Teaching for Understanding with Technology (CEP 810) has been a very swift and enriching entry into the MAET program at Michigan State University. I have learned that effective teaching strategies begin with a diverse toolset and a good support network. Having a number of different technology tools that you and your students can use to accomplish lessons seems to me to be the first step. It’s important to keep in mind that the tools are only a means to acquire and build knowledge, as are books, a library, paper, pencils, etc. While novel, technology itself should not be the focus of a lesson. I also learned that building and maintaining a strong personal learning network is essential to keep yourself apprised of new techniques and tools, as well as a place where you can get support and use as a sounding board for your integration efforts.
In this course, the Internet was the primary domain, toolset and communication medium. Taking this course online brought the utility of the Internet and all of its evolving uses into sharp focus for me. It’s easy to regard the Internet primarily as a research and communication tool. However, this course has introduced me to a wide variety of tools with which you can actually create and build.
I felt the Special Interest Group Presentation project certainly illustrated teaching with technology in an innovative and rich way. The collaborative nature of the project lent heavily to the Collaboration and Communication curricular standards in the ISTE National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). The groups were given an outline of the project, the rubric, and some examples of what form the final artifact might look like. Beyond that, the groups were given latitude to choose technology tools to complete the project. I investigated several options, including using Voicethread, Google Docs Presentation, and Prezi. Ultimately, we decided to use a collaborative Google Docs presentation file to organize our thoughts and put media scraps into a central location. One member of the group took the information and media and created a movie (using iMovie or Final Cut, I’m not exactly certain). We then uploaded the video to Vimeo so it could be shared (and embedded) for the rest of the class to view. We used a number of technology tools, both collaborative and stand-alone, to get the assignment done. I was left with the lasting impression that making many different collaborative technology tools available to students, and allowing them to explore and choose them is an effective teaching technique.
Reflecting back to one of the earlier assignments, the Personal Growth Plan, one of my stated goals was get a better understanding of how people learn with (or through) technology. This course has equipped me with a basic understanding of the current theories underpinning effective integrated teaching: ISTE NETS, 21st Century Skills, and TPACK. The NETS and 21st Century skills frameworks essentially work towards the same goals, though through slightly different lenses. TPACK was new to me, and I need to spend more time reading the literature available at tpack.org. Part of the problem I face as a technology person working with pedagogues is that my background deals with the fairly straightforward world of computer systems, where they work with the comparatively systems of the human mind. Understanding these theoretical frameworks better will allow me to work with teachers more fluidly. I will have a better foundation to understand their challenges to help them recalibrate their pedagogy with technology integration techniques.
Finally, I found that I have new goals and challenges ahead. I must get my hands on and research the iPad, Android tablets, and Chromebooks as classroom technology tools. The projects displayed for the Special Interest Group Presentation assignment made it clear to me that the most substantial technical hurdle teachers and students face with technology is user interface. This point became evident when two of the 4 presentations were specifically about UI; one with regards to LMS systems, and the other dealing with iPads in the classroom. It occurred to me that the reason iPads are being adopted so rapidly is their fast boot up and stripped down, tactile interface. You can put one in front of any lay person, and they will figure it out rapidly. This is a boon to classrooms where as much as 5 minutes is being carved out of each end of a lesson hour to set up and prepare computers for student use: removing them from a cart, turning them on, waiting for boot up, starting applications - and hopefully each one works the first time. Operating systems like Windows and MacOSX are just hurdles students must clear to get to the tools and information they require. For this reason, iOS and ChromeOS will prove to be the more useful and effective devices in the classroom. The instant-on and zero learning curve for operation remove the most significant barriers to classroom technology use. Long battery life is a secondary technical feature that makes their use in the classroom easier to manage. With this new knowledge and charge, I will set out to thoroughly investigate the devices, their operating systems, and accompanying available software for student use in the classroom.
