I took the online course Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society eager to learn all I can about the web tools and other technologies involved in preparing a 21st century citizenry. I explored blogs, created one myself, and contributed to a group wiki. I even prepared my first podcast. As a professional educator, I know these technology skills will be useful and one day essential. I also know that I must keep learning and training in this area to keep confident and current and to refine my practice.
My perception of the learners in my classes has also changed. I have come to realize, nine years into this century, that we educators need to do more to help our students create successful futures. We are now in what Bernie Trilling in his article “Towards learning societies and the global challenges for learning with ICT” calls the “Knowledge Age.”(2005,1) Thinking critically and creatively are more important than content knowledge. Working collaboratively will be essential in the near and distant future. But this is different from the cooperative learning of the past. My savvy science students are focused on their cell phones, sending creative text messages, and collaborating through social networking pages. My new classroom tool--an interactive smartboard-- will help me teach creatively using technology and bring the resources of the world wide web onto a screen at the front of the room. But am I effectively teaching my students? Do my lessons match their skill sets? Am I fighting their learning preferences when I constantly fight against cell phone use during class or internet browsing in the computer lab?
My goal at the end of the course is to adapt to the learning styles of this generation of students. I have playfully added Instant Messages into a few of my lesson presentations – a simple trick on the smartboard to “distract” students with pertinent information on the topic. I have modified lessons to provide a visual image first, followed by text or calculation and quickened the pace of media followed by repetition that appears new or different . Within the next two years I hope to have successfully implemented lessons involving both a class wiki and a podcast in my high school chemistry course that are meaningful resources for students and result in improvement in student understanding of the science of chemistry. Overcoming the implied objections that come with a required high stakes state test covering 17 units of content in ten months of study has been and will be my biggest hurdle. I’ll also need training and experience in directing and managing filters for internet based lessons to keep students directed and on task. (I’ve asked to be included in school in-service training on this topic.) Rather than closure, I find I am just beginning to explore the impact of technology in my own classroom and am even more eager to learn.
LINK TO ARTICLE MENTIONED: http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/pdf/events/techforum/ny05/Toward_Learning_Societies.pdf
