Week 5

When I saw the title for this course, I thought that I would be learning a lot of new technology applications that I could use right now in my classroom and then eventually use as an administrator. I also knew that I would be learning a lot about what would be required of my district and campus as far as the state guidelines on technology curriculum go. As far as learning new technology, I did learn how to create a blog and how easy it would be to teach my students to do this for class assignments. I also passed this information on to my principal. I showed him how to create a blog and he now uses this as his weekly message board for the staff instead of the word document he used to send out. I was a little disappointed that this is all I learned. I was really excited to learn more technology applications then this but did not. I did, however, learn a lot of new information about what is required for a technology curriculum at my school and district levels. I hope to help my students reach these curriculum goals and help my campus achieve them also.

Although I did not learn a lot of new technology applications, what I did learn is still very useful to me. Learning how to create a blog looks like it will be a great starting point to advance my students in technology. I am currently working on a project to have my students start keeping a science journal blog to help them keep track of the science concepts they are learning and make stronger connections to them. Also, I plan to start keeping a blog for my classroom. This will help me communicate to my stakeholders, parents, and keep them informed of happenings in my classroom. As an administrator, I can use the knowledge I gained on technology curriculum to make sure that I have my staff implementing these SEs in their classrooms. I could also use applications like blogs to communicate with staff, parents and community members. I belive that the knowledge I have learned in this course could greatly benefit myself, my campus and my students.

The outcomes that I did not achieve were learning new technology applications that I could use in my classroom right now and in the future. I would have liked to learn more about MS Excel and MS PowerPoint. I believe that both of these applications are very important in a school setting. MS Excel is used a lot to collect data and MS PowerPoint is used quite a bit to display this data to the masses. I know that we did use PowerPoint in this class but I would have liked to have learned a more advanced use of it. Also, I believe that a more advanced knowledge of MS Excel would help me to be more prepared when I become and administrator. Since MS Excel is used a lot to collect data, I believe it would have helped me become a better team member at my school.

When it came to assignments, I was successful in completing them for the most part. The only thing that I was not able to be a part of was the web conferences. They were always offered at times when I was not available. I am a teacher AND a basketball coach so when the conferences were only offered in the evenings, I was not able to sign on to be a part of them. I also did not have the equipment it required to participate actively in these conferences. What discouraged me when working on and turning in assignments was the fact that dates and times were constantly being changed. Again, as a teacher and a coach, my time is very limited. I rely on a set scheduled and knowing what I have to do every day. When things were changed at the last minute, it made it very difficult for me to drop everything else to complete my assignments.

Although this course was not what I expected, I did learn information that will help me in the future. First and foremost, I was able to evaluate my technology knowledge and see where I need to improve and where I am strong. I realized that if I were to learn more about the technology world, I could improve as a leader on campus. I now see how important it is for a administrator to be technology savvy. Administrators use technology everyday to compile data about their schools and to communicate with stakeholders of the school. Also, administrators need to know the latest guidelines the state has mandated for technology curriculum so they can make sure that their teachers are implementing these guidelines in their classrooms. Before this course, I did not have a positive attitude toward technology in the classroom. I thought that it could cause behavioral problems and do more harm than good. I now see the great benefit that technology can have for our campus, students and staff.

Like I have mentioned in other posts, I now see the many benefits that blogs can have in the classroom. Blogs provide students with a way to communicate to their teachers and other students in a whole new way. First, students who may be absent or out for long periods of time can see what has been going on in the classroom if the teacher were keeping a classroom blog. Also, blogs can serve as an “on-line learning journal.” I am planning to start having my students keep a blog like this where they have to post weekly about what they have learned in class. I believe that this will give them a way to make stronger connections to the topics that we are learning and also allow students to view their peers’ perspectives on what was learned in class that week. I also believe it would be a great way for students to post work such as papers of projects where other students in the class could make comments on them to help improve that work.

Although blogging could be a great asset in the classroom, it could also be a potential hazard. I could see the possibility of blogging getting out of control. If not managed right, a classroom blog site could become the site of rude and disrespectful talk between classmates. Also, students could start using it to communicate to peers for the wrong reasons instead of for class purposes only. It could also possibly help students cheat on work. Instead of students taking the time to think up ideas for projects and papers on their own, they might read other students’ blogs and comments and take ideas from that. Then when questioned about who copied from whom, there might not be any way to tell. The last issue I would have with blogs is the safety of my students. A blog could be a potentially dangerous place if a student is not careful. A sexual predator could pose as another student and start communicating to students on line and eventually convince them to meet. This is my biggest concern with blogging in the classroom.

Again, blogging can be a great thing if used correctly. Blogs could be a great way to communicate with school stakeholders such as staff, students, parents and community members. Schools could set up blogs where important events could be announced and updated quickly. Also, parents could communicate with other parents through blogs to ask questions about classroom work or extracurricular activities. Teachers could create blogs for their individual classrooms. Parents and students could use these blogs to their advantage to discuss homework, projects or field trips. Also, school administrators could use blogs to send out weekly updates on school happenings. Blogs could also be used to make school community work known. For instance, if the National Junior Honor Society were to host a blanket drive, they could put it on the school blog. Community members, parents and other students would be able to see information on it and also ask questions about where the drive would take place, time, etc. Blogs could be beneficial to all parts of a school in communicating with stakeholders.