After reading the chapter, "Security, Issues, Ethics, and Emerging Technologies in Education", from Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010), I realize the role of the teacher has changed as fast as the onset of new technologies.
A teacher likes to feel comfortable in his or her own setting (classroom). If something new comes along, then it is the teacher's role to investigate it, research it, and then implement it. Students are entering classrooms with various experiences with the Internet and exploring web sites.
As an educator, you are the one responsible for the sites that the students surf to in your classroom. I have caught some of my students straying from the selected site to see what else is out there. They are young students so you can imagine that they accidently made a few clicks and end up on a tangent site. It is a major role for a teacher to be sure that the necessary measures are made for computers in the classroom. I have even gone to the extreme of hiding different icons on the desktop so that an unnecessary one is not clicked on by accident. It has made it easier for my students to navigate to the educational sites geared for their learning practice.
With the introduction of display boards in our classrooms, you need to be sure that the initial web page is one that is appropriate for your students to see. If you want to do a class search on a topic, then you need to be sure that you don't end up on a site that is not suitable. For example, clicking on the Internet Explorer icon on my Activboard desktop opens up to msn.com. Depending on what is happening in the world, the site will display images and headlines on the various events. Since I teach a group of primary students, I did not feel comfortable being engaged in a conversation about some of those topics. Especially since I did not know what events would be featured on the page.
Therefore, I contacted my school's technology expert and requested that the school's web site be the default page instead. After discussing the subject with some other teachers at lunch, it lead to an interesting conversation about having a site such as msn.com as the default page. A few teachers joined my side and wanted to be safe than sorry. While, a few other teachers felt that the site would only be viewed for a few seconds while you navigated to a search engine site. I raised the question about a student being on a stand alone computer in the room, clicking on the Internet Explorer icon, and going deeper into one of the stories posted. Therefore, the child might view images which are not appropriate for their age.
I know that teaching in a primary grade has led me to become a safety zone kind of a teacher. I just know that parents hold teachers in a regard that we will make the best decisions on behalf of their children. Not to say that parents might not filter their own child's Internet surfing at home. Our responsibility as educators is to make sure that we check programs and web sites for ourselves before we launch them in our classrooms. It's better to be safe than sorry!
Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Don't Assume That They Know
After reading a number of articles about how advanced and technologically prepared our students are upon entering our classroom, a teacher needs to see this evidence firsthand. Case in point, my first grade class in the media center computer lab for the first time. I have one student who signs onto the computer with his 10-digit user name and dances across the keyboard entering his eight-digit password. He clicks the icon and lickty split has his numbers entered into the program. Headphones are on and he's right into the activities.
What a great year this is going to be in the computer lab! All of my six-year old students are tech-savvy and will not be bellowing out my name in the supposedly quiet media center. And then I hear "Mr. Hernan, I need help!" The silence is golden aura has been broken. This student has somehow managed to tap into the error message capital. He has six different error message boxes open. The young lad is looking at me as if he was caught breaking into the National Mint and was about to wire funds to his offshore account. After 10 minutes of closing windows and rebooting the computer as well as a brief discussion about letting me know about a problem a bit sooner, he was working in Imagination Station.
It's time to make a lap around the two rows of computers to see my class hard at work. Until I pass a sweet little girl who is hardly working. She is sitting up straight in her chair and has her information card next to the keyboard. She is staring at a black computer monitor. I quietly ask her why she isn't on the computer. Her response was "it's not turned on." I calmly return with a question about why she hasn't turned it on. At which point she shares with me that she doesn't know how to turn the computer on. I use a very calm and steady pointer finger to slowly approach the black button in the center of the tower. I press the button and magically the screen jumps into action.
I realize now that I'm not batting a thousand with this class in regards to technology. Mental note to self includes a whole group lesson on the computer basics from signing in to signing out in the computer lab. I assumed that they knew how to handle the computer and the necessary steps to successfully launch a learning experience in the virtual world. I was wrong and not for the first time either. Long story short the second visit to the computer lab was much better than the first.
photo retrieved from: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=kid%20on%20computer&ctt=1#mt:2|
What a great year this is going to be in the computer lab! All of my six-year old students are tech-savvy and will not be bellowing out my name in the supposedly quiet media center. And then I hear "Mr. Hernan, I need help!" The silence is golden aura has been broken. This student has somehow managed to tap into the error message capital. He has six different error message boxes open. The young lad is looking at me as if he was caught breaking into the National Mint and was about to wire funds to his offshore account. After 10 minutes of closing windows and rebooting the computer as well as a brief discussion about letting me know about a problem a bit sooner, he was working in Imagination Station.
It's time to make a lap around the two rows of computers to see my class hard at work. Until I pass a sweet little girl who is hardly working. She is sitting up straight in her chair and has her information card next to the keyboard. She is staring at a black computer monitor. I quietly ask her why she isn't on the computer. Her response was "it's not turned on." I calmly return with a question about why she hasn't turned it on. At which point she shares with me that she doesn't know how to turn the computer on. I use a very calm and steady pointer finger to slowly approach the black button in the center of the tower. I press the button and magically the screen jumps into action.
I realize now that I'm not batting a thousand with this class in regards to technology. Mental note to self includes a whole group lesson on the computer basics from signing in to signing out in the computer lab. I assumed that they knew how to handle the computer and the necessary steps to successfully launch a learning experience in the virtual world. I was wrong and not for the first time either. Long story short the second visit to the computer lab was much better than the first.
photo retrieved from: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=kid%20on%20computer&ctt=1#mt:2|
Thursday, September 1, 2011
A Tough Answer For Teachers
Are we doing what is best for our students or are we doing what is most convenient for us?
This is a very loaded question from Dr. McLeod's blog posting. I keep thinking about the teacher assessments that are being implemented this school year throughout the state. Are teachers going to do what is best for their students which will enhance their learning opportunties and result in better test results? Or are teachers going to resort to teaching in their convenient style to weather the storm of being evaluated?
In previous years, teachers might decide to take the plunge and integrate technology into their lessons and allow the technology savy students to gain hands-on opportunities. Teachers could attend professional development workshops or take online trainings to see and interact with the various advancements. They would return with the excitement to start the school year with a fresh approach to instruct this year's digital kids. Even take the approach of learning from the students while using these different forms of technology. At the end of the year, the teachers would look back and see that the journey was well worth the investment.
Now to the 2011-12 school year. A teacher is faced with a 3% contribution to the Florida Retirement System. Counties have continued to increase insurance contributions as well. As if that is not enough on the plate, you add a brand new teacher evaluation system. Teachers are facing a very scary and uncertain 10-month school year. The phrase "resorting to old reliable" might seem to be the anthem for this year. Teachers who utilize technology will continue to have it as a vital piece in their daily puzzle. Unfortunately, veteran teachers with little or no technology experience will most likely stick to the teaching that has worked for them over the years. Especially, when the teachers know that their principals will be visiting the classrooms with iPads in hand. It seems that this year teachers might need to do what is best for them.
This is a very loaded question from Dr. McLeod's blog posting. I keep thinking about the teacher assessments that are being implemented this school year throughout the state. Are teachers going to do what is best for their students which will enhance their learning opportunties and result in better test results? Or are teachers going to resort to teaching in their convenient style to weather the storm of being evaluated?
In previous years, teachers might decide to take the plunge and integrate technology into their lessons and allow the technology savy students to gain hands-on opportunities. Teachers could attend professional development workshops or take online trainings to see and interact with the various advancements. They would return with the excitement to start the school year with a fresh approach to instruct this year's digital kids. Even take the approach of learning from the students while using these different forms of technology. At the end of the year, the teachers would look back and see that the journey was well worth the investment.
Now to the 2011-12 school year. A teacher is faced with a 3% contribution to the Florida Retirement System. Counties have continued to increase insurance contributions as well. As if that is not enough on the plate, you add a brand new teacher evaluation system. Teachers are facing a very scary and uncertain 10-month school year. The phrase "resorting to old reliable" might seem to be the anthem for this year. Teachers who utilize technology will continue to have it as a vital piece in their daily puzzle. Unfortunately, veteran teachers with little or no technology experience will most likely stick to the teaching that has worked for them over the years. Especially, when the teachers know that their principals will be visiting the classrooms with iPads in hand. It seems that this year teachers might need to do what is best for them.
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