21st Century Classroom

As I reflect on the educator that was in the classroom prior to immersion in technology and the educator that will stand in my shoes come the new school year I am very pleased. I am pleased because intrinsically it is every educators' desire to hone their craft and improve pedagogy and I believe this technology course has done this. I have felt a swift kick in the right direction. I have seen how the roll of the teacher can be transformed from lecturer to facilitator. This creates a classroom that is learner centered as they move their ideas from their heads to the world. What an important concept that will help the students see that what they have to say will move beyond the teacher's desk to the world outside of the classroom and is relevant to others. I hope to create a link between my own urban students to other urban students in the country to see how many experiences they share and to create a sense of community. It has always been my contention that people have much in common we just need to get a dialog started to elucidate this.

One glance at my favorites tab will leave no doubt that this is a road with no u-turns. I am following blogs, twitters, and wikis of educators I have never met but whose council I seek. I can commiserate with my fellow colleagues in my course to see how they are progressing. This collaboration was stressed throughout the course and the efficacy of this skill is felt in my own endeavors so I will pass this along to my students.

It is an important goal as an educator to increase critical thinking skills and it is more than apparent to see how learning through the medium of technology satisfies this goal. With this in mind, one long term goal I have with regards to technology is to develop a unique and challenging project. The students will have to problem solve and collaborate on this project but the conundrum is to find a problem that is relevant to their lives and that will produce high interest to better bring their motivation on board. I will have to realize greater proficiency with the workings of a wiki site but I have all summer to hone that skill.

Another goal I have is to bring the educators at my high school into the arena of using 21st century skills with their students. This will no doubt require voluntary workshops but I believe that my excitement generated through my own use of blogs and wikis will garner the enthusiasm needed to bring other educators to the table. I have several one on one meetings scheduled with the principle this summer and if I can win her over then my battle is half won.

As this course comes to a close, I am grateful that I have the rest of the summer to investigate the inner workings of technology to get a grasp on best practices with regards to technology in my classroom. My goal is to keep the focus on learning standards and student achievement. Technology is an efficient tool to facilitate this learning.

Podcast on Students' use of technology

http://teacherruth.podbean.com/2009/06/04/prevelence-of-technology/

After much anxiety I have managed to upload my pod cast to a hosting site. Podbean. I can copy and paste my audio into another website but the url is 10 lines long so I posted a link to my podblog if you will and you all can listen to it there.

I neglected to mention the demographics - Title One School. I look for my student's names in the local section of the paper every day, most days they are not there thank goodness.

Enjoy the podcast, it was made with blood, sweat and tears :)

Ruthie

Link to the short movie....

http://www.schooltube.com/video/36281/A-Brief-History-of-Technology-in-Education

Give this a look see, it is very interesting. We have come a long way baby, now let's avail ourselves.

A Brief History of Technology in Education

This short video is an interesting look at where technology has traveled in the last 20 years.
It is written by Adam Scott Bellow. What will we, as educators, be using in the next 20 years I dare ask.
Ruth