My Educational Technology Growth and Goals

1.     What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

Just like anything, the more “features” you can build into your product to help one person, the more accessible your product becomes for everyone.  This holds true for curb ramps, car features, and teaching strategies.  But just like curb ramps and car features, these things take extra time to build and cost a little more.  They are worth it in the long run though because it makes life easier for everyone – even if the feature was not designed for that particular person.

2.     How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

All of this web-based technology is nice, but is it necessary?  My wife and I created our own personal web site for our personal and classroom use.  We spent countless hours and were just getting it to where we wanted it when my wife was moved into a totally new subject and I was laid off.  My wife eventually got back to the grade and subject she used to teach, but all of the state requirements had changed the subject into something totally different.  All of the hard work we put into the web site was lost and we had to start over.  So we started, but time was spent with curriculum and not with the “extras” we so desired to do.  Just when she was getting a grip on the new requirements, things changed again.  How can anyone do a good job when they are always scrambling for material and curriculum?  We both love integrating technology into our classrooms, but there is not enough time in the day to do a great job at it when curriculum is constantly changing and teachers are being bumped around from grade to grade and subject to subject.  Sharing resources, like from MERLOT helps, but you still need the time to search for these items and make sure they fit into what you are teaching.

3.      How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?

My personal goals change as my job changes.  Technology excites me, and I love to teach technology, but my life just does not have room for the time I need to invest in Educational Technology right now.  Even though we are finally in our new home, we are still dealing with insurance claims, warranty issues and trying to get our life back together after the house fire and theft a year ago.  Added to the mix are our two little kids, (2 & 5 years old) who need non-stop attention, new jobs, promotions, etc., etc.  I just can’t seem to keep my head above water lately and sometimes I feel like I am losing my mind.  I am still learning, and that is the key; but not like I would like to.  It is frustrating to me not to be able to give it “my all” when learning new things.

4.      Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

My goals are in the process of changing as my job is changing.  At the start of the school year, I started a new job in a new district as Technology Integration Assistant in the Instruction Department.  My job was to help teachers in my building integrate technology into their classroom(s) – and I LOVED that job!  My goal at that time was to learn as much as I could about everything “Educational Technology” so that I could share, promote and help teachers with it.  At the end of January, I was promoted into the Technology Department doing more of the technical stuff behind the scenes.  This means I am no longer in the classroom, nor have much interaction with students or staff.  Though I love working with kids, I am wondering if my place really is in the technology department and out of the classroom.  I am very frustrated with where education has gone during these past ten years and I am not sure I even want to teach anymore.  I will have to see where this job takes me in the next few months and re-evaluate then.  As of right now, I am helping my wife with projects for her classroom so at least what I learn is not going to waste.

Online Learning Post

In an Earth Science or Geologic class, I believe that Online Field Trips would be essential in helping students understand our Earth.  Many times, we can take our students outdoors and show them characteristics in our immediate surroundings to help them understand the concepts we are teaching; however, there are also many things that cannot be shown in our immediate geographic location.  Field trips are a great way to show and explain these Earth features to our students, however; these trips can be expensive, time consuming and even prohibitive in nature.  Online Field Trips would allow our students to experience these things much better than text or pictures ever could do.  In many cases, Online Field Trips would even allow students to experience our world around us much better than being on location.  Being able to show Earth’s features from above Earth, and then zooming in on them will give our students experiences that even being on location cannot show.  Many of Earth’s features are so large that humans cannot see them unless they are in the air, looking over them from great distances.  This is where an Online Field Trip can really bring these features of our mother Earth to life!

Students could draw these features, blog about the experience with their fellow students or create a wiki where both the teachers and students could interact with each other about their discoveries collaboratively.  Teachers could also do all of this through a Learning Management System such as Blackboard or Moodle.  Students could also do extra online research, depending on the extent of knowledge required and add this content to an Electronic Portfolio.  Options are endless!

I think one of the more difficult technologies to use with Earth Science or Geologic classes would be the educational games.  Games are often based on human interactions, and with the subject being Earth, I think it would be much more difficult to come up with a game that is exciting enough to keep students interest.  I am in no way implying that it cannot be done, but rather that I cannot think of an easy way to incorporate this into this type of class at this time.  I feel there are much better options to choose from for an Earth Science or Geologic class.

Wiki Lab

For this lesson, we learned about Wiki’s.  Wiki’s are a cool collaborative tool which posts directly to the web.  I knew from our travels that "wiki" meant quick, and in the tutorial we used, it mentioned that the creator of Wiki did not want to call his creation a quick web, so chose the Hawaiian word Wiki which means quick. 

I checked out Forest Hills Public Schools on Wikipedia here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Hills_Public_Schools and added the year Eastern High School was added to the district as highlighted in this screen print.  This is the district that I currently work at.  Since I am still relatively new to the district, I did not have much to offer, but noted that the date of the newest building was not attached, so I added "2004" on the page.  I found this resource on the district's web site and I added documented that information as I made the change.

I also created by own Wiki space at http://bob-carl.wikispaces.com/.  Here is a screen shot of that space: 

Nothing overly exciting here, just experimenting with the flexibility of this new resource.