Blog Prompt: Do you feel that this article (After the Bell, Beyond by Eric Langhorst) encompass the Essential Conditions for Technology Integration? Why or Why Not? Cite information from the article to support your answer.
I do feel that the article encompasses key parts of technology integration. There is incorporation of the internet, blogs and different forms of media into the general use of education. Typically a student would receive a piece of paper with a list of items which they needed to know for a test. Sometime during the preparation for the test the teacher would go over each one requiring the students to write down as much as they could in a small amount of space and time. Giving students the ability to hear complete definitions and topics which are important for a test would be beneficial. Granted that doesn’t mean you can’t review in class, it is just a more appealing form for which students and parents can also be involved. Having this also gives a great advantage to the parents who even if they wanted to help all they could, might not be so bright on the topic and haven’t sat in on all the classes, so it gives them a more level playing ground in which to help their children succeed. When it comes to reading a book, I remember my teacher making us write in little journals that only she read every few weeks. We were enticed into doing a group discussion but it wasn’t always interesting or fun. By using technology in the form of a blog, each student can see what others have written and become more engaged in the learning process.
I did have one concern though. The teacher described making these StudyCasts using recording software and putting them up on the web for students to access. I know a good portion of people that are over 30 would not be so savvy with internet terms of ‘putting things up on a website’. I myself have taken things off of a website that were put up there. There’s a link that’s given to me that directs me to the file I want and then asks me to Open or Save the file. The file then downloads and does the appropriate actions. However, I have no idea how someone would go about posting a file like that on a website. I wouldn’t say that it’s common knowledge for putting items up on iTunes either. The idea for making StudyCasts and other recorded media is a great idea; I just hesitate to think it can be mainstreamed into the curriculum when even a person who knows computers proficiently wouldn’t be able to put one such item together and posted for students to have access too. As well I’m not sure if and how you would go about making these things available but only to those who you want to see it. The teacher described having a man from Spain contact her regarding a biased opinion in one of her StudyCasts. I would not be sure if I’d be comfortable in putting those out into the internet for anyone to have access too. I think applying a type of program access or website access would be more sufficient where documents and files would be protected and unable to be shared unless given permission or with a correct password.
Although I may have some slight issues doing something similar with a classroom, I definitely agree that the teaching practices he used with his students were more engaging, enthralling, and better overall fit for today’s students and would have no objection to using similar practices in my future (once I learned how to do it of course!)
2 comments:
Stefanie,
You bring up some good points relative to internet security and teacher/student proficiency with the technology. The second point, probably falls under the headings of Technical Assistance and Professional Development in the Essential Conditions, but I guess the key point is that this cannot be taken for granted. Langhorst put a lot of personal effort into making his vision a reality and probably had to do a lot of his own "homework" to learn the ropes. There are also (of course) helpful sites on the web for teachers like the one I flagged in my Blog Post "http://cjsatdu.blogspot.com">cjsatdu.blogspot.com, but "at the end of the day" (as they say) it still boils down to a lot of personal initiative, I'm sure.
Your other point about internet security is really a good one and probably should be included both in the technical assistance and in professional development for teachers as well. What if school districts established hotline services for teachers that could help them 24X7 with issues like this?? I didn't think about it that much when I read the article, but when I read your BLog entry, it became more clear that this is a real issue and one area where "the system" should work hard to support the teacher in awareness, tools, education, techniques, guidelines, case studies, examples, et cetera.
Anyway, thanks for a good read. Chris
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