Final Reflections

As my summer course comes to an end, I have to admit that many of my perspectives about technology integration in classrooms has changed. At the very beginning of the course, I did not feel comfortable with using anything that wasn't my HP laptop, Powerpoint, or Google. I thought that technology integration was the switching over to a full-on technological based learning style in classrooms, where writing in print is shunned and students only learn from videos. I was pleasantly surprised that despite my lack of patience for technology, I was able to successfully create some pretty great projects. I think the most important lessons which I have learned from this course has been about the various laws and acts which I have to comply with as a teacher and how to make any of my digital work accessible for all students. I think that I will look further into how social media might be more effective in primary grade levels, and how to effectively teach them and parents about their digital footprints. This class has introduced so many new concepts and tools, many of which I will forget about if I don't write them down or actively continue to use them, which is of course, the many downfalls of technology. I have always been open minded to trying new things, and the most important lesson that our instructor told us was to do as children do, and just play with technology instead of being afraid of it! Although I was weary of putting myself out there on the Internet, I now realize that a positive digital footprint is better than not having one at all.

Social Media in the Classroom

After reading the four assigned articles, I have to admit that using social media as a educational tool doesn't sound like a terrible idea. Perhaps my reluctance to using social media comes from the fact that I only use Facebook, and that half of what I see there is for my amusement. The articles gave me the impression that social media websites are directly beneficial and convenient for teachers, but in the four articles that I read, there was only two instances where students benefitted from social media in the classroom. If I find more convincing ways to use social media with students, other than to remind them about when their homework is due, I would definitely say I would not oppose to allowing them to tweet. I think that the notorious reputation of social networking websites changed when you pull the "it's for school" card. I hate to admit it but, although there might be more "safer" websites which allow students from all over the world to connect with one another, Twitter is popular enough that everyone will know it exists and how to use it.

The biggest con I see with combining social media and the classroom (specifically with teacher and student interaction), is that as one of the articles points out, there is a risk of miscommunication. Also, keeping in mind the younger students, there might be a higher risk for them to be exposed to inappropriate content, which could also be blamed on the teacher.I come back to the ever so troubling reality that not all students may have the technological access to tweet to the teacher, so if I ever do decide to have twitter as a way to communicate with my students, I will make sure that every single one of my students has access to Twitter or any other kind of social media, otherwise it would be unfair to the student who doesn't have a smartphone or computer with internet access. The pros outweigh the cons in my opinion, because when teachers use social media to interact with teachers outside of their schools, and reach out to teachers all over the world, not only are we picking up on great new ideas for lesson plans, but we are setting a great example to our students by showing them that online social networks can be used for more than just posting pictures of ourselves. As a student who is about to go into the credential program, I find it extremely comforting to know that these social networking sites will be available for me to reference anytime I need help or support.

Digital Equity through Accessibility

When I was reading the article "AIM for Digital Equity" by Gayl Bowser and Joy Smiley Zabala, I couldn't help but reflect back on the first time when I had encountered a student with any kind of disability. It wasn't until high school when I saw the special education students in their own designated classroom, and then later in college when students were sent to a different classroom to take their exams (they were allowed more time to complete their exams due to their disability). The first time I had to interact with a deaf person (and no, I don't mean someone who was old and whose hearing was going), I was 16 and didn't have a clue how to communicate with them. I write this response now somewhat irritated at myself; was I really that oblivious all those years before to not notice students in my classes who had a disability of some sort? I guess because I never had fellow classmates with a significant disability such as blindness or deafness, that I never really thought about how they had to adapt to the technologies we have today. This article made me realize that as a future teacher, I will be encountering many different types of students with different needs, which quite honestly I had never thought about.
The AIM, NIMAC, textbook publishers and many other websites listed in the article are all sources to which any teacher can refer to when they have questions on how to cater to students with disabilities. I think that on a personal level I would use one, if not all, of these tools in order to provide accessibility for all digital content that I use in my classroom. Planning ahead and testing the tool, should be the very minimum a teacher should do, but it would be more helpful to ask the student with the disability whether he or she feels comfortable with the tool or if there are any needed adjustments. One of the methods of providing accessibility which I really liked from the article was the option of asking textbook publishers for tools which specifically cater to students with a hearing disability or vision impairment. If any textbook publisher should not provide me with a speaker (a feature which reads the text to the student), a great solution would be to involve other students and have them read the text and record it for their fellow classmate. It's one thing to point out a student with a disability, and it's another to be aware and try to accommodate them. I think if I had a hearing student for example, compared and contrasted his or her notes with a deaf student's notes, it would be beneficial for both students because by interacting with each other, they would both learn new communication skills.
One of the reasons why I have decided to become an educator was because I am a firm believer that through education and awareness, we become a better society. I look forward to teaching any student with any kind of disability and learning about them.

Flipped Classrooms

With reading the article on Forbes called "What Is the Flipped Classroom Model and Why Is It Amazing? (With Infographic)" and the Educause article "Things you should know about: Flipped Classrooms," I was able to get the idea that "flipped classrooms" are classrooms in which instructors create video lectures where students will be introduced to a new topic. These videos are assigned to be watched the day before they enter the classroom, allowing them to start thinking about the new topic before they even enter the classroom. After viewing the video, students are given quizzes and the responses are then sent to the instructor so that he or she can get an idea of what students need clarification on. When the student finally enters the classroom the next day, instead of sitting through an additional lecture )or any lecture at all), they are given a collaborative assignment which requires them to demonstrate their understanding of the material. By having the instruction take place the night before, the role of the teacher is significantly changed to him or her taking time to lecture live, to acting as a guide to the assigned activity. It is important to keep in mind that there is still a lecture involved and there is still an assignment which will reflect the student's comprehension of the material. Both articles mentioned the pros and the cons about incorporating the flipped classroom methods, which was nice because some of my concerns were already addressed and answered such as the issue of there being an even bigger digital divide. While Gobry, the contributor to the Forbes article, says that if flipped classrooms were to be implemented in classrooms, the government would have to step in and make sure that electronics would go down in price so that everyone could have an electronic device in order to accomplish their school work. This assumption is dangerous, because as we've seen before, the government might not exactly do much when it comes to bettering our education system.

As a future elementary school teacher, I plan to work low SES students, and to ask them to have access to a computer with internet every night seems unfair if they do not have a computer at home. I think that this method of teaching were to in fact be implemented and there are students who do not have access to the internet, then a solution might be to assign the lecture to be seen within a longer period of time like over a weekend or within a week so that they can find a way to view the lecture and not fall behind. Many of the classrooms where this method is used in a “higher education” classroom which means college; I can’t help but wonder where in the world I would find the time to make a lecture for every night of the week in every subject that I would have to teach? As I am now finding out through assignments for this course, movies take a lot of time to make! I could definitely see myself taking the time to make a killer lesson plan using the flipped classroom method, but only occasionally or for larger projects.

Using the Internet while taking a test: Yes or no?

The article which discusses the possibility of students being allowed to have access to the internet was very interesting. I agree with Starr's argument that we should not let students use the internet while taking a test, because it really will be like handing them the teacher's edition of a textbook. I can remember always being handed worksheets by teachers when I was in K-12, and the assignment would always consist of flipping through a textbook, and filling in the blanks with the answers the book provided; I hated these assignments! Unless there was a lecture that followed these assignments, I never really learned much other than how to look up things in the glossary or in the index. Handing a student a list of questions and then handing them the answers is a waste of time and does not allow for any skill growth.The consequences to allowing students access to a giant source of information such as the internet would take away from students developing and practicing good study habits which are helpful everyday life and in higher education institutions.

Cash's part of the article which argues for the encouragement of students using the internet as a test taking tool does not provide good examples as to why we should allow students to use the internet while taking tests. Cash argues that students would be limited to being tested on pure facts and dates which is not necessarily true because students are expected to express their creativity and perspectives in written assignments (essays), in class presentations, and various other activities. When composing any kind of essay or presentation we automatically expect students to use many resources which includes the internet to support their arguments. Additionally, I believe that when we do test on hard facts, the only thing that the student will learn is how to whip out their phones faster if they are permitted to have access to the internet.

We begin to teach students how to express whether they like, dislike, agree or disagree with events in Elementary school. Tests are designed to help teachers assess the amount of information which was retained by the student and to help determine whether clarification is required. I have absolutely no problem with someone disagreeing with a fact as long as they have good reasoning to do so, and even if they don't agree with (say, that we evolved from primates), they should still know the facts which are on the other side of the argument; this is what determines whether or not a student is able to think critically, not whether or not they can find an answer on Google. The internet is a wonderful source of information which has opened many doors for students; unfortunately, doing a simple search on the internet will not challenge a student in any way to use their minds, it will only make them lazier.

Digital Citizenship

With reading all of the assigned articles, I found that they all had the same message: What you post today, can affect you tomorrow!The New York Times article "They loved your GPA...", was probably the most insightful one of all because it gives examples of the negative consequences which have already take place when a person posts something inappropriate. All three of the articles had something different to add to the topic of maintaining a positive digital tattoo,but none of the information was really new to me because I have known for a long time about employers and schools looking at personal profiles. I personally think that we should be held accountable for what we say and write, whether it be on a piece of paper or on our blogs; for better or for worse, pictures can be worth a thousand words, and if there is something you wouldn't want to be caught doing, don't take a picture of yourself doing it! It's all about using your common sense! Facebook is the only social network site to which I am an account holder, and I always make sure that my posts will not offend anyone. I don’t really remember what or who made me be as cautious as I am about what I post online but personally I already make sure that I don’t post things that I will later regret. I know I could further improve my personal profiles. I already try to make sure that the few pictures which I post to Facebook are ones which I would not be embarrassed to show people like my parents, but looking back on past posts I realized that I have to be careful with the things that I am tagged in. Despite the repercussions are previous posts may have, I think pages like Facebook which allow us to go back and look at previous posts give us a chance to see how much you have (or haven’t) changed, the downfall is of course is the fact that it isn’t private like a diary. The only downfall to always have to look over your shoulder and not really allowing to fully express your emotions (not that everyone has to know how much you dislike long lines at Disneyland). When it comes to teaching my future students about how to create and maintain a positive digital tattoo, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with instilling a little bit of fear in students by warning them about the consequences that come with posting inappropriate pictures, comments, etc. Additionally, I think the way we should give our students examples of how to appropriately address others online, how to set privacy settings, and also give them the “good profile” versus the “bad profile” example. Kids are extremely smart, and it will be our jobs to teach them how to think critically about the information which they will encounter, and I think that we should emphasize the need for them to use those same critical thinking skills they use when they are analyzing a text or website, and apply them to when they are online.

Journal Assignment 1 - "Educational Technology: A Short History"

After reading the article about the integration of technology in classrooms, many concerns popped into my head about the level of safety which would exist with the amount of access to the internet. Although I do not have children of my own, I would be very wary as a parent to allow my child, or as a teacher, my student to have access to the internet and even more so access to social media because of the dangers of not knowing who is on the other side of the screen responding to the child's dialogue.The article placed a great amount of emphasis on portraying technology as a connection to the rest of the world, which has both negative and positive consequences. I agree that it is important to understand different perspectives which people from all over the world may have, yet I think that as much as we would like to treat children as little adults, these different outlooks might be too much for them to understand. The responsibility of the teacher would not only be to show them how to respectively accept various outlooks expressed to them, but to also help the student think critically about the information being presented. I can personally think back on lessons which I have learned through my academic career that were best understood when they were postponed to be taught as a young adult, because they were understood better at a more mature age. An example of this would be the truth about the historical interactions between the first pilgrims and the Native Americans; as an elementary school student, I could not have fully understood the violent acts against the Native Americans, but as a Junior in High School, the information was fully grasped due to a more mature age when the information was presented.

There was a point which was made in the article about Papert pointing out that children will be able to emerge themselves into lessons more quickly when the lesson is on a topic which the student is already interested in. This observation is logical and one which I would have no trouble agreeing with; however, I think that instead of using technology to engage students in lessons which they already have no trouble getting into, that technology be used to engage students in lessons which are not as appealing to them. The hype around using computers already drives younger children towards wanting to use them, however if you combine the pleasurable activity of using a computer with the not so pleasurable task of learning how to multiply, then the outcome of using technology as a learning tool might be more useful for a student.

One of the benefits of using technology as a method of teaching which was mentioned in the article was that there is "frequent interaction and feedback" which I can agree with. Constant feedback helps students know whether or not they are successfully grasping new concepts, and with a classroom of 20 or more students, it can become difficult for teachers to give an even amount of feedback to everyone. Programs on computers would therefore be helpful to both students and teachers by guiding students through lessons which they might need more help with and provide teachers with feedback on their student's progress and give them a general idea on which lessons might need to be readdressed.

I am all for using some technological devices as a means for learning, however I think that as future educators, we should not only teach our students how to use the most efficient tools, but to use any kind of technology responsibly and to have an equal amount of respect for online users.