Innovative Uses for Technology in Schools

Megan Hess's article "High Tech Schools: 7 Innovative Ways Teachers are Using Tech in the Classroom" questions whether technology integration is beneficial to students or whether it simply serves to further their addiction to various media sources. I found that Hess detailed several interesting ways to incorporate technology in the classroom setting in a form which is truly beneficial to students. After hearing some of the innovative approaches the teachers detailed in the article utilized, I determined that technology integration can certainly benefit students when done correctly.

The most interesting use of technology that I noted from reading the article was one educator's use of the iPad to teach his students penmanship. Many opponents to technology integration commonly argue that students lack skills in areas they used to be well versed in such as proofreading, handwriting, and the like. I have often heard it said that computers, word processors, and other forms of technology enable students to slack in areas they previously were held accountable for. Hess clearly showed that there are countless technologies available to educators that can be utilized to ensure students are still performing optimally in these areas.

Hess also exposed the use of social media sites such as Foresquare, Facebook, and Twitter by some universities and schools. According to the article, North Carolina State University utilizes Foresquare to show students various historical locations that played a prominent role in the university's history. I feel that oftentimes these social media sites are underused and many of the educators in this article determined new and fun ways to incorporate them while furthering educational curricula and student knowledge. This article is a great resource for educators looking for new ideas on how to effectively incorporate technology within schools. 

A "Flipped Classroom"

I recently stumbled upon an article entitled “Five Ways to Flip Your Classroom” in the New York Times. Authors of the article, Holly Epstein Ojalvo and Shannon Doyne, advocate a “flipped classroom” in which, “instructional content is delivered outside of class, and engagement with the content…is done within class, under teacher guidance and in collaboration with peers.” In implementing this flipped classroom structure, they emphasized the importance of technological integration.

I found this “flipped classroom” structure to be particularly interesting because through using PowerPoint presentation, Teacher Tube, Khan Academy, podcasts, and various instructional videos, students car peruse information at their convenience and spend as much time, or as little time, as necessary for them to master the content being presented. Likewise, I feel that this would be beneficial to students because if they are unclear or confused about a topic being presented, they have the ability to access class materials and review them as much as they feel is necessary without feeling that they are slowing down their class.

As the article states, the integration of these technologies can also assist in classrooms with large class sizes of forty or so students. Through having podcasts of lectures and other instructional materials and videos available to students online, teachers can eliminate the need to repeatedly re-explain concepts since students can review the video or audio clip to clarify anything they may have missed. Thus, teachers can provide more individualized and structured attention to students within the classroom setting.

Although I feel that this “flipped classroom” is interesting, I worry that relying on too much technology as a mode of instruction may prove to be a hindrance for students rather than an aid. It is quite possible that students would neglect to watch or review the online materials intended to deliver instructional content and thus the teacher would be unable to facilitate engagement with the content within the context of the classroom. This approach heavily emphasizes students taking the initiative to review content on their own time, which I feel may not be the best approach despite the fact I feel that the video clips and instructional materials would undoubtedly be beneficial to students. I feel that the technology used in this approach should not eliminate classroom instruction but rather supplement it and serve as an extension and review of what is covered in class. 

Interactivity #4

The lesson plan I selected was entitled “A Collaboration of Sites and Sounds: Using Wikis to Catalog Protest Songs.” I chose this particular lesson plan because I felt that it was very well constructed and had clear curriculum goals: to teach students the characteristics of a protest song; enable students to identify and analyze the object and means of protest as well as the implicit and explicit meanings of words and phrases; to teach students how to create a wiki. Furthermore, I felt that this lesson plan effectively incorporated technology through the use of wikis and the teaching strategies were well thought out. The main gap I felt was present between the curriculum goals, strategies, and technologies used was that the original lesson did not incorporate teacher-centered strategies often which I felt could impede student learning. In the original lesson, the teacher did not provide students examples of what a sample wiki pertaining to their project would look like and furthermore did not go through a protest song and explicate it collaboratively with their students. I feel that the lack of examples provided in the original lesson by the teacher creates a slight gap between the strategies and the curriculum goals.  In addition, I feel that there was a lack of group work in the original lesson and thus students were deprived of an opportunity to receive constructive feedback from one another and that technology was not implemented to aid this feedback process. Overall, I feel that technology is integral to this lesson because it helps students work collaboratively to identify protest song characteristics, aids their research and identification of songs, and allows them to construct a written work, in wiki form, which they can share with their peers as well as others.

Link to Spreadsheet!

Social Media in Schools

I recently read an article entitled “The Case for Social Media in Schools.” I found this piece to be particularly interesting because it presents a social media program, which was implemented in Portland, Oregon, that positively impacted education through the incorporation of technology within the classroom setting. Through the incorporation of technologies, such as blogging and cell phones, within the classroom, grades went up 50% and absenteeism went down by over a third.  

The article introduces a site entitled “kidblog.org” which I feel would be extremely useful in the classroom setting because it allows students to work collaboratively in a safe and secure social network. I thought it was interesting that this site allows educators to monitor all student submissions before they were posted online, thus ensuring student safety. The site primarily aims to replace online procrastination with social education. Even as a college student, I find myself procrastinating through online sites such as facebook or twitter, so I feel that this aim is crucial to student success. While I find blogging sites to be useful in engaging and connecting students through technology, I worry that an overabundance of blog posting requirements within the classroom could make it a tedious task for students. It would certainly be a challenge to ensure that students remain engaged in the act of blogging as the year progresses.

Another site mentioned in the article that I found appealing was entitled “Edmodo.” This site allows students to collaborate on projects and share files as well as ideas. It also allows students access through their mobile devices for messaging and the like. The author of the article argues that this site can be used to enhance social connections between students however, a study conducted by Rochester Institute of Technology found this was not the case. I would be interested to observe whether social technologies do truly allow students who typically would not interact in the classroom setting to connect online. I feel as though they would, and thus disagree with the findings of RIT’s study; however, I could stand to be corrected.

The portion of the article, which most surprised me, detailed the collection of students’ cell phone numbers for the purposes of sending alerts as well as wake-up messages to awaken students who were chronically late. This text message initiative was entitled “Texts on Time,” and it improved absenteeism by 35%. I do not doubt the effectiveness of this program, however I wonder if it is truly effective to use technology for this purpose. I feel that students need to be held accountable for upholding their responsibilities, such as waking up and getting to school on time. I feel that incorporating technology within schools in this manner may make students reliant on it and less accountable since the technology is enabling them to not to take responsibility for their actions. Despite this, I feel that it is a good idea to embrace technologies such as cell phones and social networking sites within the classroom to bolster student learning.

Technology Trends Post-Analysis

I found the article "5 K-12 Technology Trends for 2010" by Bridget McCrea to be particularly interesting. She published the article in 2009 predicting the technological trends to come in the year 2010. I found it interesting to take a look at her predictions and statements and analyze the extent to which they were accurate now that 2010 has come and gone and the year 2012 is roughly half way through.

McCrea's five main predictions were the following: eBooks will be integrated into the classroom, Netbook functionality will grow, more teachers will use interactive whiteboards, personal devices will be used within the classroom, technology will lead to a change in curricula. Overall, I felt that McCrea detailed several technologies which would greatly benefit students. Unfortunately, I do not feel that many of these technologies are as heavily used within the classroom setting as she predicted they would be. For instance, eBooks still have not become heavily utilized in the classroom. Many individuals use eBooks for social reading purposes but they have not fully infiltrated the classroom as of yet. Even at the college level, I find it rare for my peers to use an eBook for classroom purposes. Likewise, I feel that in many classes interactive whiteboards are present yet go untouched by many educators. In addition, she made mention that personal devices would be used within the classroom and I do not feel that this is the case in the majority of classes. From my experience, many educators do not permit personal devices within classrooms and thus do not incorporate the use of these devices in their lessons.

This article brought to my attention how limited our current integration of technology is within the classroom setting. There are so many great technologies at our fingertips and many of these are being consistently overlooked or under used. It is unfortunate that educators are not making use of the technologies easily accessible to them such as handheld devices and interactive whiteboards in many cases. I hope that as a future educator I can make use of some of these technologies and incorporate them more fully into the curricula.

Link to Article

Cyber-bullying

Recently, I read the Associated Press's article "Victims of Cyberbullying Fight Back in Lawsuits" and could not help but ponder whether the increase of incorporation of technology within the classroom may be the root of the influx in cyber-bullying. In recent years, educators have increasingly integrated technology within their classrooms, schools, and districts leading to students' widespread exposure to technology. Granted, the aims behind technology incorporation are justified and are designed with the intention of improving student learning however, without students' increased exposure to technology incidents on the internet may not have increased.

Education has served to increase student exposure to technology and consequently, students are spending increasingly more time on the internet. Thus, students' familiarity with these technological sources could quite possible have served to enable the transition to cyber-bullying. I feel that increasingly, cyber-bullying is becoming a prevalent issue for today's youth and it is necessary to ensure that students are being properly educated within the classroom so that they know what acceptable and unacceptable uses of technology are.

The push for technology integration has been rapid and swift and thus some educators have failed to educate students on how to appropriately use technology. It cannot be assumed that students understand his and thus it is vital that whenever technology is used discussions are had to ensure that incidents such as cyber-bullying does not continue to increase over time.