This haste actually increases the gap between the educational system and society’s expectations as the efficiency of technology in education is dependent on the manner in which it is used (Tufte, 2003). The teacher must truly apply the technology and take/be given the time (Barbera et al., 2012; King & Boyatt, 2014) to critically analyse their needs and select the technology judiciously that will match and fill their needs.
Educational technology, as defined by Bates and Poole (2003), encompasses the technological tools, the skills needed to use them, an understanding on how to select the tool based on the context, the support and organization required to properly put these tools in place. Technology is a wonderful tool: how it is used determines its effectiveness.
References:
Barbera, E., Gros, B., & Kirschner, P. A. (2012). Temporal issues in e-learning research: A literature review.
Bates, A. W., & Poole, G. (2003). Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success: ERIC.
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2002). How people learn: Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Clarke, G., & Zagarell, J. (2012). Technology in the Classroom: Teachers and Technology: A Technological Divide. Childhood Education, 88(2), 136-139. doi:10.1080/00094056.2012.662140
Ertmer, P. A. (2005). Teacher pedagogical beliefs: The final frontier in our quest for technology integration? Educational technology research and development, 53(4), 25-39.
King, E., & Boyatt, R. (2014). Exploring factors that influence adoption of e‐learning within higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology.
Lux, N. J., Bangert, A. W., & Whittier, D. B. (2011). The development of an instrument to assess preservice teacher’s technological pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 45(4), 415-431.
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. The Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.
Puckett, R. (2013). Educational Technology and Its Effective Use. i-Manager’s Journal of Educational Technology, 10(3), 6.
Tufte, E. (2003). PowerPoint is evil: Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. Wired.