Continuing Education

As educators we have all developed a love for life long learning and hope that we ignite  bit of that love in our own students...even if it's just one.  I love to read and learn, however when it comes to PD, I absolutely loathe attending these classes.  I get talked about quite a bit because last year at our Educators of Excellence conference (educators holding training for educators) I showed up with my knitting bag.  I was bored numb and hated every moment of being there.  So that leaves me in a bit of state writing this entry.  I can ramble on about how I will attend technology training, but the truth is I probably won't unless I am mandated to do it.  I think the best and most honest entry is I will continue to learn independently and be constant in my technology integration in my lessons.  I will fight with the math department for more lab time, continue to find new ways to use my presentation station, and I truly look forward to the Mimio pads we are to receive this fall. I pray the district was wise enough to buy enough programs with the Mimios to make them useful.  BTW, my principal and superintendent are EXTREMELY interested in the Inspiration software and I am planning to sit down with my CI to write a grant to the local education foundation for the monies to purchase the licensing.  Wish me luck!

I think honestly the best plan is for me, the individual, is to keep abreast of what is new in technology.  I started thinking about grant writing last year.   I want to write a grant to purchase computer stations for the ELA department or e-readers.  I think either of those would be awesome technological editions to our district.   I know that I have come across as a techie hater, but I'm not.  I just have reservations.   But through memberships with associations such as ASCD I can be kept abreast of what is new and exciting, learn more about technology integration, and receive webinars for the training I need without attending boring workshops.

Organizations that I belong to that help me achieve my goals are:

www.ascd.org
www.learner.org
www.pbs.org/teachers
http://eduscapes.com/tap/

These resources keep me abreast of the changing tides in education.  And then there is Mr. Padilla, our local techie, he is awesome for learning anything technological.

More Fuel for My Fire

As I sit down to write this I am finding that due to some digital glitch on Blogger's part I cannot comment on my classmates blogs.  Lovely, now how am I to get my credit for participation?  Digital pen-paling is failing me right now due to technological glitches and I'm just a bit more than peeved about it.   So technology be damned!  To make me even angrier, many of my student's research paper's were rebuffed due to my limited load on my email.  What bogus bunk is that?  And I no sooner clear it out and it fills back up, so I'm running around looking for spare thumb drives for my kids and hoping they bring them back, because goodness knows those things aren't cheap.  And then there are the kids who don't have Word as an operating system and I'm now forced to search the net high and low to find a download so that I can convert their paper from whatever it is their parents have to a a word document, which is time consuming and frustrating, especially when the madness doesn't convert correctly.  So no, I'm not impressed right now and then I read chapters four and five and I just want to pull my hair out.

Honestly, I am full on this material and I'm ready for this course to move on and be over.  My school district will never have the technology or hardware required for the materials described in these chapters.  And with Texas having just made a MAJOR educational budget cut and our campus about to receive a rating of UNACCEPTABLE to which we will carry for the next two years, I just don't see us getting it anytime in the near future.  So these chapters both anger and sadden me at the same time.

We do currently use Skyward as our electronic grading system...and to be honest, they just got that five years ago! Right about the time they finally decided to buy AESOP for subbing.  See how far behind we are?  Skyward gets no props from me....the last two grading sessions it has messed up the OA on all the students' grades and forced many reentries and downtime for upgrades and fixes.  This year in particular forced me to return to the old paper book due to the fear if the thing actually crashed I would be screwed.

I've never used a test generator for the simple fact that the ones that I have reviewed are insulting to the mind.  They ask all book questions and rarely if ever raise to the level on Blooms where the student is forced to connect, synthesize and create (infer).  

The one software I have been dying to get my hands on and we do not have is Inspiration...I do see a great deal of educational and classroom value in that particular programming with story webbing.  I would kill to have access to that licensing.

Hypermedia and e-books are also something I would LOVE to see at my district.  Although the accountability for them scares the begeezus out of me.  E-books would do away with the frayed and torn books that I am forced to perform CPR on each year and also do away with the wonderful art work my babies often leave behind on some of the pages.   To pay a one time licensing fee for copyright would in the end save thousands in budgeted funds on replacing old book and would loosen up money to purchase other e-novels.  Oh, the books we could read!

Going to Digital Hell in a Hand Basket (Or an IPod Casket)

Well, this isn't going to be a popular post amongst my fellow students, but I've never been one to rally for popularity.   I am more of a "rage against the machine" type of gal.  So here we go.  I did not like the themes or messages that were presented in the videos for this week's lesson.  I was far more disturbed by what I saw then enthralled or engaged.  Let's start with Sam.

Sam is a 13 year old girl whose life is too digitalized.  Sam is the type of student who actually concerns me.  She is too involved in computer systems and gaming to fully appreciate the simplicities of life, such as reading a book.  While she points out that gaming involves strategic thinking and higher order thinking skills, she also proved (unwittingly) that she cannot function outside of the media world.  When she was tasked to read "The Old Man and the Sea" she was unable to sit down and quietly read, analyze, comprehend, and enjoy the book.  Instead, she needed to download the book and have the computer read it aloud to her while she fiddled with all the different options that came with the reader program.  Her inability to ready quietly and effectively for herself defines just how far from proficient in reading skills we have come in our nation and how dependent we have become on digital media not only for entertainment but also to help us in simple life skills. 

I know many of you will scream, "And what is wrong with her downloading the book?"  Well, what is right about a kid who cannot sit and read for themselves?  We have program called STAR, it is a reading level comprehension program that we use to evaluate our kids.  It is done on the computer and the kids can take their time with reading the material and answer questions.  Many of the kids cannot read the material on the screen for one reason or another.  For some, it is a tangible thing.  Not holding the material, marking on the script, highlighting key words and phrases makes it hard for them to ascertain the material.  For others, is an inability to just sit and read, computer or not.  Sam's need to download the book shows how unfocused our  young people are if they aren't receiving constant neural stimulation.

I will give Sam her due props, she has developed musical and programming skills, but it is her inability to focus outside of the digital word that is disturbing.  Schools using games for learning and assessment also concerns me.  I truly have to question whether digital learning belongs IN the classroom.  Those who say, "YES, IT DOES!!!"  Then I have to ask, "At what cost?"  What basic knowledge or skills are we willing to allow our children to lose to the skills that you view or deem necessary to obtain?

In a world where cursive has almost been almost completely eradicated from the curriculum,  and our students' print is atrocious, are we to do away with penmanship altogether for keyboarding, texting, and coding?  I do see beneficial result in some classroom technology, as in for tutoring and monitoring, but the idea of my children spending hours on-end in front of a computer instead of participating in engaging, exciting, and intellectual human interaction is frightening. 

I often wonder if it is the fast advancement of technological forces that has brought on such diagnoses like ADD and ADHD, or made them more prevalent in today's children at least, due to the over stimulation of the brain.  I mean, even doctors tell you to cut down on neural stimulation at least a good hour before going to bed (this includes reading, television, and computers) so that your body can prepare itself for shutting down and resting.  This just leads me to logically conclude my prior thought.

And what of social skills and human interaction? If our kids spend their days head deep in computers, "engaged", how then, do they develop the skills needed to handle "real life" relationships?  How do they learn to handle conflict (because they cannot yell at people like they yell at a computer screen), how to they learn to negotiate (because computers are such solitary inventions), how to learn to share, love, express themselves properly and thoroughly, how do they develop true friendships and intimacy?  The speaker of the video jokes of addiction...but is it a truly a joking matter?

Theory & Practice: Foundations for Effective Tech Integration

A great deal of this chapter focused on the distinction between direct teaching and constructivist teaching, also known as inquiry based learning.  According to the text, “A few technology applications, such as drill and practice and tutorials, are associated only with directed instruction; most others (problem solving, multimedia production, web-based learning) can enhance either directed instruction or constructivist learning, depending on how they are used.” (pg. 23).  The text further dissects the two learning styles by comparing and contrasting the learning styles.

Figure 2.7

Directed Models	Both	Constructivist Models
Integration to remedy indentified weaknesses or skill deficits	Integration to generate motivation to learn	Integration to foster creative problem solving and Metacognition
Integration to promote skill fluency or automatically	Integration to optimize scarce personnel and material resources	Integration to help build metal models and increase knowledge transfer
Integration to support efficient, self-paced instruction	Integration to remove logistical hurdles to learning	Integration to foster group cooperation
Integration to support self paced review of concepts	Integration to develop information literacy and visual literacy skills	Integration to allow for multiple and distributed intelligences

TPACK is the “essential qualities of knowledge required by teacher for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge” (pg. 49).  Basically, these are the skills and knowledge that teachers should possess in order to effectively create, utilize, and integrate technology inquiry based learning.  The major issue concerning this is that many of the items that were afore mentioned in the previous reading are not/shall not be available to all teachers in all districts.  I myself never worked with a white board and therefore would fall short according to TPACK standards in many area of proficiency. 

The TIP model for teachers answers the questions that would be raised by many teachers who would attempt to sit down and designed a web-based inquiry lesson. I’m going to tell you the truth, all I read was work!  Probably more work than I am willing to do, so unless some wonderful teacher has already created it and posted it…but the section did speak on teaching objectives and the skills the teacher want the students to gain, how students would be assessed, and determining of the inquiry was successful in implementation, in delivery, in receptions, and in learning, all very important on projects of this nature. 

Week 1 Blog 1

I love to teach things of relevance...things that touch people, on the emotional level, but it must also make them think about its application, its worldliness, its historical importance.  I teach 8th grade reading and English which I love.  But I feel smothered at times by all these objects and alignments and objectives.  I just want to teach and reach...all else be damn.  I'm not going to lie. I'm not big on technology in the classroom.  I'm a pencil and paper gal.  I do use my overhead for presentations and such, but I'm not big on taking critical classroom time for web-searches/scavenger hunts or putting presentations together.  To me, that's what technology classes are for.  Therefore I have no idea as to how to answer the question about how I would like to integrate technology into my classroom because I don't (at the time).  My kids do complete projects, but they must do these outside of the classroom and present to the class.  But using class time, to me, is a major no-no.