Module+4+Reflection

// ** Reflection Prompt: ** //** // Reflect on your thinking surrounding your developing a philosophy of Instructional Technology use for learning and your understanding of 21st Century Teaching and Learning. // **

__ //Description// __ This week's focus was on 21st Century Teaching and Learning- in our new century, with all of our new technologies, how do we focus on teaching our students growing up in this technology-infused world? As time progresses, our world changes, so our teaching evidently must change too to keep up with the rest of the world. How do we use this new technologies to improve our teaching styles, and how do we educate our students to become productive, autonomous learners in this new world? These were some issues posed in this week's readings and discussion, and also the focus of the short paper we started researching this week, but I also think this is one of the key topics in the Instructional Technology program in general.

// __Impact__ // I liked reading the scenarios of the schools that had 1:1 integration of technology in their schools. 1:1 integration is an ideal scenario, where all students have access at all times to various kinds of technologies, and the teachers are able to plan lessons in which the technology is not really the focus of the lesson, but is rather used to support and enhance learning. Students who have 1:1 integration with technology are used to posting responses to blogs, or contributing to class wikis, or even to participating in online research and discussion with students from other schools. As another colleague pointed out in our discussion board, 1:1 integration is hard to do because students may not be used to using technology so often in the classroom, or the teacher may place more emphasis on the technology used rather than using it to support a learning goal. Schools may not have enough technology to go around to achieve 1:1 integration- in my district, we have been putting more money into improving technology resources, and while every classroom now has a teacher laptop and a Smart Board, I still find myself struggling to sign up for computer lab time. This limits my ability to use technology on a 1:1 basis. I have discovered that my teaching tends to fall under the scheduled category or integration, where I can occasionally use the labs for certain activities, or even sometimes the limited category, if I have to adjust my lesson due to not having available equipment.

__ //Intent// __ Another colleague posted about her added technology roadblocks in being an electives teacher. As someone who teaches outside of the testable core subjects, I can relate to her frustrations. Many times, we are the last ones to get new technologies or any sort of attention because we are not the subjects being looked at on state tests. While I do not want to accept the fact that my classes are less important than others, I must acknowledge that the general views on this matter, whether it be from administrators, parents, etc., are not going to suddenly change and put the Fine Arts as a priority subject because are not state-mandated tests. I need to become a better advocate for my courses, and one way I can do this is through technology. Not only can I help my students by using more lessons that integrate technology, but I also think that I can draw positive attention to my classes by being a teacher who embraces and uses technology in ways that I could model for other teachers. My district does offer some grants throughout the year that teachers can apply for, and although they are not enough monetarily to buy laptops for my entire classroom (which would be very cool- and I would never have compete for lab time again!), I am hoping that as I learn more in this Master's Program, I can a develop a plan so that I can apply for one of these grants, and apply it towards working towards 1:1 integration in my classroom.