Whole question
How can I use technology to engage students meaningfully in order to foster their connections to me and the wider community around the world through the curriculum?
Big question
How can the use of technology engage students meaningfully
Sub questions
How can I use said technology to foster the connection of students and teacher
How to also connect them to the knowledge of the wider community around us and the world?
Genesis and The significance
My question stemmed from my fascination of technology and the potential it brings to both entertainment and learning. The connection came from volunteering in classrooms, as well as the curriculum because I discussed it with educators and was explained that I needed direction. I will be using resources from books, encyclopedia, journals, blogs, experts and also the curriculum to help find my answer. The nature of technology is that it keeps evolving, so I expect to find an answer that is only fit for the time-being; this question will be a never-ending lifelong pursuit.
When I first immigrated to Canada, the language barrier prevented me from socializing normally in school and making friends was hard. I would often bury myself in games and slowly started learning words and phrases from playing. It also motivated me to write about my digital adventures when I was in school and had to write about my weekend, for example. That was before I had access to the internet and needless to say the internet along with mobile devices helps me learn on the go every day. Technology, games and design (because of my undergraduate background) are fun and motivated me to learn. I want to bring that to the students I teach but I struggled with how. As much as we all like to play games all day long, that is not learning. Simply putting up a PowerPoint on a screen does not make it any more meaningful than writing the lesson on a board. Teachers employed iClickers during my undergraduate studies, but they could only facilitate closed ended questions in multi-choice or true/false format (Roush, 2003, p. 22). Simply using technology to substitute traditional methods is not going to change the engagement and excitement of students today. Hence, I seek in my inquiry what is meaningful engagement with technology for students.
During my time as a classroom volunteer before my career as a teacher candidate, I noticed (albeit slowly) that even though students were comfortable coming to me for help, my connection with them was not the same as that of a teacher. While volunteering, this became more noticeable and when asked, educators told me that it could be a philosophy to make connections with students. The philosophy seems to be gaining students’ trust, knowing expectations and having mutual respect even when being berated for misbehaviour. A teacher able to share smiles and jokes when learning together. I very much wish to share this sort of connection with students, but with my own teaching philosophy which will revolve around technology. This is when the question of connection occurred to me; with students looking down at each of their own hypothetical learning devices, how will I create a similar connection with my students? I have observed the use of blogs during my practicum and read about a study that suggests a community can be established through a class blog (Boling, Castek, Zawilinski, Barton& Nierlich, 2008, p. 54). However, I have yet to find solid evidence that a form or method of learning through technology can build the kind of trust that I observed and envisioned. Without this connection, I would not be able to understand my students, nor would I be able to provide the support they need and ultimately fail my purpose of nurturing the next generation. Therefore, the type of connection is equally important for me to discover. This connection is what will bind my students and I together in having fun, in learning, and in supporting each other through technology.
Academic References
With the technology and the vast internet, I will strive to guide my students in learning about the world around them through the curriculum to better prepare them for life. While learning with technology should be meaningful, the BC curriculum will be used to ground myself in terms of direction on where and what in the world to teach my students.
The curriculum will serve as a resource for me to seek an answer for my question along with journal articles, web resources as well as books from the library that will be listed in the reference list below. I also have people who are experts such as current teachers, as well as my instructors that I plan to consult to answer my question.
Expectations
At this point, I am certain that the answer I seek will perpetually evolve as mentioned before because of the constant evolution of technology. However, through this inquiry I do expect to find a more concrete definition for my teaching philosophy: teaching with technology while connecting with my students. The answer to my inquiry should provide me with a structure or expectations that I need to meet in order to fulfill the requirement to make connections with my students. I also hope to find a definition, similar to the SAMR model first shown by the former educator, which gives a definition of when technology is bringing in new ways of learning. In my case it is what makes meaningful learning. I also expect that since technology is still fairly new in our education system in relation to meaningful learning, the answer will be a hybrid of both traditional and new technological teaching methods. Finally I expect this question to follow me throughout my career as an educator as I migrate away from traditional teaching methods and design new, meaningful ways of learning with technology.
In closing, my question for this inquiry arose from my love and background of design for interactive arts and technology. I see its potential as a learning tool that can take learning to new heights but I am yet to be certain on how it would be meaningful. In relation to my role as an educator, I also need to forge a close connection with my students. When they are troubled, I want to be one of the people they can count on to seek help from. That way I can not only tailor their learning, but also help each student grow as a person. I expect this question to have no definite answer for as long as I teach, but I hope to find definitions in which to assess if I am making technology meaningful in learning as it evolves. Someday, if text based security questions for passwords still exist, I wonder if my name will be the answer to the question “Who was your favorite teacher?”
Reference
Boling, E., Castek, J., Zawilinski, L., Barton, K., & Nierlich, T. (2008). Collaborative literacy: Blogs and Internet projects. The Reading Teacher, 61(6), 504-506.
Justice, J., Anderson, J., Nichols, K., Jones Gorham, J., Wall, S., Boyd, A. & Altheiser, L. (2013). The Affordance of Blogging on Establishing Communities of Practice in a Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Education Program. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 21(1), 49-88.
Maples, J. The Digital Divide: One Middle School Teacher Attempts to Connect with His Students in Online Literature Discussions. Language and Literacy Spectrum, 24.
Popejoy, K. (2003). Technology Integration in an Elementary Science Classroom: Its Impact on Teaching and Learning.
Roush, C., Song, L., (2003). The impact of using clickers technology on classroom instruction: students’ and teachers’ perspectives. The Canadian Journal of Action Research, 13(1), 21-37.
Schachter, Ron. “Kid2kid Connections: How to Use Technology to Connect Your Students to a Larger World.” Instructor, 120.5 (2011): 46-52.
Yang, Z. (2014). Transforming K-12 classrooms with digital technology. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.