Technology is a very important part of the 21st century classroom. There are countless tools and resources out there to help teachers deliver a quality education to students. The great thing is, many of these tools lead us to discover more applications which create even more opportunities in the classroom.

Technology does not have to be costly, you just have to know where to look. Google Earth is an incredible tool that can be used anywhere, even our phones, but it is completely free. As you can see from the map above, we have learned about many useful applications out there. In doing so, it made me realize that this course can only scratch the surface because there simply isn't enough time to spend exploring them all.

Another thing I learned is the power of group collaboration. The searching power of one person can be great. When those resources are pooled, the useful things that are found on the internet are multiplied. This can be applied to the classroom. A group of students can uncover things I never thought possible because they may be even better at searching than I am. This is the idea behind social networking, and it is a very powerful thing. I have certainly learned some very interesting and practical uses of technology in this course, and it will give me an advantage over those who do not recognize the power of using the internet in the classroom. After all, it is the gateway to an amount of information my mind cannot even comprehend. Shouldn't it be on every desk?

Until next time,

~MjG

Bridging the Divide

The Digital Divide is the biggest obstacle teachers face when trying new innovative techniques in the classroom. The internet is a very powerful educational tool when used properly. There are countless, free online applications that have high educational value, but must be accessed using computers and the internet. Access to these applications is fairly common in this era, but it only takes a few breaks in the chain to prevent a teacher from utilizing these applications. If a small percentage of a class cannot complete an assignment at home, it will discourage that teacher from using the lesson because students shouldn't be excluded from a lesson.

Of course, there is no going around the fact that technology costs money. The cost of smartboards, projectors, computers, and software can really add up considering the volume a school would have to purchase. Education grants can solve this problem if your future school is having budget problems. Edutopia has a list of websites to get you started. An educator should not have to look for private funding for a school's technology. Proper education of students is a State and Federal issue. Therefore, there are options for struggling schools to get at least some technology in the classroom. The website also has a page on how to actively lobby for this cause. Teachers stay silent on many issues, yet we should be the loudest voices. You can access that here.

Bridging this "Digital Divide" can be difficult, but the best way to do it is through the school library or media center. This serves as the school's hub for technology, information, and learning. If a school lacks technology, convincing the school board to upgrade the media center would be an easy argument to win. A school cannot justify that it is fulfilling its commitment to education with an outdated media center. Doug Johnson of the Blue Skunk Blog has posted the following checklist for the 21st century library:

Information technology

• Does the library media center give its users access to recent information technologies such as:
  • computerized library catalog and circulation system for the building collection
  • access to a computerized union catalog of district holdings as well as access to the catalogs of public, academic and special libraries from which interlibrary loans can be made
  • full on-line access to the Internet
  • a wide variety of online reference tools like full text periodical indexes, encyclopedias, atlases, concordances, dictionaries, thesauruses, reader's advisors and almanacs
  • a wide variety of computerized productivity programs appropriate to student ability level such as word processors, multi-media and presentation programs, spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing program, graphic creation programs, still and motion digital image editing software
  • access to collaborative learning/networking tools such as wikis, blogs and other online sharing programs and cloud computing resources such as online productivity tools and file storage?
  • production hardware such as multi-media computers, still and video digital cameras, scanners, and LCD projection devices.
  • educational television programming and services
  • access to desktop conferencing equipment and software
  • educational computer programs including practices, simulations and tutorials that support the curriculum

Part of the digital divide is knowing how to use the technology. More importantly, educating those who do not know how to use it can be a major obstacle. That is why having your school invest in a certified library media specialist would be sound. It is an important part of bridging the digital divide because teaching is more powerful than spending. Many families have this access at home. The media specialist can help fill in the gaps.

Ariel Sacks,teacher and author, encounters these gaps on a regular basis. She writes on her blog that some of the students' parents say they do not have the Internet at their home. Some people do not prioritize technology if they are on a strict budget. Even when she found a way around that obstacle, she was still faced with the school blocking the website she wanted to use for her lesson.

Another option is to advocate for the idea of the "One Computer, One Classroom". This concept can bring the Internet into the classroom because it is cost effective and practical. The Wired Classroom argues this idea. An important part is having the proper display in the classroom. Having a projector connected to a laptop is a fundamental part of the modern classroom because it allows the teacher to use the Internet as a presentation. It is an absolute bare minimum if using any web-based application because the class has to be able to model what the instructor does using application of choice.

At home, I feel that the digital divide will have to be bridged by parents. The Internet has become so important for the daily activity of many of us. I believe it will eventually spread to all Americans. Very soon, a family without the Internet will be like a family without a television to witness the first man on the moon. This cannot be funded by the school, so it will have to be bridged by organizations like the Community Technology Empowerment Project. These programs are not in every part of the U.S., so I urge you to talk to parents about the issue. If they do not have the Internet, try to convince them that it would be a sound investment and that it could greatly improve their lives.

Encountering the digital divide will frustrate many of us, but we cannot let it discourage us from using technology to enrich student learning. There are an abundance of free programs that are very useful to the modern educator, and they should not go to waste. We will have to be creative, but if we cannot bridge the digital divide ourselves, we may be able to find another route to get to the other side.

~MjG

Teacher leaders are a vital part of all public schools. They are able to motivate student achievement beyond the boundaries of the school. These leaders are woven into the fabric of the community, and are known for more than what they can accomplish in the classroom.

Pathways to Teacher Leadership

I encourage you to look at this link because it has a very good video on the different ways of achieving teacher leadership. Dr. Murphy basically says there are both role-based strategies and community based strategies. Without both pathways being pursued, teacher leadership will not exist to its fullest extent. He says,

“There are pathways to create teacher leadership in schools; this is the central idea you want to gravitate toward. There are two very broad paths you can follow…Stopping with the notion of role-based strategies is a truncated and limited model to get teacher leadership infused inside of a school organization.”

So what's the difference? Role based strategies are what we, the teacher, display in the classroom. We know we are successful when we have students coming by just to say hi, or to take a picture for homecoming. Community based strategies are what happens as soon as we leave the school. It's how we get involved with off-campus, community activities and clubs such as being a coach. When students and parents see your face outside of the classroom. They are more receptive to what you have to say in the classroom. You are much more likely to achieve the respect and attention of your students.

Resources for Teacher Leadership

I really like this website to use for reference because it refers to all the issues associated with becoming a community leader. It answers questions such as:

• How do I engage parents that have not traditionally been engaged in the education system?
• How do I connect with parents in a low-income or rural area?
• How do I establish partnership with parents other than the traditional approach?

These resources offer in-depth .pdf articles that go into great detail about how to move past these and other such obstacles. This website focuses more on community-based strategies, but I feel that these are the hardest obstacles for most teachers to move past. I feel that this is mostly because it requires a lot of additional effort after coming home from work. Some teachers do not want to move in to a role that they have to fulfill 24 hours a day.

Do you agree with Dr. Murphy when he says, "“We create mentors, literacy coaches, and induction coaches. We create more roles that teachers can move into. Not a bad strategy but insufficient to get you where you want to go.” ? Why or why not?

~MjG

The Human Network in Schools

The human network allows people to have contact with anyone or any information at any time. The implications that these networks have on education are tremendous. No student in the history of time have been allowed the amount of access to people or information on mobile devices. So, instead of students having the responsibility of carrying class materials around with them, they can access everything, whether it is asking a teacher a question about an assignment or the actual textbook from a mobile device. In a few years this will be even more commonplace as technology becomes more accessible to the masses.

Digital literacy is a requirement to use this, but because students are growing up in this environment, it will be natural. Just as young people who grow up around a different language are able to adapt at reading and speaking it, this is true for new technology as well. This is especially true because technology becomes woven into our everyday lives.
Teachers cannot possibly compete with this volume of knowledge. That is why we must adapt our teaching style to fit the 21st century classroom. Networked students reinforce the concept of the "banking pedagogy". The teacher cannot possibly provide all the information that the students will be curious about. If we can direct this curiosity to the right Internet resources, student learning will greatly increase.

This is a very good thing! Instead of concentrating solely on content, lesson focus can shift to finding the proper use of the human network. Any and all information taught in the traditional classroom can be found online. Therefore, we need to help our students access it. I can envision myself doing this, but it will be difficult. This is because it is probable that future classrooms will have higher digital literacy than I. Even as I try very hard to keep up with the latest programs and resources, I may not be able to learn it at the rate of my students. That is why it is all the more important to shift learning focus away from me as a bank of knowledge towards the classroom network. Students can then pool their digital literacy to learn content cooperatively.

I found this blog called Technology Enhanced Learning. It has several interesting posts regarding the future of education. The most recent of these posts is a link to 50 lectures on the future of education. Among them are some very relevant topics to this course.

To what degree do you believe that networked learning should be endorsed by our schools? Would you say it would be wiser to buy mobile devices that anchor to desks instead of laptops?

~MjG

Glogster

Here is my first glog! I couldn't quite figure out how to embed it on this page, but it can be accessed here.

Let me know what you think!

Service learning ideas

Here is a link to my notes taken the last class. The following are my classmates ideas for service learning based on their presentations from last week:

Chance: Calls to congress, letters. getting them involved in government
Adam: Voter registration, community outreach
Megan: Human trafficking, spreading awareness, modern day abolitionists? current legislation to stop it. Blue heart facebook pic to raise awareness.
Jen: military letter writing drive.
Josh: Honoring veterens, November 11th, interview one veteran for 30 minutes about their service, blog about their experience participating , others can learn by reading
Jeremy: War on drugs, similar to DARE but less one-sided
Megan: Connecting students with specific soldiers from the community; more than writing letters to them; film a video about their progress and upload to the website. present a weekly question about what they learn about technology or their soldier. Good way to keep them aware of geography and intl events.
Liz H: operation Christmas boxes, christmas for children less fortunate, interview and blog about their experiences
Eric: lives of the elderly- elderly participate in research project. encourage them to email their family. do a questionaire 1 month later to see if they make a difference.
elizabeth j - global awareness; help students understand immigration; focus on the culture and language of a certain country to create a wiki
Mallory - habitat for humanity to determine cost of houses; research cost effectiveness; inverview habitat people, help students learn about homlessness and urban economics
louisa- senior oral histories. "5 things they couldn't live without" - then create a vodcast. vodcast viewing party at the home. make them feel good about their experiences.
Mark- political class wiki, biographical sketch of local politician that they interview posted on the wiki. use clipart if students do not want to draw their own.
Katie- visits and interviews with the elderly
Jeff - groups of kids pick up local parks and public places. wildlife conservation and environmental awareness, make a video of them at the park
Megan P- reseraching past presidential election trends, differences in media roles at those times, role of government in daily life over time, interview seniors about past elections, have them create a podcast
brit - voter turnout exercise, use surveymonkey to creating a questionaire about public opinions, makes them aware of election issues and teaches about data collection and interperetation
Nicole - students learn about voting and campaigning. They will have their own campaign. Use google motion to find trends in past elections. They will have polling questions of their own to create a motion chart.
Angie - Students learn about their individual rights. They select a topic concerning them and they will research their topic, determine current value, then publish their findings on a wiki.
Trish - at risk students making pen pals in Japan. letter exchange will expand cultural horizons and global citizenship. Help teach them about bias and they can exchange information about their dialy lives. possibly exchange packages. Create a wiki about their experience. They would right a paper talking about any issues they had.

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