New Goals for 2010 Thanks to Technology!

Education is a gift that never leaves us. Therefore, we have to celebrate anytime we learn new things or new ways. Eight weeks ago I was familiar with technology and used promethean boards but I was too focused on the technology tools as a teacher that I did not use it as learning tool but rather an instructing tool. However, after eight weeks, I have learned how to use technology to enhance students learning. For instance, instead of just copying and pasting photos onto slides and explaining what you are teaching, a better way of doing it is by having the students view the photos through a virtual tour and allowing them to come up with the ideas and construct their own meaning of the lesson.

The most valuable lesson I learned in the past eight weeks has become my personal theory which is to give the children the opportunity to create their own meaning out of a lesson instead of instructing them on what they should think. A great way to allow the students to construct meaning through experiences is by emerging them into the cooperative and social learning. As Dr.Orey stated, "students need to interact and create episodes that will last." There are a world of tools in the world of technology that can increase student engagement socially and help them construct meaning into knowledge. Two of my new favorite tools are Voice Threads and Note-Taking with blogs or wikki pages. Voice Threads are wonderful to increase students' stamina by including visuals, audios, and instant feedback with the option of leaving several comments. Note-Taking is an essential tool because it is a process students must perfect to do well in life. The best part of note taking is the ability for students to choose how they want to keep track of their notes; from blogs, wikkis, concept maps, etc. Either way, if they are creating a Voice Thread or analyzing information learned through note taking, the student's engagment is likely because they are in control and socially involved.

In order to get the ball rolling with my students and increase their level of engagment with technology I have set two long term goals. One is to use technology to increase communication and ownership amongst students. I will do this by creating a BLOG with the entire class and make it a routine to assign discussions every weekend for homework. After a couple of weeks, I will have the students pick topics they would like to discuss that connects with the Unit we are working on. At last, I would like the students to use Blogs as a place where they can continue the classroom questions and comments into their personal computer. My second goal is to be more flexible when assigning projects to partnerships. In other words, I need to be more open-minded and trust the students to meet the rubric by any means of technology they would like to use. For example, I would first give the essential question they must try to answer, followed by the rubric, and meet with them in groups to check on their progress.Overall, my mission would be to allow them to use technology to get their meaning across without being instructed to use a certain tool.

Well, although I feel that I have a lot of ideas now, I know the next class will give me some more, so I will see you there! Bye for now !