Reflection: The End of a Class Leads to a New Classroom

I received my teaching degree from a technological university. Here I developed a love for incorporating technology into my lessons. Using video clips to enhance and clarify points in the lesson, playing music on the computer and having students create movements to help them remember certain lesson topics, and using an interactive white board where students can move the moon around the earth and experience the different moon phases, have all been an exciting addition for both my students and me. During this class however, I have developed a passion for technology and the possible capabilities for providing students structured and engaging lessons.

Previously, blogs, wikis, and podcasts were foreign to me. Sure, I have heard of them, but was neither really interested personally nor professionally. I certainly had no idea how any of them could be used in a classroom. But first, as an educator trained in the “old way of teaching” I needed to buy into Douglas Rushkoff’s idea of a “society of authorship” as discussed in Will Richardson’s (2010) book, Blog, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. This is the idea that everyone has the ability to share their ideas and experiences with the world. Everyone? Yes, even my students! When students create work that is published for a world-wide audience, their assignment’s worth of purpose has increased dramatically. They are no longer sharing information for just their classmates or for a grade.

In order to transform my classroom environment into technology happy zone, I have established two goals. The first is to incorporate these three new skills (blogs, wikis, podcasts) into my classroom. Since I am still a novice, I believe it is necessary to begin slowly. First, I want to create a class blog. It will begin, in what I believe, as a very simple blog. Homework and announcements will be written for both parent and student accessibility. The most important part? Well, the students, parents, and I will be able to communicate and discuss through the blog. It is my wish that both the learners and the parents will see the benefit of this communication through the experience they are gaining with the tool. Then, I can slowly introduce the blog more fully into the classroom. Perhaps there will be group blogs or even each student will have one where academic writing will take place. Next, wikis will be introduced as a communicative and publishing tool. Personally, I cannot wait to infuse podcasts into my curriculum. I believe it would be a tool the students would absolutely love to create and publish on their blogs.

I believe with the addition of these tools in my classroom, transforming from a teacher-centered to a student-centered classroom can be done a little easier. I do believe that this transition will be somewhat difficult since increased time is necessary in order to plan the lessons and my role as a teacher will morph into that of a guide. Truthfully, I believe that there are times where the traditional classroom “teacher” is needed but also where a problem based lesson is also preferred. Perhaps, once I begin to incorporate more student-centered lessons into my classroom, I will see even more possibilities I had not even imagined.

My second goal deals with the school environment as a whole. It is necessary that my students continue to gain technology skills as they progress through the grades. Since technology is part today’s society students need to be surrounded by it in all classrooms. Therefore, learning skills just in my classroom, or even in a few, is not enough. My goal is to teach my peers technology skills available for them. I know that many of my colleagues are intersected but they simply do not know where to begin or the tools available. It is my wish that these teachers will receive hands-on learning so they also may become comfortable. In order for our students to embrace technology in our schools, first it should be available to our teachers.

Many of the items on the checklist are ones that I do incorporate, such as student collaboration, or would like do more often. I have not yet had a classroom of my own other than student-teaching, substituting, and filling the occasional leave of absence in the past; therefore, my answers have not necessarily changed because without a classroom, they cannot change. With that being said however, once my circumstances are different, there is no stopping me.

References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.