Week 2- Literature Review-"The Right Tools for the Right Job"

   

Course Outcomes/Objectives:
Theses are the particular objectives this Webinar touched upon.

1. Demonstrate the understanding of how technologies can effectively promote student learning
2. Evaluate and use a variety of current technologies to enhance content instruction and to advance students technological literacy
4. Reflect upon and demonstrate effective use of digital tools and resources

               Webinars, which can either be live or prerecorded, are a very useful tool to learn about different collaborative influences within any professional landscape, but especially the educational landscape.  The organization, SimpleK12, posted a wonderful webinar in which their keynote speaker was a man by the name of Steven Anderson.  The webinar was entitled "The Right Tools for the Right Job: 30 Tools in 50 Minutes".  If you would like to listen, please click on this link  http://www.simplek12.com/tlc/h07321od .  Steven works mainly within the Winston-Salem District, and describes himself as a technologist, educator, speaker, blogger and social media user.  Steven presented very important and useful information about technological tools within the web 2.0 world.

                Web 2.0 is the quintessential form of mass collaboration.  As the free tools within web 2.0 grow, so do the demands that make the curriculum and content, in which you are teaching, more enhanced and more interesting.  This is the basic message in which Steven delivered during his webinar.  He described seven main categories of tools, which he mentioned meet the requirements for the right tool, the right time, the right job and the right people.  These seven categories include Images, Audio/Video, Presentation, Collaboration, Organizing Thoughts, Chat/ Backchannel and Essentials.  Within these categories, he mentioned multiple free online platforms by which you can use to meet specific needs and requirements.

                There was a diverse audience for this particular webinar.  A poll was taken at the beginning of the hour long presentation, and it stated that 60% of the participants were teachers, 15% were Librarians/ Media Coordinators, 10% were Directors of different departments, 12% of participants described themselves as “Other” and surprisingly, only 3% were individuals in administrative type roles.  In terms of feedback after the webinar, everyone had a very positive experience, and in some instances, people even posted other helpful links to tools in relation to what Steven mentioned.

                This webinar was a wonderful presentation relating to learning through technology in the classroom, because that is exactly what it was about.  It was specifically a presentation of how web 2.0 can be used to collaborate, and enhance lessons presented to a class in a way that directly correlates to the 21^st.  In terms of a variety of different technologies, this was mainly narrowed down to web based technologies.  Some of the platforms in which Steven dove into can be used on different tablets and phones as well. 

                Steven outlined many tools within each of the seven sections.  He outlined different photo manipulation and search engine websites, as well as speaking of the benefits of using Skype.  He mentioned that PB Works and Wikispaces were excellent in class collaboration tools for teachers to set up with their students.  Creative Commons is an online concept which he described as both a resource for presentations and collaborations.  It allows educators to search for images and material that they can use, without worrying about copyright issues.  This is an extremely useful collaborative tool.

                All of these tools can be used in a number of different ways to spice up the content that is being taught in the classroom.  However, most important of all, if understood and used properly, it can give the educator an extra pair of hands in the classroom, and furthermore, tailor their instruction to meet the needs of each student.  In addition, educators can become more efficient with these web 2.0 tools,  by interacting with other educators around the country and the world for that matter by using a number of different outlets, including Skype, different webinar resources, and various chat rooms.

                In relation to enacting these different tools within everyday lesson plans, it is without a doubt a tool that does not need to even be thought about, when deciding if you should implement it or not.  In a classroom where the teacher covers American History, many of the image manipulation tools in which Steven outlined, could be used to create different images that bring the students into the history, and the history out to the students.  Maybe, for instance, the teacher has the students create their own Bill of Rights, and to do this, they need to collaborate with each other using Wikispaces.  Once the final draft of the Bill of Rights is submitted to the teacher, the teacher can then scan the document, and using one of the image manipulating sites, create an old timey document.  This is just one of a number of ways an educator could implement these web 2.0 technologies into the classroom.
                 After listening to what this webinar, and Steven Anderson had to offer, it only makes sense that the benefits of web 2.0 need to be used to its full potential.  Now, Anderson only outlined 30 different free resources on the web, but in terms of free and paid, there are thousands.  Within those thousands, the most significant common denominator is collaboration, and if collaboration goes on regularly along with implementation of online tools for the everyday classroom, there is no saying what educators will be able to achieve within their classrooms.  In concluding,  it seems as though teachers are on board, and jumping on board with web 2.0 benefits everyday.  However, the administrators seem to be reluctant.  Hopefully, as administrators see the positive impact these tools will have on students, more and more web 2.0 tools will be implemented in the classroom.  This is the future of education, and knowing the tools necessary to get the job done, will be the key to making or breaking a good teacher.

                

Week 1 - Blog - Evolutionary Dependency?

 In 1984 James Cameron came out with a little filmed called "The Terminator".  In the film, technology becomes so advanced that it ends up becoming self aware, and seeing the human race as essentially a virus that it needs to terminate for its own survival.  This all transpires because technology grew so big so fast without integrating and understanding this technology in everyday lives.  Now, currently, we are nowhere near that disastrous and bleak future, but it does not mean that there are not signs that could lead to a similar outcome.  In the video "A Vision of K-12 Students Today", you would have to be blind not to see the dire consequences of not tightening up the bolts around a suitable 21st century educational infrastructure.  There exists a comparison between integrating technology into the 21^st century classroom, and the plot of "The Terminator”.  It may seem totally unrelated, but is it really that crazy of a comparison?  We have the potential and know how to create, but we keep creating without taking into full account, the effects on our everyday lives.  Like it or not, technology is an integral part of the world in which we live, and we really have two choices, integrate technology into the classroom, and use it to help the human race evolve, or keep going with old and outdated ways, because, and this is an assumption, there exists fear within the older academic community of these unknown technological ingenuities that exist to excel us as a species, and possibly bring the world to a better place in the cosmos.

History teaches us that you can only use a technique, and a way of doing something for so long before it becomes outdated, and starts to work against you.  The telephone, for instance, or the automobile are two examples of technological advancements that gave the world two similar choices like the choices laid out before us today.  It is extremely possible that similar feelings were felt by the masses when those two technological advancements were introduced to the people.  Just imagine what the world would be like, if the world did not integrate those things.  In addition, the invention and integration of the printing press hundreds of years before, would not have allowed automobiles and telephones to spread knowledge, and current events like they did.  In many instances, with similar opinions, integrating newly developed technologies into the classroom can have the same historical significance as the printing press, telephone and automobile.

It is integral to our survival as a species that we familiarize our students with technology.  The only way to know that we are familiarizing them with technology is to use it in the classroom.  This does not mean we have to change the subject material in order to use technology, on the contrary.  It means that more subject areas and more material can be covered more efficiently.  In the end, this will help students learn at the speed in which they are already getting used to, and that is the immediate, instant gratification of finding something out, right away.  It is not their fault that the world is changing, so why punish them?  This is the future that is laid out before us, so what are we going to do?