Reflecting on the Impact of Technology

The Walden University course I have been taking for the past eight weeks, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society, is coming to a close. This blog entry represents a reflection of what I have learned, my ideas for how to continue to integrate technology into my classroom, and how I can encourage growth in technology integration in our school.

For years, I taught business education and used technology in every aspect of my curriculum. One year ago, I made the switch from business to math and now have very little access to technology in my classroom. This is frustrating, especially now that I know the power of Web 2.0 applications! Prior to this class, I was familiar with blogs, wikis, and podcasts, but had not imagined the possibilities for their use as collaborative, project-based learning tools for my students, especially in the subject of mathematics.

Will Richardson, author, speaker, former teacher, and self-proclaimed technology “evangelist,” proved to be one of my favorite authors and resources during this course. His philosophy and passion for student-driven learning has helped me to rethink the ways in which I teach. His book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, and Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms (2009), will be among the tools I reach for when I plan my lessons this year. I have subscribed to his blog, http://www.weblogg-ed.com/, which feeds my Google Reader, another fantastic application which I have put to use after learning its power in this class. The idea of not having to seek out useful information every day, but letting it come to me instead is a welcome concept!

Because of my passion for career and technical education, I have long been a believer in teaching 21st century skills (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/). As a result of this course, I have useful ideas for incorporating more 21st century skills into my math classroom, where I have been challenged because of the tremendous emphasis on teaching to the test in a core subject. Teacher Jeff Houston (Laureate Education, 2008), gave me inspiration when he talked about how he is able to incorporate Web 2.0 tools into his curriculum and watch his students not only meet but exceed state standards in their learning while strengthening their communication and collaboration skills—two critical skills for success in the 21st century.

I now feel connected to a new world of possibilities that will be exciting to introduce to my students. The best way to expand my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology to increase their achievement is to put what I have learned to use! This will be challenging because of our limited computer equipment, but I have spoken with my building principal who is on board as an advocator for finding funds for a mobile laptop lab for use in our building.

One of my long-term goals is to advocate for funds for the purchase of a mobile laptop lab within the next year. In addition to working with my administrator, I have also made plans with a colleague to begin looking for private funds for this purchase. A second goal is to establish a classroom blog as a well-utilized information and collaborative learning resource for my students and their parents. The blog has been created and I will begin posting to it in the next few days, as school begins next week. My third goal is to encourage our administration to offer professional development to our entire staff that will teach them how to use Web 2.0 applications in their classrooms. I have offered to teach these sessions myself but plan to use the technology in my own classes before venturing into this arena.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society, program 23. [DVD]. Baltimore: Author.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.