Reflection One

Educational Technology Philosophy
Philosophical School of Thought

According to Albert Einstein, “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death”. I feel strongly in the truth of this quote. As an educator I believe that teachers should create students that are able to not only complete day to day tasks but more importantly be thinkers and problem solvers. Education is more than training and should help create the whole child both intellectually and socially. Overall, I agree with the pragmatist philosophy in that methods should be flexible, relevant and practical to educate the whole child.

Role of Technology:
I believe that technology should play a central role in my classroom. In a perfect world all students would have equitable access to information and multiple ways to process their learning, including using various technological tools. In order to not just automate technology but to informate, I must integrate technology into everyday learning. This is definitely an area that I feel my school is lacking in at the moment, but through different programs such as “bring your own technology to school” and the purchase of interactive white boards,  I may be able to more thoroughly accomplish a more integrated technology approach in my classroom. I currently teach all subjects and believe that technology has a place in all subjects. Sometimes I feel like teachers have their feet in two worlds: the old way which is pen and paper and textbooks and the new world of web 2.0 tools, internet access to major amounts of instantaneous information and other technologies as well. Change is difficult, but I believe I am teaching at an exciting time in the history of how we teach our children.

Views of teaching and learning
As with the pragmatic philosophy states children are naturally motivated and teachers should capture that motivation. I do feel strongly that my job is to inspire my students to want to learn, to ask questions and seek out ways to find the answers. I believe very strongly that a teacher should always show respect and value students. Students will learn best when they feel they are in a safe and welcoming environment where it’s ok to be wrong. I tell my students that it’s ok to make a mistake, because that’s when the real learning begins. I believe that I have a responsibility to the whole child and educating them intellectually and socially as well. I desire for them to be able to solve a math problem as well as be able to solve a problem they have with a classmate, both have value in the real world.

Potential Uses for Blogging in the Classroom:

Blogging can be used in a multitude of ways in the classroom. Students can use a blog to review and recommend books for their peers. Teachers and students can communicate about assignments through blogs to help deepen understanding. Schools can use blogs to communicate information to the community. The ways that blogs can be used in an education setting are many, however it still seems to be an untapped resource. I believe that we have not seen blogs full potential in education simply because many teachers and administrators are fearful of change. Change takes work and being willing to learn something new and unfortunately teachers often feel overwhelmed in the day to day tasks that they don’t take the time or see the value in new methods such as blogging.

Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning:

This article was very interesting and offered some new thinking for me in the six areas that are on the horizon. The one that stood out to me was number 6 regarding collegiality. It struck me when he said that teachers should not be trained on new technology without students being present. This had never occurred to me before but what a genius idea that should have been so obvious. It’s true, I may be trained on something new and then go back to my classroom, automate and go right back to what I was doing. However, if I have students at the training then, not only am I held accountable for using that technology, but I also have help when I can’t remember something from the training. Students would feel more ownership and teachers would not feel all alone in trying to implement new technology.

Concept Map:

When I think about defining educational technology I first thought about the word change and how a willingness to change the way we do things must come first.

                                              








Class Expectations:

My expectations for this class are to deepen my understanding of ways to implement technology into my classroom and eventually into a library. I enjoy learning about different technologies, but struggle to implement them into my curriculum. I often default to the day to day routine (automate). I want to learn to informate.