Reflection

I am finishing up my class, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society. When looking back and reflecting on my learning I feel that I have really learned how to effective implement blogs, wikis, and podcasts. I knew of these things before, but always thought they would be too hard to set up so I never tried.

I have learned that students need to learn with the same tools that they use in their spare time. They want their learning to be comparable to real life, and using technology will help me do that. I feel that giving the students the technology and the resources, which they will be able to be more independent and more able to take charge of their learning and the directions that they go.

I plan on continuing to learn and grow as an educator who wants to implement technology by following the blogs that I found during this course. I check my feed reader daily to see if they have posted anything new. Following other technology integration specialists has really opened my eyes to some of the resources that I have available beyond the classroom.

My classroom goals will of course always be to close the achievement gap. I wants students to show growth and to leave my class with good cooperative learning skills, technology skills, and critical thinking skills. In regards to technology, I want my students to be able to complete most assignments through our online portal, Edmodo. Ultimately, I would like to go as close to paperless as possible and with the direction that my school district is headed in, I see this as a real possibility.

Student Interviews

I interviewed four 4th grade students in regard to their use of technology at home and at school. Due to our snow days last week I was not able to record them, only get their answers, so I am asking the questions and answering the questions.
Click HERE to listen to my podcast.

Evaluating 21st-Century Skills

When I first started reading the website, Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, I thought that it might be some kind of gimmick to try to make money. I know that the school that I work for has looked into some programs or guidelines to aid teachers and they ended up being pretty poor in what they offer compared to the price that is paid. I also feel that most districts and schools have some teachers and other professionals within that have many positive and useful things to offer. With this in mind, why have to pay someone for something that could probably be figured out from within and still get the same results.

Once I started looking into the website and looking at all aspects I realized that this is a framework that all districts could and probably should implement. One thing that I was most surprised by was that they included life skills. This is something that I feel is very important in helping shape an all around critical thinker who can succeed in the 21^st century. Life skills are something that always seem to get put on the back burner to state assessments, new common core standards, and new teacher evaluations. I was very pleased to see this in their framework.

I feel that this would be very beneficial to my students and to myself. I feel that if this could be implemented in K-5 in my school we would send some pretty amazing, smart, polite, critical thinkers to middle school.