Reflection on Inquiry

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Today’s class centered me a little bit more. My thoughts about ICT are not as scattered as they were on Thursday. It has been very difficult to pick one topic to focus and do an inquiry about for the next two weeks. I have been interested in finding online resources for struggling readers as well online communication techniques that can be used in the classroom. I rarely get to see the parents of the students that I work with. I am always sending notices home and inviting parents to come in or participate in our celebration of success events. I would love to set up a blog or a website directed at the parents. The other thing that has been bouncing around in my head is to inquire about how nature and technology can be balanced in the classroom. I have a a real connection with this topic and believe that nature and the environment is part of my teaching identity. I have always lived in the country, surrounded by animals, and beautiful natural settings. I strongly believe in endorsing nature in the classroom and sharing with students by going outside. Hmmm,..  there is an obvious problem between this and our future visions for using ICT in the classroom. Is it possible to effectively teach how to appreciate, respect and connect with the environment while at the same time forge ahead into the digital classroom? I want to know more about balancing screen time, social skills, going outside, and being active. Is that too much to ask?

I am well aware that children love being in front of the screen. After school I know that for many of my students that is all they do when they get home. If we bring more technology into the classroom will children ever get a break from the screen or have a reason to remove themselves from technology? Personally this last week has been a big adjustment for me. First I am living in the city right now, and I have never spent so much time on the computer!

So many things to find out about these pertinent questions.

On the other head, I had a great experience using mindmeister.

On a side note I am listening to my first webinar while writing this. It is about using technology to investigate the outdoors. At first I was surprised by the length. It is one hour long but fascinating!

Class 5

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Class 4 – The first week of ICT

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My little world was shaken this week! Of course this is a wonderful thing. Not all teachers are fortunate to have an opportunity to be in a class for 3 weeks 2.5 hours a day with thirty other teacher brains going at full speed, trying to immerse themselves in the digital world

At many times I was feeling uncomfortable and rattled. I am feeling vulnerable because I don’t know a lot about ICT. I should …or should I? Then I always have to remind myself that   it is for my students and your students, our children.

The summative presentations done today were a wonderful way to end the week. We are altogether in this new way of learning. They highlighted the fact that many of the members of the class are going through the same thoughts and emotions. I am learning more and more about how teachers can share there thoughts and emotions through technologies like twitter or blogs, rather than just face to face.

I am a fairly new teacher. It was only about four years ago that I took a technology class as a required course in my elementary education program. We have come a long way from that. There is no comparison to what new teachers were being taught then and what educators are being taught now about technology, at the university level. I remember the assignments in that course consisted of making a webpage (with a difficult program that I would never use without tech support!) and creating a word document with hyperlinks to organize and list resources.

I am proud to stay that I haven’t printed anything yet for this course!!!  Maybe I can go paperless. I think I can go for three weeks without printing. I am one of those people who like the hard copies. I like having a little ringed binder and organizing paper into that. After the first day of this course I was going to print out the syllabus, assignment descriptions, and rubric. I am glad I didn’t because that would be a lot of paper! One of my classmates raised a good point in her blog, asking what happens when computers or the internet goes down. If improvements in ICT continue improving rapidly like they are, and schools have access to them, will teachers be able to have more trust that the ICT resources will work when we need them?

 

Technology and Information Literacy

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Today in class I was able to clearly break down the components of information literacy. These being, digital literacy, visual literacy and social literacy. Information literacy is often brought up when speaking about ICT, but I had not clearly separated all the parts of being information literate.

ALA’s defines information literate people as, ” those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand.” (ALA, 1989) After reading today’s forum posts and ALA’s definition  I know that technology skills continue to improve in education and technology will lead future learning. I think the ALA’s definition from twenty four years ago is still relevant and will be relevant in the future. The ways in which we teach information literacy will change again and again.

A question was asked, What are we teaching in information literacy? I think this completely depends on what stage the school is in in ICT. For those schools who are allowing students to use their own devices, have adequate resources, and the teachers are striving to be a step ahead with ICT than the technology will be used to aid students in “discovering” the curriculum. This should always be our goal. In order to achieve the goal, students have to learn the technology. This means learning how to use the device or software, or online search  techniques.

The class discussions are inspiring, even though at times  I am finding myself in information overload! For the first time in a class setting (where I was the student) I experienced having access to information at my fingertips. I love it! I can take so much more out of the limited time I have to be a student in class. For example a new idea or term comes up and BOOM, I can get a simple definition along with a good website bookmarked and tags. Digital citizenship came up. I could instantly find information about digital citizenship, and then be present in the discussion. If I didn’t have online access at that time there would be a good chance that I would continue guessing at what it really meant. By the time I got to a computer it would have probably been long forgotten. Digital citizenship is not a difficult concept to understand, but now that I have basic knowledge I am confident about using this term. When students have access to information like this and are information literate. I can relate to how much more confident they feel about their learning.

“Why School?” Group Discussion

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Today in school I was part of a group discussion about the book “Why School?” by Will Richardson. The group was actually assigned to talk about “old school”. I found this to be an interesting perspective. I agree with some of some of the comments made by Richardson about “old school”, but other comments he makes are far fetched.

Richardson states that school hasn’t changed in 150 years. YIKES that would be depressing, if that was true. Technology in the world has changed drastically so of course student learning has changed. I am always surprised and in disbelief when parents or grandparents say, “back in the day when I went to school…” (You can fill the rest in with your own stories!!)  Today’s teachers envision more changes, and are taking actions to change student learning each and everyday. It may not be big steps each day or each year, but schools are heading in the right direction.

Educators have been having conversations about doing school differently. I think this drive for doing school differently rather then the “old school” conversation of doing school better,  inspires a lot of new and experienced teachers.

Unfortunately schools today still use similar “old school” methods of testing. Richardson does make this point and I believe that is true. We just can’t get away from the test. The test may be the provincial exam, or the end of unit test.  School administrators haven’t found another way to gather data. As mentioned in my group, schools don’t have the funds to update standardized tests. The standardized tests often being used are dated and not relevant.  There are bigger factors that contribute to changing the idea of testing. For example the Universities require the grades.Universities need marks for selecting applicants.Inquiry based learning remains to pose a challenge to educators. The students who care about post-secondary are inspired to get good grades on tests and exams. Studying only for the test and forgetting the information immediately afterword is still alive and well, just like it was 150 years ago!

Since reading Will Richardson book “Why School” I have researched him and his ideas a little bit further. I did find a nice condensed youtube version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ekcWQxgk3k “Why School” is everywhere. I found many education articles referring to Richardson. His book should be a required reading for all teachers. I found his book to be relevant and to the point (and how could anyone not like the price).

 

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Introduction Questions

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1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?

Let me first explain that I am not a classroom teacher. I work in a school as a reading teacher for grade 2 and 3 students who are struggling with reading. I work in the school to teach but I am not hired by the school district. I work for a non profit organization that provides educational services to the community in the Victoria area. Yes, this is very unique! We are partnered with the school district. The district provides the space in the school and the principals and teachers select the students. As a teacher I have found myself in an interesting little niche. I am in the school working with the teachers but I am also on the side and removed from the district. With all this being said, I absolutely love doing it. I have to admit that I was not aware of the ICT policies in the district and had not gone looking before reading this question.After looking for it on the district webpage I am surprised that I can’t find any policies. It is a growing district and technology is definitely here to stay in the classroom so they better get a move on creating a policy, or letting the public know about it.

2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your school setting?

The school has computer lab for student use and one computer in each classroom. A laptop is available to use in the classroom if a student or E.A. needs it for assistance. The school also got three smart boards this past year. I have one computer to use that is in my room.

3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

I am not sure if it was exemplary but digital storytelling is one of the better examples I can think of that can be very effective- I have not done this myself but a teacher that I work with uses it a lot. Everyone has a story to tell and share with the world. A collection of pictures can tell a fascinating and detailed story. Some students hold back from sharing their stories because they are not confident about writing. Of course everyone has to be able to write, but students also need to be exposed to other forms of expressing themselves. I witnessed many students blossom after being introduced to digital storytelling.

4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

Students have access to all the information  online but have not been properly taught how to use all the information. Students want to learn about a topic but they believe everything they find on-line. Not all teachers have knowledge about on-line research skills, or teaching  research skills is not a priority in some classrooms.

It can also be problematic when teachers include technology into the lesson but they are not comfortable using it themselves. Valuable time is wasted when they add technology even though the lesson activity could be completed just fine with out the use of technology. Teachers certainly don’t need to be experts but they need to at least have working knowledge of the technology and be able to give assistance when problems arise!! Its is a problem when technology is added just for the sake of saying “I used technology.” When this happens I still have to give credit to them for trying, because there are many teachers who would not even try to add technology.

5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).

I try to take time to explore technologies that I am not aware of. If I hear about a digital learning tool, than I like to actively engage with it myself as quickly as possible. If I wait to long or write it down on a “to do” list, I lose my enthusiasm and patience for learning it.

This year I was introduced to new technologies because they were introduced in an on-line course. I was truly inspired to know that I have all these wonderful tools at my fingertips to support the learning!

6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency -> 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?

4-The digital technologies that I know about, I use. I am comfortable figuring out new computer programs, and I am curious. Sometimes I feel that there is so much out there that I  know very little about all the digital technologies out in the world. Once I am introduced to them, or a teacher suggests one, I am curious to explore it further and I enjoy taking the time to learn it, as long as it would benefit my students. I only gave myself a 4 because I don’t feel that I know about enough useful technologies to use in the classroom.

7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?

I want to feel comfortable teaching with technology. I want  to embrace it in order to enhance my students learning. I want to have a good selection of digital technologies to select from. I would love to become more of an example to other teachers who are hesitant about ICT, so they can successfully begin to integrate technology into the learning.

Since I was not aware of the policies my school district has to govern ICT, I would like to know more about what type of policies should be in place.