The Evolving
Role of the Teacher
6710J:
Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society
Module7 –
Assignment 7
Angela Williams
Walden
University
Kathryn Arnold
EDUC
6710J
Understanding
the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society
October 25,
2019
Module 7 Assignment
The Evolving
Role of the Teacher
The resources and activities along with the media presented to
us in this course have helped me to broaden my outlook on what technology can
be in the classroom. From my experience, many teachers do not embrace
technology beyond what they are presented in the curriculum. This could be
because they are afraid of technology, their schools do not allow or encourage
using new and additional technology or for reasons unknown.
I am a personal blogger and I never thought of using it to reach
my students until this course. The same goes for Twitter and Instagram. It was
a venue I did not think about. Using any social media or mass communication
will be difficult to work into my classroom use due to requirements and
expectations set by my district. The district does broadcast news via Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook, but teachers and staff are prohibited from reaching
students in any of those ways. With approval though, I am looking forward to
creating connections via technology with my students.
One of the first applications I would like to expand on is using
course/classroom blogs and Wikis with my students. Chapter 3 in Blogs,
Wikis, Podcasts (Richardson, 2010) and the activity of creating our
educational blog and the Wiki lesson was very nerve-racking at first but very
enjoyable by the development of it. I was more nervous presenting it to my
students that I was creating it (the wiki) for my students.
Because of what is at stake, my student’s education, I
experience what many students may experience. ‘Despite the enjoyment of the
project, some students from all three groups expressed feeling a high level of
stress.’ (Pletka, 2007) I have been that student. I have found in the last 8
weeks bout technology is to go forward learning. I will be taking the knowledge
from this and future courses to my classroom and students. Something I love
about high school is that when you are honest with your students about what you
know and that you are learning or will learn with them. They appreciate the
honesty, most students do, and in my short experience, I have even had students
help me find the answer.
For example, in our Wiki Lesson students were happy to look at something
new and not the online textbook. A challenging behavior student was completely
engaged in the lesson. She moved from the Wiki to the online text and the
provided websites checking my facts and find new information. By the end of the
class she told me she wished more lessons were a puzzle like this, it kept her
intrigued. This was a big compliment to me from her, in ten weeks of school she
has maybe spoken to me twice before.
During this course, I have investigated my own school district's
website. I have attempted to match what I am learning to what the District is
advertising that they are into promoting. I was very happy to see that the
promotion and statement involving ISTE (Riverview Gardens School District,
2019). There is not a date as to when this statement was added to the District
page, but it is encouraging about the direction we are headed and that they
understand that technology is our children’s future, regardless of career and
the educational path they take beyond high school.
The hurdles that may arise about living up to the ISTE standards
for teachers and students hopefully will not be many. I know one will be to
convert the district approved web texts to Wiki Lessons and without having the
access to Google Classroom as a tool. What I can do to overcome these, and
other constraints will be to do extensions of lessons in Google Pages as a Wiki
and with District approval, a classroom Blog. Anything that is done on the web
needs to have District approval. I will continue to get that approval.
An ISTE Standard (ISTE, 2019) that I will be impressing on both
myself and my students is as a Digital Citizen. Students not yet understand how
much responsibility there is to be a good digital citizen, neither do some
adults. It is so easy to think and act like whatever is done on the web in this
Web 2.0 society is not harmful. I observe daily students not being good digital
citizens. This is possibly the most important standard for me.
Over the next 2 years, I have two SMART goals to master and put
in place to transform my teaching and my classroom. SMART goal S for Specific and
R for Relevant (Education, 2015a), (Walden University, 2019).
Being specific with your teaching is crucial to giving correct information.
‘The more specificity you bring to your goal, the clearer it is.’ (Walden
University, 2019)
The SMART goal, relevant, is my second personal goal. ‘This
criterion ensures that the goal is important to you right now, at this point in
your life.’ (Walden University, 2019) I chose this goal because of the
relevance to my education and my student's education is extremely important to
me right now. What I am learning, and teaching is important right now. I
believe we need to stay relevant to all our goals.
I plan to accomplish these goals by being reflective in my
teaching and learning daily. I will work at keeping my introduction and
teaching specific and not get off the mark and following my lesson plans
without deviation. I have 90 minutes at most to get the meat of a lesson to my
students and out of those 90 minutes, I should not be lecturing for more than
20 minutes. Being specific and relevant is crucial.
So far in my courses, experience, and future interests, I have
been exposed to concepts that can assist me in aligning my teaching career and
my MSED specialization. Those concepts are, but not limited to current
experience, my courses at Walden University, specifically this course in
Technology. I chose this course study because of my observations in education
in just 4 years. Where I worked previously there was a lot of talk about
technology in the classroom. I found it to be talking, what was being promoted
was not being practiced.
Technology will only grow, and our students need to know the
basics and the specifics of navigating the technology they will be exposed
to.
** Comments from
Instructor addressed
Angela, it is great all that you are getting
out of this course. I am unclear if you included SMART goals. I know you
discuss them, but I could not locate actual goals. Each goal must include all 5
elements. There is an example below. Kathryn
SMART Example:
By May 2020, 90% of my students will
post one blog post per week (with at least 3
paragraphs) addressing the prompt they are provided.
Was this addressed?
·
As a result of your experience in your
courses, consider how the topics and concepts covered might align with an issue
that you might want to study. This should be a challenge or issue in your
professional practice that poses a dilemma. Remember, it must be something over
which you have control, impact P–12 student learning, and be related to your
MSED specialization. What is a topic you might consider developing into a
research question for an action research project for your upcoming major
assessments?
With my original document, I was unclear on my SMART Goals. I would like to address my mistake here by
setting some SMART Goals for myself as a reflection of my own educational work.
S – Specific
By November
2019 I will review all of my educational work to meet an 80% or higher with correct
detail in my writing.
M – Measurable
I will cross
check my documents for submission not only through Grammarly and other
available sources like Walden University Writing Lab. This goal will be measurable through a lack of detected
errors.
A – Attainable
Through time
management and support I am more than capable of attaining the grade I desire
and can achieve.
R – Relevant
My goals are
relevant (and important) to me. I have
set a goal of participating in the accelerated Graduate program and graduating
with my Master’s Degree on time.
T – Timely
This goal is
attainable in the time limit of the program, provided my performance in the required
courses are adequate and that I complete all required criteria for graduation.
References
Education, L. (Director). (2015a). Are Your Goals
S.M.A.R.T.? [Motion Picture]. Baltimore, MD.
Education, L. (Director). (2010). Teacher as
professional: The teaching profession [Motion Picture].
ISTE. (2019). ISTE: Standards for Students.
Retrieved from ISTE: https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students
Laureate Education, Inc. (2015). RWRCOEL Technology
Proficiencies. RWRCOEL Technology Proficiencies. Walden University.
Retrieved from https://class.content.laureate.net/2565b7a77954cee53d16c82a78cc0726.pdf
Laureate Education, Inc. (2016). RWRCOEL Professional
Disposition. RWRCOEL Professional Disposition. Walden University.
Retrieved from RWRCOEL Professional Disposition.
Pletka, B. (2007). Educating the Net Gerneration. Santa
Monica, California: Santa Monica Press.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other
Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks: Corwin, A Sage
Company.
Riverview Gardens School District. (2019). Digital Age
Teaching. Retrieved from Riverview Gardens School District:
http://www.rgsd.k12.mo.us/?PN=Pages&SubP=Level1Page&L=2&DivisionID=7747&DepartmentID=7649&PageID=23135
Walden University. (2019). ASC Success Strategies: SMART
Goals. Retrieved from Walden University:
https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/ASCsuccess/smartgoals
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