Integrated Tech Unit and Lesson

Blog topic #4

The main lesson I learned from this experience of giving a lesson is to never go first.  

 

It was silly of me to think I understood how to do an interdisciplinary integrating-technology lesson in front of a group of my peers-who were not really my peers.  While I understood this was to be a lesson from the unit,  It was not clear to me that we were teaching a specific age of student with specific background information.  This became clear, right before the presentation, when our teacher clarified this, complete with a peer evaluation that we had never seen before.

My first goal has always been, regardless of what my district, principal, or teacher tell me, is to make my content friendly for students of different background knowledge, having diverse proficiency and, yes, age.   Perhaps we had not fully understood the assignment. 

 

Specifically in our lesson, I still couldn't figure out how to dim the lights.  I can't write on the board and talk at the same time and usually have to plan this ahead of time or have a student assistant.  Sometimes when I am teaching, I have to be creative and give students a different task if I have a huge tech problem. 

I have learned how to use the projector in my class and coordinate it with both my pc and mac.  I can do a video conference with Spain, and video at the same time.  I can edit my movies and make my own podcast.

 

I was particularly thrown off in our class by the introduction of what I felt were new objectives just prior to our lesson.  Had I fully understood we could not "step out of our teacher to teacher roles" or that we had to give "our students" and age, prior knowledge, and opportunity to use the tech in our class...  I would have just done the lesson in English and assumed High School with little or no Spanish. 

 

So, faulty rubric and undefined common objectives... somebody's comment was particularly hilarious... that they feel fluent now as a result of our lesson.  :)

I think Courtney and I collaboratively developed an awesome unit, that I'm sure I will be using in the future.  I thank Courtney for being patient with my learning curve on the topic...I learned so much about Frida, art, and Mexican History.  THANK YOU!

 

Reflecting on Planning by design... it is great if you have specific content related or thematic essential questions when everyone speaks the same language.  If you are building a skill amongst a diverse population with a varied background knowledge, not so good.  Is my outcome that everyone learns specific Spanish vocabulary better?  No, my outcome is that everyone experiences progress in their language acquisition.  This is best done with individualized learning contracts and growth portfolios.  

 

Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge- this is an interesting theory, but, promoted by those who promote more use of technology in education.  I think Technology is as much (or as little) a tool as Spanish.  It has nothing to do with Pedagogical Content Knowledge.  (Nice try, though)  I should invent Spanish Pedagogical Content Knowledge and insist that everyone teach their content using Spanish.  Technology is a tool, nothing more, nothing less.  It is nice to learn about the tool.  As soon as technology teaches Spanish, I know I will be doing something else.

The most important thing is to stay ahead of the obsolescence curve.  Especially, since Technology continues to try to make us perceive obsolescence.  I speak Spanish, Italian, and German.  I am learning to speak "tech."  I teach.

Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds

Blog topic #3

It makes sense that use of technology would go up with increased access and availability.  I was shocked that heavy youth users are "plugged in" around 10 hours a day, the same amount many adults work every day... only, as the Kaiser report points out, kids spend 7 days a week with this schedule, not just 5.

The correlation between amount of time and decreased personal satisfaction and grades is very interesting.  I question the inclusion of music as one of the media measured with the other forms.  I know that I frequently work better when I can control what I am hearing instead of other's voices or the constant drone of TVs left on in communal areas. 

One of the most important findings is that we parents can monitor and control the amount of media our children consume if we choose.  Having grown up myself with limits on TV and computer, I approached my parenthood with the same idea.  When we got our third TV in our home, somehow we had to add satellite for more options.  With each additional computer, I wondered about the amount of time our children spent on them.  It was easier at first to set limits, like putting the computers in an open spot of high traffic.  I limited how much and which hours the kids could go on line.  I was resistant to getting an xbox too.

I feel that for the most part I did a fair job.  As parents will tell you, it helps if both of them are on the same page.  I couldn't get my husband to participate in TV turn off days.  When I suggested that we unplug or monitor TV use, it was only done when I was home.  If I had to work or go to a meeting, I would come home to my youngest watching TV.  She became increasingly hard to regulate, since I couldn't be there all the time to do it. 

How do I think the findings will affect my teaching?  I'm not really sure.  Teachers can model moderate use of technology, they can instruct children about it... but at the end of the school day, children go home.

What is optimal use of technology in education?

Blog topic #2

Children come wired to learn based on their environment.

In Oppenheimer's 1st Chapter of The Flickering Mind, he discusses what he call the history of technotopia in education.  With every new wave of technology and promises made to improve education, technology hucksters hype the utopia of what they can do for our children.  Oppenheimer references one Orwellian disaster after another where each new wave fails to address literacy and improving education, with remnants of obsolescence lurking where an increasing percentage of our education expenditures have gone.

In the International Society for Technology in Education (NETS-S and Tech Tonic), the overarching caution is that something is amplified and something else is amputated.

I agree that we can easily be tempted by the ease of using technology in our own learning and in that of our students.  However, with the invention of the digital clock, students don't learn analog time telling and important math skills.  With a calculator, we don't have to do the work of computation.  With google translate, why should I bother learning another language? 

I think the best computer we have is our brain.  If we except that synapses need to fire and neural connections need to be made, I think we can accept that technology is a tool.  We can use it for our betterment, or as the lazy way to get out of work.  And the brain benefits or atrophies.   

With the invention of the television and the evolution of both parents working, children frequently succumb to the endless brain numbing programming.  How many hours of tv do children watch?  How many commercials, violence, and other things we don't want our children emulating?  How will they learn if we don't teach them?

Weizenheimer, an MIT Computer Technology whiz some decades ago predicted the best use of technology would be for teachers' management of information.

The computer is not the teacher.  And, as one of our classmates stated, students prefer a teacher over distance learning.  The interaction itself is part of a meaningful education.  

I think technology helps with administration, but it does have educational applications.  Students are motivated by the use of technology, and And, like it or not, it is here to stay.  If we can approach technology with a perspective of critical thinking and model that for our children, we are more likely to have a well balanced, educated next generation that will thrive in a compassionate 21st century.

More information to think about on this topic is in the following New York Times article.      


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/opinion/29franzen.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=OP-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-TPA-052911-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

My Philosophy of Education and Technology

Blog topic #1

I have always been interested in language acquisition.  How and when do we learn language?  We learn our first language from within the womb.  Children who grow up in multilingual environments are easily able to acquire more than one language growing up.  The brain research is very clear and the bilingual brain fires more synapses and has improved access to more neurological pathways.  The brain is literally mapped for future success in learning subsequent languages.  While the brain maintains some plasticity and can be retrained, it is more difficult for adult learners of a second language.  When they begin to learn another language, they have to use different pathways and it usually takes an increased amount of time, effort, and money to achieve a fraction of the proficiency.

My philosophy in education is pretty eclectic.  I started out as a computer science major in my undergraduate studies and became frustrated with the ever-changing technology.  I actually enjoyed learning the languages Pascal and Cobol, which are now obsolete and have suffered attrition in my proficiency.  I no longer speak computer.  I completed my Psychology and Spanish majors by default.  I had started learning Spanish when I was 10.

At the time, I thought about teaching, but I wanted to teach younger children- not High School.  I love to see the emerging language acquisition in a rich language environment.  I pursued my Masters in Spanish Linguistics followed by doctoral studies in Applied Linguistics and some hands-on research with bilingual children.  I have traveled extensively and now speak English, Spanish, Italian, German, and am learning French.  I married a man from Italy and our children are multilingual.  When my children were little, I home schooled for linguistic reasons.  I have formulated a holistic eclectic philosophy of education, incorporating Waldorf, Montessori, and behaviorist through constructivist.

I believe that education is not one-size-fits all.  We must constantly be negotiating meaning between all stake holders.      

My philosophy of Spanish instruction has been to learn languages early and often...before the window of opportunity closes.

Unfortunately, in Illinois this has not been a priority.  Nationally, NCLB and high-stakes testing have rendered Spanish Language instruction as not mandated (except in HS and college, which does not yield optimal proficiency outcomes), not funded and not tested.  This, coupled with English-only movements and a backlash against Hispanic immigrants has made early second language instruction almost nonexistent.  Bilingual Education is a political hotbed.

We will all need to be technologically literate.  I think we can already see the effects of early exposure to the creation of digital natives.  Let's hope that advancing technology doesn't make teachers obsolete.