A Reflection on 8 Powerful Weeks

As my current course at Walden University draws to a close, I realize the importance of reflecting on the learning experiences in which I have engaged as a member of the class. This course, entitled “Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society,” has transformed my views on the integration of technology in the classroom. Before beginning this class, I thought that I was technologically savvy because I implemented powerpoints, videos, interactive websites, etc. as part of my instructional methodology. I now realize that I was barely scraping the surface in realizing technology’s potential in my classroom.

My learning experiences in this course have opened my eyes to the importance of recognizing that today’s Digital Natives (Prensky, 2001) learn differently than I did when I was a student. Today’s learners have been utilizing technology since they were mere toddlers and not only want to see technology used as part of their education, but they expect it. In order to remain educationally relevant for my students, I must ensure that my classroom is learner-focused rather than teacher-focused. Essentially, what this means is that my students will not receive the best education possible by sitting and listening to me lecture them. This type of classroom environment assumes that the teacher is the sole provider of academic knowledge for students. The Read/Write Web, however, has turned this idea upside down. Students today can find information with the click of a button. Therefore, my job as an educator is to create learning experiences for my students that will challenge them academically while also teaching them critical 21st century skills such as expert decision-making and advanced communication. How can I do this? Thanks to this course, I know that it is possible by implementing Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts (Richardson, 2009).

Throughout the eight weeks I have participated in this course, I have learned how to publish my ideas on a blog, engage in collaborative efforts on a wiki, and record my knowledge for the world to hear on a podcast. More importantly, though, I have gained fresh perspectives on how I can integrate these tools in my classroom so that my students can reap their benefits. Already, I have established a class wiki where my students are beginning to collaboratively publish what they know and are learning about good writing. Not only do they feel a sense of pride that their ideas are being placed online for others to view, but they have been actively engaged in working together to determine the content that will be placed on the wiki in the future. I am in awe of the motivation this has inspired within my students, but I am also pleased that my implementation of this Web 2.0 tool is nurturing skills within my students that will serve them well for so many years to come as they endeavor into the 21st century workplace.

Now that I have completed this course, I have set some long-term goals for myself based on the knowledge I have gained. First, while my class wiki has obviously just been started and will take a long time and a lot of collaborative effort on the part of my students, I would ideally like to see this wiki become a wealth of information about 8th grade English/language arts content. I want the wiki to house all of the information my students learn throughout the course of the year, and I would like it to eventually become a place where other 8th grade teachers and students from around the state of Georgia can go to see what my students have learned and to contribute their own knowledge in order to demonstrate different perspectives. Another goal I have is to become a model for other teachers at my school who may be seeking ways to revolutionize their own classrooms; I want to be the “change agent” (Richardson, 2009) at my school who can lead teachers toward integrating technology more effectively by first maximizing its use in my own classroom to impact student achievement. I firmly believe that by utilizing technology to its full potential in my own instruction, other teachers will begin to follow suit once they see my example of how it can increase student achievement and motivation.

I recognize that in striving to achieve these goals, I will face some institutional and systemic obstacles. In the article “The New Literacies” (2007), Miners and Pascopella elaborated on two such struggles that I fear most: economic pressures and strict testing mandates. The purchase of new technology has sadly been slashed in many current budget cuts, and high-stakes testing has made it so that the skills learned by utilizing technology are often overshadowed by the idea that students need to focus on academic content only and how to take paper-pencil assessments. In spite of these challenges, I have recognized the power of integrating Web 2.0 tools in my classroom and am resolved to do everything in my strength to implement them as fully as I can. By getting creative, I can use the tools I already have at my disposal to meet my goals. Even if I were limited to just one computer, I can still allow my students to collaborate to determine the content that will be placed on our wiki and I can still develop powerful academic lessons that utilize Web. 2.0 tools at their finest so that other teachers can observe their power. What this will take is patience, courage, and determination on my part. If I have this, I will be able to transform my classroom environment in spite of any obstacles that stand in my way.

Although I am finishing this course, I am not finished with the ideas I have learned from it. I will continue to expand my knowledge of combining technology and my content area instruction by staying up-to-date on the newest tools available, practicing their use on my own, and determining creative ways to instructionally incorporate them with my students. While I am excited about using these forms of technology, I am even more energized to see how the integration of these tools will benefit my students both now and in their futures!

References:

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.