Technology Integration: What I've Learned

I was not certain coming into this class what I would learn and how beneficial it would truly be. I soon found out that Learning Through Technology would be a valuable course. I have gained an understanding of what it means to learn through technology and why it is so important to incorporate it into my classroom. Schrum and Levin point out in their book Leading 21^st Century Schools that students are using technology to learn outside of school and yet they are not being allowed to do the same thing inside of school. While I would use technology occasionally in my classroom, it has not been enough. 

This class opened up my eyes to many useful Web 2.0 tools, from blogs, animoto, podcasts, bookmarking, virtual libraries, virtual tours, and many more. I am now tweaking my current lesson plans to incorporate more technology and this technology will help to make my lessons authentic for my students. I see so many possibilities now with what I can do, whereas before I knew I wanted to use technology, but I wasn’t sure how. I am currently sharing the WebQuest I created for this class with my students and just today they completed a focus lesson on how to navigate through the WebQuest. I can already tell that the WebQuest will help to make my mythology unit more relevant and authentic to the students, as well as help connect what I am doing in my classroom to Iowa’s standards, the Iowa Core.

This class ignited a curiosity in me to learn more. It allowed me to conduct research and find articles about technology. I found myself not being able to stop at just finding one article, and I now have a binder of educational technology articles to use when I need guidance on a future lesson. These articles helped me to explore the many ways I can use technology in my classroom, by proving the relevance for technology and by letting me in on what other teachers are doing. For example, the article A (Pod)cast of Thousands, helped to clarify for me how to incorporate podcasting into my lessons. The article made a relevant point for me in that “if we want our students to be confident effective communicators in the coming decades, we must prepare them to communicate through digital media” (Dlott, 2007). As an English teacher, one of my main goals is to help create effective communicators and I had to question why I wasn’t using digital media to do that in the first place, when I know, as I am also a journalism teacher, how much blogging and online videos have become so popular. 

Overall, I have learned how important technology is in the classroom. It helps to make lessons authentic as well as assists in creating an environment where a differentiated lesson can exist. The article Turning on the Lights by Mark Prensky helped to reiterate the importance of asking students to power-up in school versus power-down. We all strive to be engaging teachers, so that our students walk out of our classroom gaining something versus learning how they can use our notes as a replacement tool to counting sheep. This course has been very valuable and it made quite an impression on me. I will use what I have learned and apply it to my lessons, and I have actually already started doing just that. 

Dlott, A. M. (2007). A (pod)cast of thousands. Educational Leadership, 64(7), 80-82.

Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45.

Schrum, L., & Levin, B. B. (2009). Leading 21st century school: Harnessing technology for engagement and achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.