I am feeling quite conflicted about technology. I feel like the
possibilities are endless for what I could do as far as using technology to
engage my students. I am a bit overwhelmed with all the content we covered, but
I think it will play a big role in my overall teaching philosophy and pedagogy.
I feel quite optimistic! Yet the realist in me is telling me to “hold the phone!” I
want to be at the redefinition level of the SAMR scale, yet I believe that will
difficult. There are several reasons why I feel somewhat apprehensive about how
I can use technology in the classroom and hitting redefinition. The primary concern I have is that my
ideal grade band is K-1. I really enjoyed all the techniques and ideas we learned
during our two days. But, I do not see myself using those strategies with my
students. A lot them were personally helpful to me as a student. They seem more applicable for older kiddos. Perhaps, I am horribly misguided, that's a real possibility. This is just my current state of mind. However, I will say that this two day class has opened my mind a lot!
I also believe there are
some potential roadblocks with regards to district budgetary restraints. I am
not expecting every school district to have 1:1 ratio for device per student. However, the
reality for most large school districts that is not possible. With my limited experience in SPS, students only had access to 3 or 4 computers in the classroom. Some classes had iPads, some did not. One of the most glaring things I noticed in my travels as a substitute teacher for SPS schools, was that kids only have a dedicated "technology" block once a week or once every two weeks. This should not be the case. That drives me absolutely bonkers! Most of the time they just did games on the computer. This needs to change! Despite this, I will
make it my responsibility to use technology in my classroom on a redefinition level. I want to have kids be curious, and be inspired to learn.
There is hope! The plot thickens...
Despite my doubts, I can see myself using technology at the substitution and
augmentation level every day. The technology I will use will be ClassDojo as
means of supplemental classroom management, and keeping in touch with my student’s
parents. I will use GoNoodle for brain breaks. I will use the SMART Board for
lessons, morning meeting, and having the students play games from ABCya,
Starfall, etc. If I work for Spokane Public Schools, they have students using
MobyMax. I will use the document camera for lessons, and read-a-louds. I aspire
to use modification and redefinition in my classroom. Until I know what I am walking into I can only speculate on what technology options will be available. However, I am optimistic about
what technology will be at my disposal when I start my teaching career. The smartphone like Jeff said is not even ten years old, look far it has come since then. I am really excited to see the future of the classroom and all the new technologies that are being developed or that are not even available yet.
Who loves technology? Evan loves technology! Yes, I do! I do! I dooo- oooo! ! It's so true! ;)
Evan, you are hilarious. I really enjoyed how you spoke so much truth about how you were feeling. Technology can be very intimidating and I feel the same way in that I am not exactly sure how I would implement every strategy but I feel as thought with technology, that there are endless possibilities. I think your suggestions for using them in your grade level band are fantastic and could really be beneficial. I know you mentioned that there is not that much possibility for children to have 1:1 computers but in the school I will be student teaching in next year they are going to try it out and then the following year all lower grades will be a 1:2. Do you think that you will implement more strategies when this happens in your classroom?
ReplyDeleteThat was also one of my concern regarding technology. The two day class with Jeff was awesome and opened my eyes to a whole new way of teaching, but I budget limitations can definitely minimize the resources available. I would love to think that every student could grasp their hands on a device, but I think there are greater basic needs every student needs.
ReplyDeleteEvan, I love your honesty! I feel similarly. I wonder how I will incorporate some of this with 2nd graders, although the Coetail videos had some awesome (AWESOME--yeah, they were that great!) videos about using Minecraft. Still, I worry that I will fall short of my expectations of myself. I have never been particularly enamored with technology and often feel like I waste a lot of time with it. Nevertheless, I am excited about the opportunities for learning that kids today have that I couldn't have dreamt of.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote about the limitations your district has with technology. I am concerned for my students, as well. Good internet isn't even reliable here, let alone having something like 1 to 1 access. In fact, it took me four hours to write my two blog posts for the week. Only part of that time is due to my being verbose. The majority of it is due to slow internet. It's a bummer. If I find it frustrating, I can't imagine how my students will feel when they are using the internet at their own homes. At the school, I think the service is better, but it still doesn't hold a candle to other places that I've lived. I feel like the gap in opportunity is widening and technology, while it can close many gaps, is also causing huge chasms for a great deal of rural Americans.
BTW, I love your memes! They really made me want to read what you had to say.