Learning Moves beyond Words into Action

My technological skills have increased exponentially in the last 8 weeks. I have become so excited about technology, because we as classmates were expected to try new things! Learning new things can present many struggles. Without the opportunity to explore the new world of technology, many of my classmates (including myself) may have reverted back to the comfortable ways of teaching. We must move “from a didactic teacher-driven world to a more inquiry-driven project-based world” (Luarate Education, 2008). The discussions and applications I have completed throughout this course presented information that I can no longer ignore. I began to truly transform my classroom into a 21st century learning environment because of the knowledge learned in this class.

To increase my knowledge on providing and integrating 21st century skills, I have to continue providing opportunities for my students to create. I also must continue using the technology in my personal time (Richardson, 2009). In my language arts class, I have implemented a class blog that currently students can only comment on at home. After Christmas break, my learners will have their school laptops unblocked to our class blogging site. When the computers are able to access the blog, I know the learning in my classroom will skyrocket! I already feel as though my students have learned so many valuable 21st century learning skills including problem solving and collaboration, but when the blog is active in the classroom we will begin critically analyzing one another’s work. Since we already do analyzing of writing verbally, they will understand the expectations and be able to expand on that knowledge to communicating their comments in writing. To increase student achievement, students must be motivated to learn. Students are motivated when teachers are “encouraging decision making among students, involving students in designing instruction, and getting input from students about how they would teach” (Prensky, 2005). I will use my classroom blog to get ideas from students, allowing them to take control of what and how they want to learn to exhibit their knowledge in a unique way (Laurate Education, 2008).

One of my goals is to inspire other teachers to also transform their learning environments into a digital learner’s workplace. To meet this goal, I must be willing to spend extra hours outside of school teaching skills to interested teachers. I already have 3 sixth grade teachers who are ready to expand their knowledge on blogging, and we will be meeting ever break. My passion goes beyond my students to all students in every classroom. If I teach other teachers who then provide 21st century learning in their classrooms, my students will be able to communicate and collaborate with students in other classrooms through technology (Nussbaum-Beach, 2008). The classroom walls begin to deteriorate, as students become part of a whole digital workplace that will be leaders in a digital world. This leads to my second goal. If classroom walls are no longer an issue, our students will be able to integrate subject areas on a wiki. In this course, working with people I have never seen on a wiki provided much learning for me. I know my students would benefit greatly from collaborating in groups with other students in the school on a wiki. If I work with the math teacher, we can create wikis where students from her class meet on wikis with my students to integrate math with language arts in project-based learning. The opportunities are truly endless, and I am ready to take these goals and act upon them!

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Bringing the fun into teaching(motion picture). In Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work and Society. Baltimore, MD.

Nussbaum-Beach, S. (2008). No limits. Technology & Learning, 28(7), 14–18. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8466

Prensky, M. (2005). Listen to the Natives. Educational Leadership, 63 (4) , 8-13.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

My First Podcast!

My 6th grade students answered 15 questions regarding technology on the clickers technology. The questions were posted, and the students loved being able to point their remote-like clickers to answer questions for my survey. My 3rd period language arts class data was compiled by the computer, and I have recorded the information on my first podcast. Although it is a bit long, I felt the information was valuable, and the five students who were interviewed provide the podcast with an honest look into a sixth grade mind. Check out the podcast at http://tritzman.podbean.com/!