Reflective Essay

As technology becomes more prevalent in our daily lives the role of the classroom teacher must evolve. I have learned from this class that our students are far different from the ones in which most of our teaching techniques were designed for. Being a part of this class has taught me a great deal about how to use technology effectively in my classroom. The readings and information provided in the course has not only helped explain how to use these new technologies but why these technologies should be used.
My own technology skills have increased due to this class. I had never watched or listened to a podcast before this class. Understanding how create a podcast has opened up a different world for me and my students. The experience I gained while creating the podcast has made me comfortable with a medium I otherwise may never have experimented with. Using the different software used to create a podcast has increased my proficiency with computers, along with understanding the language that goes along with them. As a social studies teacher podcasts can be used to create oral histories, interviews or reenactments of historical events(Richardson 2006). These types of student centered actives help create the 21st century classroom students need to learn in.
This class has improved my knowledge of blogs and wikis as well. I have had limited experiences using these applications and have been exposed to the benefit of them through this class. Being able to see all the other blogs created by fellow students really allowed me to see how many different ways blogs can be used and created. Creating a blog for the first time was frustrating and time consuming. I am happy to have been able to work through these problems with fellow teachers. I now feel confident enough to use blogs in the my classroom and am very thankful for that. I was also surprised with wikis. I have seen wikis created by teachers before and never really saw the benefit of them. The way in which I had seen them used it looked like nothing more than a digital bulletin board. After working in our groups to create a wiki, I saw how beneficial and extraordinary a wiki application can be. Without this class I do not believe I ever would have felt comfortable using podcast, blogs or wikis in my class.
Besides all of the great technologies I know feel comfortable with, creating a professional network of learning maybe just as important a lesson I can take away from this class. Finding all the different blogs and profession networks teachers can use to improve their knowledge has helped me grow as a teacher and a lifelong learner. It is great to know that all the questions and problems I experience or have, there is a forum to answer or solve them. With all of the teachers out there creating for their classes it is great to be able to share our hard work with others. After using the professional blogs for a while all I can think about is how I was basically reinventing the wheel. I discovered everything I have been struggling with others teachers having already been down that road and the answers are out there for those who care to find them. I believe that these tools will increase my knowledge of technology, teaching and implementation of technology in the classroom.
I found myself thinking about who my students are and how to reach them much more than I ever have before. I was always working to create work that would hold their interest and make history cool. After reading about digital immigrants and digital natives, my understanding of my students has changed (Prensky 2001). For me I feel like I see my students much more clearly than I ever did before. Being able to incorporate the world they are familiar with will change my classroom dramatically and the student learning process.
This class has not changed the way I worked to create a student centered classroom, what it has changed is the way in which I can create this type of classroom. The most profound change will be in using mediums my students will feel at home with. My projects have always asked students to learn and discover for themselves however with what this class has taught me these types of projects will be far more efficient and fun for students. Being able to allow students to share what the find interesting rather than what I think they would like is a huge deal. It is also a incredible time saver to allow students to find their interests instead of me looking for 75 students. The student centered classroom opens up a different sort of understanding for our students. When students can find and discuss with one another rather than the teacher it changes how students learn and increases their participation in the class. This classroom creates an active student rather than the passive ones that we find in teacher center classrooms.
The two long terms goals that I have set for myself is to have students using and creating podcasts and blogs to share student created work, along with their ideas. I want to create the 21st century classroom we learned about from Dr. Thornburg and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 21st Century skills are possibly the most important tools we need to be teaching our students in our classroom (Laureate 2008). Right now my school has a ban on ipods and blogs in school. I have already been working to change these rules. I have recently gained permission to conduct a study on student learning and focus while allowing students to use ipods in class. Already I have discovered what we read a great deal about in this class. Our students are multi-taskers and find the silent work environment distracting (Presky 2001). I have also found a great deal of resistance from other teacher about what I am doing. I am confident after having this class that these goals are correct and that I need to continue down this path. In order to truly do this I will need to develop blogs and podcasts that will exemplify to other teachers how these 21st century tools can be used effectively in the classroom. Otherwise they will still be seen as a gimmick not a viable teaching tool.
I believe in two years I will be able to create the 21st century classroom that will incorporate all the skills that students will need entering the world outside of school. Blogs, wikis and podcasts are just some of the tools that I will need to create this classroom. I am thankful for having taken this class even with the amount of frustration and stresses I sometimes felt while working to complete our applications. It was far better to feel these pressures with a classroom of professionals rather than to try to learn all of this while trying to implement them into a classroom or even worse, to never try to learn them at all. With our understanding of technology in the classroom and its ability to revolutionize the role of the classroom teacher, I see those of us who have taken this class as the messengers that will bring about the 21st classroom leading by example and successes.




References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program #11: Skills for the 21st century [Motion Picture]. In Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore: Author.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon, 9(6).
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for the classrooms (2nd ed.).Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.