Reflection...

Reflection

With the new 21^st century skills ad Common Core Standards the foundation of education is changing. With this fundamental shift in pedagogy, the expectations of educators are changing too. No longer is the educator the only source of information as students have unlimited resources through the Internet (Laureate, 2010b). Therefore, the role of the educator has changed from provider to facilitator of information. It is now essential to provide students with the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century. Through this course I have developed a new understanding of technology in the classroom, but also how to implement the technology for my students to develop 21^st century skills.

When starting this course I was acclimated with blogs, podcasts, and wikis, but I was struggling attempting to implement them in my English classroom.  My inability to implement these types of technology were hindered by my school district not allowing us to us any form of technology other than a Moodle.  From the very start of this course I discovered new uses for all three, and more importantly the uses are to do different things, not just doing things differently (Thornburg, 2004). In my sports literature course, discussions can take place about particular questions on blogs; moreover, that discussion can lead into more research done by the students to complete a wiki on a particular subject matter.  I see much value in podcasts in many subject areas, but in an English classroom I see it as very beneficial. I would like to use this technology to have students read a short story they would like their classmates to hear or to set-up a podcast to discuss ideas on literature. Creating a course wiki would be productive in an English classroom. One of several key 21st century skills is collaboration. In creating a wiki, students are required to work together to edit each other’s work in order to create a published product. In subsequent years, a class can edit the wiki of previous classes as well as use the information in their studies. These technologies would become resources for other students while allowing the current students to reflect on what they are learning.

All of these technologies allow students to have more autonomy of their learning, creating a transition from a teacher-centered classroom to a teacher-facilitator classroom. In addition, activities that allow students to problem solve use technology to find answers, whether it is websites, blogs, or video chats, students are gaining the 21st century skill of life-long learning. Especially in an English class, the content of a novel is not always the most important aspect of the lesson, but the critical thought it takes from the student to apply that information in a unique and original way is where these technologies can drastically change the dynamics of learning. By having students at the forefront of their own learning, you are actually allowing them to teach themselves how to learn. This allows them to make mistakes, learn from them, and try again, something that is fundamental to problem solving.

In the next two years, I have set two goals to aid in transforming my role from instructor into a facilitator. First, I will have all students participating in a class wiki where students will add and edit the work done by the previous class. I will start the wiki in the first year with the help of my students, and by the second year, students will be responsible for editing and adding sections dealing discussions in the classroom and ideas on the writing process. My second goal—this will be much more difficult to complete because of the resistance of my district--is to shift completely away from textbook-lecture style classroom—I am already accomplishing this in my Sports Literature course-- to an internet-interactive classroom where students are building on knowledge from the previous year and units to learn new concepts, and then apply those concepts to solve real world scenarios. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills among others recognizes the importance of involving businesses and individuals within the community to apply classroom learning, so I will include such people in projects, whether for feedback or sharing what is needed to be successful. In the next year, I will need to perfect how to balance time away from a computer with the limited time on a computer. This would include having students use their cell phone technology (Laureate, 2010a).

When I began this course, I rarely used student-centered activities, technology used by students, or talked with students about technologies they use frequently. Over the last month I have incorporated two activities that have allowed students to work together to strengthen their writing and understanding of the importance of creating publishable work. Students have been asked to submit all of their essay writing onto the classroom blog—the idea of a blog has created such excitement from my students that a few have designed their own blogs. Regardless, students gained important experience through the activities, and more importantly, I found ways to get students actively involved in their learning. I can say that I have successfully begun my transition from an information-teacher to an information-facilitator.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program number 1: The emergence of educational technology [DVD]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program number 13: Today's students [DVD]. Understanding the impact of technology on education, work, and society. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Thornburg, D. (2004). Technology and education: Expectations, not options. (Executive Briefing No. 401). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/expectations.pdf

Interview Podcast...

Maybe this one will work.

Interview Podcast...

Here is my interview.  I hope this works.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills...

I have recently been introduced to an organization that is attempting to revolutionize schools across the country. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) was formed by the individuals and organizations to advocate for change in policy. The basis for these changes come down to “fusing the three Rs and four Cs (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation).” While many schools are attempting to follow this model, many others are not. The P21 is attempting to get policy passed at the state and federal level that require all schools to adopt this model. While I have not necessarily heard of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I have heard of initiatives that the state of Ohio has supported in Gateway to Technology and Project Lead the Way. Both of these programs focus on the foundation of P21.

I believe that if you ask most teachers, they are attempting to cover the three Rs and the four Cs. Educators want their students to not only be able to read, write, and compute, but also to apply those skills to problem solve, communicate, and collaborate. While these are the wishes of teachers, I do not think it's necessarily the primary goal of most schools. I've been involved in two school systems, and both were more concerned with students passing state tests and graduation rates than with the quality of student they were graduating. After reading Characteristics of a Globally Competitive Workforce by Bates and Phelan, it was clear that focusing solely on the content of the three Rs sets students up for failure as they consider these only one part of three foundational skills (2002). According to the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS), the three Rs along with thinking skills and personal qualities are the foundational skills for today's workers (Bates & Phelan, 2002). If schools are focusing solely on reading, writing, arithmetic, and science, students are not even getting the full foundation for employability skills.

If schools are not setting for the foundation mentioned in the SCANS study, it is evident that something like P21 is a necessity for our country. With pressure coming from the federal and state government on school districts, teachers are getting more pressure to get students prepared. And what suffers? It's the critical thinking skills, the application projects, the collaboration, and the technology skills. A common phrase that is unfortunately uttered a lot, “We need to get them familiar with the testing scenario.” This actually contradicts what the research has said about 21st century skills. Students aren't collaborating, they aren't thinking critically, and they aren't engaged in technology. The latter has now become so essential that SCANS made it one of its five competencies every worker should have upon graduating high school (Bates & Phelan, 2002). If our students are to be technologically literate, we cannot have students spending “27 hours a week online at home and an average of 15 minutes a week at schools” (Miners & Pascopella, 2007). Obviously, we are failing these students.

What does this mean for us educators? We need to find a way to work within our school's expectations to revolutionize what we're doing in our classrooms. We do need to get students familiar with testing; however, we also need to prepare our students for the workplace. We need to teach the content, but then go on to challenge our students with problems and scenarios that require students to sharpen their critical thinking skills. We need to have students working together, communicating, and problem solving. While doing this, students need to be engaged in technology familiarizing themselves with different tools that may benefit them in future jobs. The P21 website contains a whole library of videos that educators can use as ideas of what they can include in their classroom to help develop these 21st century skills.

References:

Bates, R., & Phelan, K. (2002). Characteristics of a globally competitive workforce. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(2), 121.

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34. Used by permission.

Blogs in the Classroom

If my students were able to access my blog, blogs are currently blocked at my school we are being told to use the district’s Moodle system instead of blogs and wikis, during the school day then there would be a much greater opportunity to utilize the blog as an organic extension of the course through discussions that could continue on the blog.  However, since access would be limited for the students, I would implement the use of the blog as an avenue of publication for my students.  Since I teach seniors in a course entitled Sports Literature I am constantly preaching to them the idea of a completed paper being one that is ready to be published.  A blog would offer me an avenue to share the work of my students with a wider audience than just myself, and the idea would reinforce the concept of publishable work.

Moreover, I would attempt to offer my information for my students because the construction of a blog offers the opportunity to interact with material presented in the classroom, but at the same time to interact with new material presented on the blog.  In order to have students feel most comfortable interacting with one another on the blog, I would design a question of the week where students would be given until Sunday to respond to the question and to their peers.  Questions could vary from “Who had a greater impact on the acceptance of black athletes into professional sports Joe Louis or Jack Johnson?” or “In your opinion, throughout the history of sports, who or what was the greatest sports changing moment and why?”

Furthermore, I envision the blog as a way of posting more references for my students to use in order to understand the content.  Even if they are not interested with the week’s topic in the course posting references can familiarize them with different sports writers, acclimate them with different writing styles, and allow them to understand the impact each writer has had on the perception of sports and athletes in our country.  And as the writers change from era to era, my students will be able to witness first hand how journalistic writing changed after the television was invented. 

Incorporating Technology...

This is my first time creating an educational blog.  I am curious about the extent and overall quality of collaboration that can occur with this type of information sharing.  I feel like this type of forum can/will be more extensive than others used in the past.