It’s been quite the journey! I’ve been thinking about where I started at the beginning of this course. When we visually formed a line to show how comfortable we were with technology, I stood in the section that I considered to be a 7.5 out of 10, but then the line kept getting pushed down as people stood on the lower end of the scale and I accidentally ended up looking like I was at the forefront of technological knowledge. Your level of technological comfort really seems to depend on who’s in the room with you. I’m reminded of the Flight of the Conchords love song to a girl who is the most beautiful girl in the room “depending on the room”. And so it is with me – so often at work, I feel like a computer genius as I demonstrate my cut and paste moves for amazed colleagues. And yet, here in this room, I’m constantly humbled in my knowledge.
Every day has been an incredible learning journey, and I’m left with a host of things to try out and discover. I’m reminded again that no matter how proficient we feel, there are always going to be endless new applications and online resources to discover. The vast amount of information out there and the seemingly endless opportunities for education and collaboration can be completely overwhelming. The first week, I could barely keep track of all the different things we signed up for. For me, the trick to staying afloat on this ocean of information is to simply narrow down what it is that best suits my needs as an educator.
In future, I plan to seek out greater collaboration opportunities with like-minded colleagues. I’ve been inspired to start following blogs and Twitter feeds to stay current and connected. I also want to make sure that I employ technology in a meaningful way in my classroom. Looking at the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, I want to move away from the many exercises that simply ask students to “remember” information. I want to focus more on having my students work at the higher orders of creating, evaluating, analyzing, and applying.
I could not agree with your more Julie!
Our skills are all relative to the people in the room! I have always felt my self as competent, and I have managed any ICT task I was given by my peers or admin. My love for ICT varies. I LOVE having a free Macbook Pro for my school (and booking movie tickets online to my favourite IMAX 3D theater ;D), but I do NOT love using Minecraft with Shakespeare and being on this from 7:30am – 6:30pm daily.
As for the plethora of ICT sites and tools we have studied in class, just think of them as canned goods or preserves, some you will use right away and others will go into the pantry for a rainy day or when needed in a recipe.
It is always good to get like-minded and forward thinking peers to revamp or upgrade the ICT usage in the school.
A thought… why not inform and inspire those around you with an informative email with hyperlinks?
I plan on writing a reflective letter to staff about my experience with ICT this summer, as my colleagues know how much I loathe being on my machine all day. I intend to inform them about all the amazing things that I see us doing as a school, and offer the hyperlinks as a means of exploration and inspiration to take our ICT skills in class even further! I will get this sent out to all Secondary staff and cc it to Primary as they too are now on iPads for some classes.
I believe that if we model the desire and skills, and be encouraging that might catch almost all of the people. Plus those who are truly interested will contact you for more details.
Why not “be the change we want to see (M. Gandhi)…” in others?
Keep fighting the good fight Julie!
Julie, your comment about your cut and paste moves reminded me of how I felt when a teacher asked me how to upload images. She wouldn’t ask her students to show her, but I was able to help. I felt great because I had been given a boost, and I thought I could use technology so why couldn’t I teach with it. I am and was deflated that she wouldn’t ask her students. I am comfortable with the fact that most of my students will always be one step ahead of me with technology. You had a moment feeling like a computer genius. We also can connect this feeling with how a student feels when they can help or teach the teacher something related with technology!
We have to always remind ourselves to “teach with the purpose in mind”. The little voice in my head asks “why”, when planning a lesson. I agree that we absolutely have to apply the “why” when teaching with any form of technology.
Thanks for sharing your personal developments!
That is a great comment, about the relativity of technological knowledge. Often the ‘expert’ is the one who has tackled the same problem an hour ago and figured out a workaround. Unfortunately, the general level of technological skill, confidence and knowledge in teachers is not well developed. The difference in educational practice today is that a teacher will no longer teach from the same textbook until the covers drop off. The profession of teaching is going to require a continuous learning process to keep abreast of human knowledge development. Teachers will become expert at learning and acquiring new knowledge, rather than an expert on one particular subject or topic. This explains why teacher collaboration is going to become essential. Although one teacher may not have perfect expert knowledge on a subject, a group of teachers may have a great breadth and depth of current knowledge on a subject.