I found our assigned reading for last week's class dry and frankly, boring. It was basically a literature review of many articles written about integrating technology into the K-12 classroom. The title said that it offered recommendations for future research. So, in my cynical view, this paper talked about everyone else's research and then said we need more research. I did not find the authors' suggestions for improving technology integration revolutionary. In fact, anyone who has taught in a classroom already knows most of the authors' points: provide technological resources for teachers and classrooms and in-depth support, provide more time for collaborative planning, change how we assess our kids, provide teachers with practical, subject-specific ways to utilize technology in the classroom, lengthen class periods and lessen the numbers of kids in the classroom. Yes. We know this. Now, let's do those things. How? How is always the question. Evidently we need more research. (sigh)
I was pleasantly surprised to find that this text produced a very engaging class discussion. My cynicism was kept in check by other people pointing out positive things they'd learned from the article. That helped me view the paper in a more generous light. In addition, we brought up some things from the article that could be used in the classroom right now. The authors suggested using student experts to help with technological difficulties in the classroom. This has been going on since I was in high school over 20 years ago. Why is this a new idea? At my high school, the tech kids helped the teachers show filmstrips, slides, and movies. When I taught 12 years ago, my AV kids came in to help me get the VCR to talk to the departmental television we wheeled from class to class. They also brought me tape players and microphones when we used them to play music and record speeches. So in my mind, this is an old idea--kids are always at the forefront on any technology. This has always been true. My teenage cousin had to teach me how to use my IPod and ITunes several years ago. My 7-year-old daughter manages the four remote controls for her grandfather when he comes to visit. So it stands to reason to expect that I would have some techno-savy students who could help me operate my smartboard or upload class podcasts to our class website.
Speaking of podcasts, that's our assignment for this week. I've had fun with this--I've written a modern-script of the first book of Homer's Odyssey. I plan for my husband and kids to read their "parts" (if the kids will stop fighting over who gets to be Athena) into my webcam, add music, and create my first podcast. My brain has been churning with ideas of how to make this into an assignment for my future students. Roughly speaking, I plan to assign a group of them a few books of the reading at a time to make into podcasts. We could upload them to our class website, and then the kids could listen to them to study for the test. Possible. However, it does bring up one of the questions from my class discussion: will the kids actually listen to the podcasts? Many won't. They'll do the assignment in order to get the grade, and then they will forget it. But some of them might use it for further study. Just like some of them used to use my study guides and most did not.
Thinking about old ideas being recycled into new technology reminded me of an interesting experience I had during my teacher training in Texas. As part of our certification program, we had to "pass" a technology/media training course. In order to do so, we were shown different types of technology such as slides, overheads, and VHS players, and we had to explain to the graduate student "grading" us how we would use such advanced technology in our future classrooms. Then, for the culminating activity, we had to design and create a poster using dye cuts, lamination, and cutting machines. This poster was the make or break item of our "grade." I remember worrying so much about my poster (which, by the way, I NEVER used in my actual classroom) and working very hard on it. The graduate student in charge had a sudden, violent dislike to both my poster and myself. She just screamed about how it was the worst use of technology she'd ever seen, and she knew I would be a terrible teacher. This was, of course, a fantastic ego boost for me. There are few times in my life when I have been rendered speechless, but this was one of them. I just stared at her. Stunned. I learned later, after complaining about her wild outburst to her professor, that the girl suffered from a mental condition. Anyway, it's funny now to even consider a poster as "technology." Our world has changed so quickly!
Now off to figure out my podcast. It took me an hour just to work out how to download the free software from the Internet, so this should be interesting.
Jess
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