One aspect of today's class that really stood out to me was using more powerful search tools to find information. I was really excited to learn so many different ways to refine searches, but my preliminary searches hadn't gone too well: my terms were too narrow, or I was coming up with stuff that wasn't really relevant to what I was hoping to find. I wanted to keep trying, though, so I asked myself what the most pressing question I had today was, and I decided that was, "How do I integrate technology in my classroom?" So I figured, "Hey, let's ask the Internet this question!" and went on a little search adventure.
Here's my search adventure: I Googled "Integrating tech:k12.wa.edu," and was bounced almost immediately to OSPI's tech standards. (These were later assigned to us for homework reading.) I learned a bit about their tech initiatives, which they last updated in 2018. What was really interesting about this page was that it linked to an entire page of resources called OER (Open Educational Resources). These are curated by OSPI, and are grouped into content areas. I got really excited at first, because I thought I had hit a gold mine. Upon further reflection, I still think this is a SUPER cool idea, but it looks right now like there isn't a lot of content on this page. This brought up a lot of questions for me. First, I figured that I was still bad at searching and that I'm just not great at finding resources. Then, I got kind of excited. We were talking a lot in class about contributing to the stuff that's out there. It's kind of cool to think about getting in on a resource when it's still small and being able to influence the direction and content of the resources. I started dreaming about getting together with other teachers--maybe with our MIT cohort--and working together to revitalize the page and stock it full of a great community and awesome resources. Then, I started getting anxious. If these pages aren't very active and the networks aren't very big, is it too much work to invest in them when there might be more vibrant communities out there? Is it better to just...use Twitter?
So here's the sum-up of my search adventure: you won't know unless you try. If I'm being honest about myself, I'm not usually someone who is looking for the best new way to do things. I don't always "work smarter, not harder"--instead, I'll do something the hard way again and again because I understand how it works. But learning about these new search tools and being exposed to new ways of sharing (like Twitter, this OSPI OER site, and even our collaborative notes) makes me think about how much faster and better we can share information if we are using the appropriate tool. It also seems to me like you can't know what the best tool is going to be unless you stay with it awhile and give it some time. Today I did some searching using terms that I'm still getting used to, poked around on some new sites, and tried to figure out the *best* way to share information. I tried to evaluate if one tool is better than another, but this is what I'm starting to realize: in order to be an innovative teacher, you have to try new things and give them a chance. I might not be awesome with search yet, but I need to give it a real chance, because it has so much potential. I might not be able to tell right away what will work best for me or my classroom, but if I don't try different things out, my students and I won't gain anything. It's kind of freeing, in a way, because I'm not a tech expert and I don't know what I'm doing yet, but I am excited to learn about these new tools, to try them out, and to take some risks. I'm really proud of myself for the way I reacted to the OSPI OER site: a prior version of Katie might have just given up on the page and dove right back in to search, but today's Katie started considering *how* she could utilize a tool and how she could make it work for her, even if she didn't understand exactly how it worked yet. I'm starting to think more creatively and more collaboratively, and that's really cool. I'm excited to see which other ways I'm challenged to take risks in this class and as a teacher integrating tech into the classroom.
P.S. One interesting thing about the OSPI OER site is that teachers have to request permission to join, and the contributors all have profiles. That means that there are communities of Washington State content-area teachers just hanging out, ready to be networked with! This could potentially be a cool way to meet teachers in the state that we otherwise wouldn't come into contact with.
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