Educational Technology Philosophy (Rough Draft)

I want to inspire my students to enjoy learning, but just as importantly, I want to partner with their parents to raise their children with values like kindness, respect, and honor. I believe when we are all living with this in mind, then limitations fade and there is no end to where our minds will take us and what we can accomplish. But I think today we may be losing sight of these values because technology has isolated us and we no longer relate to each other with all of our senses. Children are easily assimilated into ever advancing waves of technology, leaving some parents and teachers feeling bewildered and unsure of how to engage with, and guide their children through this confusing and sometimes dangerous world. These technology advances have in a sense raced off full speed ahead with our children in hand while blindsiding our parents and teachers.

Today children are divided by age and placed in classrooms for 13 years to learn the curriculum set before them. Some limitations faded when technologies, especially computers, were introduced into the schools. I not only want to use the technology we have in the ways the teachers are being trained, but I want to use the technology in the ways the students are learning and using them too. However, I'm not stopping there. I want to do my best to remove the limitation that says curriculum and rules are taught in school, and how you live your life and serve those around you is taught at home. I want to blend these two worlds together by bringing parents and the community to the classroom, and enthusiasm to learn, respect for authorities, and problem solving skills to the home. If I can inspire and engage my students and parents, then a seed will have been planted and a lasting connection will have been made. I believe people of all ages long for connection. When these connections are made, I know my students will come to class with enthusiasm, ready to share their thoughts with respect, and embrace learning.

In my classroom I think I will take beliefs from the Reconstructivism school of thought where I would engage my students to get involved in our community, nation, and world and not only learn from it but apply what they have already learned. Connecting via a computer, video camera, and microphone with a boy or girl half way around the world and asking them what they are learning in their math class would be exciting. For me to connect to their teacher would be even more exciting. We would all inspire each other! I think it’s going to be difficult to move away from the Realism school of thought because this is what we all know. When in doubt, stand up at the front of the class and teach the next math concept from the book. I’m sure almost every day in the lesson book will be based on this way of teaching because this is what feels most comfortable. I want to challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone each day in my classroom and broaden my students' knowledge as well as my own. This leads me into the school of thought which I relate to the most which is Pragmatism. I believe education is life. I believe we are always learning and enriching our knowledge about the world around us, and we can not do this alone. We must collaborate with each other, mold our beliefs, problem solve, and improve each and every day.

I believe the Pragmatism school of thought allows limitations to continue to fade. It allows me to teach in a variety of ways using all different tools and mediums. I believe it is necessary to change up my teaching styles and methods and think outside the box to engage my students. But I also think it is necessary to do so in order for my students to stay engaged and approach problems from multiple angles. We’ll solve math problems which we can all relate to, learn cool math tricks, engage with others outside the classroom walls, and even have one of the students be teacher for the day!

Our children need to be inspired and our teachers and parents need to partner together. Alan November writes that we need to invest in collegiality, and make thoughts like "these are my students in my classroom" disappear. Limitations of past routines need to be erased and communication lines need to multiply between teachers, between teachers and their students, and between teachers and parents in order for optimal advancement to occur.

How is having your philosophy down in writing helpful to you?

Times are ever changing with new teaching ideas and concepts, new technology advances, my own growth and learning, and society in general. With these changes taking place, having my educational technology philosophy written down and readily accessible allows me to capture my thoughts in the current time and then allows me to revisit it at a later time.

People get caught up in a daily routine (or rut) that maybe they themselves didn’t choose. And by having my thoughts captured in a carefully thought out philosophy, I will be able to remind myself of the ideas I captured and then choose to realign my goals to my original vision. In addition, after time passes, I will be able to incorporate new ideas that I have encountered, thus making my philosophy more like a living organism.  And doing so will allow me, my students, and the educational system to advance.

Reflection on Stephen Downes' article on Educational Blogging

I am someone who enjoys solving puzzles, working with my hands, helping those around me in my community, and listening to music. So on the flipside, I do NOT enjoy reading or writing of any sort in my spare time. After reading Stephen Downes’ article and Will Richardson’s point of view about blogging, I began to question why this might be. I completely get Richardson’s point that assigned blogging in schools is contrived. And once school is over, the “students drop blogging like wet cement.” Wow, this was my thought exactly when it came to reading assigned novels and articles and then being forced to write papers about what I had read. And beyond that, I was expected to be passionate and write something creative when I knew all along that this was just going to be judged by one person as an assignment for a grade. So when school was over, either for the day or for the year, I dropped books and writing “like wet cement!” How can we expect creative and passionate writing in a school setting...at least from the students who are not naturally creative and passionate about reading and writing like me? I am willing to try blogging cautiously in my math classroom. I could post cool puzzles or neat math tricks which I have come across, but I would not make responding to my blog posts a grade and I frankly would not expect my students to respond. I would give them the opportunity to respond, but if they felt like this was a boring math assignment, then my blog would be a failure and their enthusiasm would be diminished.

Reflection on Alan November's article 'Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning'

Coming from the Corporate IT world as a Quality Assurance Analyst for more than 11 years and for most of those years being the team lead, collaboration and team work were a way of life, at least amongst the IT teams. I not only had to collaborate with my own teammates, but with other teams as well, such as the Development teams and Business Analyst teams for each of our applications. Over the past 3 years, the company started integrating vended applications with two or more of our in house applications. This was a daunting task and the company struggled throughout the entire process. After one and a half years of integrating a new third party application, the company threw the project in the trash. Needless to say I wasn’t very happy; I believe the project was thrown in the trash because each team had their own idea as to what the finished project should look like and no one was sharing their ideas until the delivery date. In other words, collaboration outside the IT department was nowhere to be found.

This reminds me of the traditional tree swing cartoon which illustrates the marketing, sales, engineering, manufacturing, field service teams’ ideas and how they are all different from not only one another but from what the customer wanted in the first place. There’s evidence that this cartoon was circulating in UK offices since the 1960’s, and so after fifty or more years, this cartoon still hangs in Corporate IT cubicles today. It infuriates me that we haven’t caught on yet and learned!

Due in part to these experiences, I certainly agree with Alan November’s last point that the “best thing to invest in right now is collegiality.” The groups in the education world noted in the article (i.e. the trainers, the teachers, and the students) should not be isolated nor collaborate only among themselves. If we never collaborate with one another and live in our isolated boxes, then Education will follow the Corporate IT mistake pointed out above. I think Corporate IT and Education understand that we need to collaborate amongst ourselves in our own teams (trainers with other trainers, teachers with other teachers, students with other students). But we can advance so much further if we collaborate together and stretch beyond our own team and bring everyone into the same room. I love the idea of bringing two or three students in for training right alongside their teacher. Students will probably catch on quicker and have insights that never cross the teacher’s minds; and therefore, will be able to drive the new idea/technology forward where it needs to go without being hindered by old routine. I think our educators and education will surpass our expectations if we do as November says and practice collegiality!

Concept Map explaining my understanding/definition of the field of educational technology

What are some of your expectations for the class?

In the time since I was a student, technology has advanced a great deal. There are many opportunities as well as pitfalls to be faced in harnessing this technology for educational purposes. I hope to learn some valuable lessons and ideas from those who have gone before me. But since I have never worked in the education system and have never been a teacher before, I’m not quite sure what to list as my expectations. This class has already exceeded my expectations because I was not expecting to enjoy the assigned readings and writings. I am excited to say I have already learned new ideas that I would have never thought of if I had not taken this class and read Stephen Downes’ and Alan November’s articles. Both of which intrigued me and kept me reading. I’m now excited to read other articles that will teach me more new ideas and skills!