What I Learned, Implemented, and Plan to Grow from this Semester...

This semester, I have become increasingly more aware of the need to implement technology effectively; with the advent of educational reform on the horizon, it is necessary for me as a teacher to inhabit new spaces other than the “bricks and mortar classroom,” recalibrating social networking spaces like Twitter, Facebook to fit into the curriculum (Connected Learners, http://www.innovativelearning.com/).

Similarly, it is critical for me to reconsider the educational possibilities of sources like Wikipedia; this site was once regarded by teachers merely as a jumping off point instead of an academic source. Wikipedia is now a collaborative learning and research information source that is edited and checked by the majority, far more comprehensive and up-to-date than traditional textbooks (Richardson 61-6). In fact, one important shift I need to consider is the movement away from textbooks to a collaborative class wiki project, which creates a community, builds a sense of ownership, leads to greater participation and understanding, and the ability to learn to work with peers (Richardson 28,74; Recesso and Orrill 237).

Another way my future teaching will be affected will be the way that computers will change class management and the involvement of the community. For example, I suspect that a few years into my teaching career, there will be far fewer actual student “documents” to turn in as the shift to computers will allow for tools like e-portfolios, online courses, school websites and online filing cabinets (Richardson 21). As a teacher, I will be able to invite parents, colleagues and the community into my classroom with updates and highlights about day-to-day student activities whether it is a photo presentation about a field trip my students went on, or a video about a project that students have completed (103). Of course these new Internet experiences will at first require a letter home to parents explaining the lesson plan and asking permission (11) but pretty soon, it will be as simple as sending a quick email to parents or updating the class website to keep the community in the loop about Internet activities (Recesso and Orrill 195).

The use of blogs in the classroom will serve as the beginning of my implementation of technology and role of ‘designer’ of the learning experience and ‘facilitator’ of learning (49). My lesson plans will have to be planned in advance to ensure student computer time is efficient and rewarding. One idea the text gave me was to aspire to join forces with another teacher from another location; the purpose of this connection would to allow my students to become long-distance keypals to write or blog about corresponding texts. The students can discuss thematic elements, narrative style, historical significance and share their ideas with each other, responding to each others’ journal writing, all the while learning about technology and possibly even building friendships (Richardson 28). Because blogs allow students who usually wouldn’t participate to provide their viewpoint (31) and serves to provide teachers with an avenue to respond constructively to student posts (Recesso and Orrill 242), I will be sure to design lessons that will first have a classroom discussion component and then pose a problem with clues. This will allow students to independently respond through a blog. The final collaboration will be students responding critically to students and then a class discussion to talk about solutions and conflicts that arose (Nelson 113). The journey that students must take will involve the synthesis of class discussion and the text, forcing higher connections in their learning (Richardson 31). Teachers as designers and facilitators no longer expect students to memorize facts but strive to help students to understand concepts by simulation, reaching higher levels on Bloom’s taxonomy (Nelson 34). I hope to engage students in meaningful learning and application as the teacher in the video “Middle School Reading Instruction: Integrating Technology” did; allowing students to connect ancient texts to modern devices. For example, by titling my project “Bard Meets Blog,” I wanted to highlight the importance of bringing traditional texts alive with the endless possibilities of technology. If my class is a Shakespeare course, I will ask students to write their own modern day version of Romeo and Juliet and have them back-up their plot and language decisions. Similarly I want to allow them to comment on each others’ stories and perhaps apply a critical glance at the texts before they act them out.

My future as a teacher is bright; I believe I will be able to successfully evaluate technology for the purposes of effective learning, ensuring I’m not integrating ‘edutainment’ (Recesso and Orrill 234) but valuable, authentic and practical learning situations that will construct learning and meet state and classroom standards (70). As a teacher I believe I have failed unless I relay the importance of technological tools as well as content in my classroom. I am very excited about the challenges that await my students and me.

Profile and Anti Profile Assignment

This semester I had an opportunity to read the novel Feed by M. T. Anderson for my Adolescent Literature course. The novel is set in the future and highlights some of the invasive threats that unchecked technology poses to American liberties and human privacy. The novel portrays a group of teenagers who have been implanted with internal computer chips called "feeds". The feed allows people to "m-chat" without even speaking (a telepathic way of instant messaging), it allows the characters to watch their favorite shows, and it grants them access to a world of information without accessing computer, watching television or reading a book. Although this is an interesting idea theoretically, the novel shows how the media and corporations that own the feed begin to streamline personalities, create and control demographic profiles of each user and market products that will render the users dependent, illiterate, uncreative and antisocial. One of the main characters, Violet, who has enjoyed an alternate and more traditional upbringing (a well-educated outcast who challenges the pervasive ideology) begins to resist the feed, generating an 'anti-profile' which defies any possible categorization, creating many hiccups in the chip that is implanted in her brain. Her friends stand by and watch as she quickly deteriorates. The story is a tragic account of how lonely the path can be when you dare to disturb the universe.

For my project, I wanted to implement technology and have my students create a profile and an anti-profile assignment and then present it to the class in order to display their knowledge and understanding of Feed to their fellow students. I created very flexible guidelines that would encourage them to use technological tools to display their work. If they were unable to access the internet at home, there was an option for students to create a hodge-podge artifact collection that would illustrate their understanding of the book's themes. Below are the guidelines:

***********

Guidelines for Profile / Anti Profile Project
Feed by M. T. Anderson

During this unit, we have explored the novel Feed and the challenges that future generations will face with technology and the media.

Your assignment will be to create a project that displays these textual themes in a creative, conscientious manner.

Pick a character in the novel you’d like to simulate and create either a profile or an anti profile of demographic information. Some questions to consider before you begin may include:

How old is your character? What is their gender? What music do they like?
What are the brands they value? How do these brands ‘define’ them?
What does this say about their relation to the media and their peers?
Do they question their social roles or are they pawns of the media?

Select a medium on which to display your hodge-podge or artifact collection and ensure that you can defend your work in front of the class.

You can use traditional scissors and glue to create a poster board, or if you’re interested in multimedia, you can create a Powerpoint, write a blog, or design a MySpace page / Facebook profile that will display your selections. Again, you will be presenting and defending this in front of the class. Here are some examples I designed, using MySpace as a canvas:

http://www.myspace.com/467078756 Profile

http://www.myspace.com/467076081 Anti-Profile

Feel free to use any images, music, video, book, story, etc. that will display your understanding of the themes we’ve covered and your character profile.

Please provide at least three paragraphs in which you ‘perform’ your character’s role and illustrate your understanding of the text. This may involve a close reading of a scene, use of the novel’s jargon, and the character’s tone (which can be portrayed through content and style).

Include citations for your direct and indirect quotes.

**********

After beginning the assignment, I realized that there were a few concerns I would have about the explicit content on MySpace; however, if the project were done at home and parents were informed about the pitfalls of allowing their children on the internet unsupervised, as a teacher I would probably be safe after notifying parents and the administration of the project ahead of time. Because there are other avenues to take (PowerPoint, Facebook, Blogger.com, or even a poster or artifact collection) a myriad of mediums are available to suit different students' needs and maturity levels.

The wonderful outcomes and learning advantages of this project would be:

1) students would be teaching themselves and students, thereby involving multiple intelligences and the constructivist principles of learning,

2) students would learn new technological tools that they will need in the professional and academic world,

3) the technological component of this lesson is a catalyst for learning, and not as an entertaining game,

4) students would be able to gain personalized responses from the teacher and other students to help them grow,

5) they would be able to create something and save it for a future academic portfolio, thereby creating pride in their work

6) this activity involves a high amount of synthesis, critical reading and technological immersion into a simulated character, forcing mastery of the subject.

All in all, the project could be slightly refocused; for a computer lab, I would ask students to use blogger.com for their entries because it is more user-friendly and students would not run into the questionable content aforementioned. I am glad I took the risk of doing this project because my own learning experience was enhanced. Reflection is a powerful tool and I believe that the 'failures' I meet as a teacher are opportunities.