Integrating Technology

When it comes to integrating technology into a lesson, whether old or new, it definitely brings some new energy and excitement for teaching it.  The same can be said whenever an exciting new idea jumps into a teacher's head on how to teach a concept to his or her students.  For me, I feel that there is most-definitely a reason to keep a tight grasp on my level of excitement.  Control...plain and simple, control.  Call it paranoia, call it negativity, call it realistic, call whatever you want, but when you are up in front of 24 students and things aren't working, you will understand where I may be coming from. 

The first main area where control becomes a concern is with the reliability of our technology.  Planning a whole lesson, activity, or project around technology could be risky.  Internet connections, log-in issues, and software updates always seem to pop up around us and take time to fix (sometimes too long).  So the question when planning is, "How much "back-up" planning do I need to do if something doesn't work?"  By no means do I want to double-plan a lesson "just-in-case" something doesn't work, however, there have been more than enough times when things aren't working correctly and I felt as though I was standing there with a big spotlight shining on me while my brain quickly decided how we were going to switch gears.  It isn't that this is always a big deal, we are teachers, and this is what we do.  However, looking ahead at my class for next year, and knowing that I have several students who have needs that require a good deal of modification and who also don't always do well with sudden changes, it makes me a bit more cautious...or maybe nervous.

Being able to control things/fix things when issues come into play is the second area where control comes into play.  I completely understand that I am not the only teacher in my district, and while I may think that the issues that I may be currently experiencing are the MOST important and should be taken to the top of the to-do list, in the big picture, may not be.  But to a teacher who has spent time planning and organizing, prepping and building up his/her own excitement for the lesson, an unexpected technical issue can be a HUGE deal.  One of the current frustrations at our school is that the issues that seem to impact students the most, are put on the back burner, while the problems that, while very important, don't impact them as much, get taken care of with more immediate attention.  This is not to sound like a whiny teacher, but rather, one that would like a little information on why some of the problems that seem simple to solve, seem to take forever to actually get solved. 

I may have digressed a bit from the original question, and aside from the impression that the tone of this post may have given off, I really enjoy using and having my students use technology whenever possible and find it to supply great benefit to student learning.

InTime Lesson

The InTime Lesson that I looked at fits right in with a third grade science unit on relationships of living things.  It involves using KidPix Delux (or any other kid-friendly presentation software) with student groups who are each given a specific habitat and requiring them to do research, apply creative thinking to design a presentation, show their knowledge of a computer program (after being taught and given an opportunity to practice), and to apply the concepts that were previously taught to them during the whole class lessons.  I always feel as though I have to start from scratch and completely create a project in order to include technology in my lessons.  This site was a breath of fresh air because I was able to access well-written and thoroughly detailed plans that needed little or no adjustment to fit immediately into my current curriculum and plans.  I found this to be a very straight-forward, simplistic way to get help from other educators without having to sort through poorly written and confusing plans or plans that require many edits due to differences in curriculum and/or a lack of similar resources. 

Spreadsheets in the Classroom

It is a bit ironic that this is a topic of our class right now because over the last year or so, requiring the use of spreadsheets in the classroom (particularly third grade) has been an ongoing area of disagreement.  Our district has been looking at the technology standards and what activities are currently being done within our curriculum.  We are then going to look at the gaps and fill them in with activities that integrate technology into the curriculum.  Expecting third grade students to master the skill of using a spreadsheet is one that I don't necessarily agree with.  I know that more often than not, when students need to make and use a graph or set of data, it will be with computer software, however, I still think that there is a need for them to master using paper/pencil graphs and charts first.  Having to take the extra steps to organize, plan, and construct helps them understand the concept and process more than often comes with using software programs to do so.  This includes spreadsheets.  I can see how I could use a spreadsheet to have students look at going shopping on a budget.  But I would want them to be responsible for computing the math themselves, not just using the tools from the program.  I have also thought about having the students use a spreadsheet to fill in their reading calendars and even to set one up for the summer months.  As an adult myself, I don't finding myself using spreadsheets all that often, which is probably one of the driving factors to why I don't see it as one of the more necessary skills for my students to posses at this time in their lives.  With the amount of time that I am able to get into our school labs, working on spreadsheets falls far down the list.

Having High, but Reasonable, Expectations

There were several components of this week's class that I am interested in adding to my curriculum plans. Using online word processing tools are one of the biggest interests that I have.  My interest with incorporating this started when I was introduced to GoogleDocs during our first course, and after this past week, I am even more interested in trying to make it work.  My main concern with this is how to facilitate this, since a log-in is required for these tools and programs to work.  And as much as I am excited to get my kids started with this experience, I have to play "devil's advocate" and say that I have some concerns.  My biggest concern has to be with the fact that it isn't realistic or fair for me to expect all of my students and families to have a home computer with internet access.  Each year there are a few families in our grade that don't have these things available to them for instant or quick access.  I also don't think that it is fair to expect them to go to the library or other access site to do a home practice activity or other assigned task.  I hope that I will be able to sort out some of these conflicts as I develop ways to use them more clearly and define the objectives, as well as what options there are for students who may have access difficulties. 

Onto The Next...

As the start of a new class is upon us, I am refreshed and ready to dive into the new material.  I enjoy using technology with my students and being able to introduce and expose them to new experiences and opportunities for learning with technology.  However, since my kiddos are quite young and their experience with technology covers a huge range, it can be a bit intimidating to take on these type of activities and projects.  Right now, our school is looking at how technology can be integrated into science and social studies as we evaluate and redo the curriculum plans for those subject areas.  We have come up with some awesome ideas, now it just sitting down and getting the details and expectations worked out. 

I can think of numerous ways to integrate the tools that we looked at for creating graphics and developing presentations.  I am planning on taking a lot of time this summer to integrate a presentation program that was introduced by Kristy into reading activities that focus on characters and their traits or the story elements, along with others that come up throughout this course.

So Long, Farewell...

While I am appreciative to have had the experiences that this class offered, I cannot say that I will miss the pressures and anxiety of being so outside my comfort zone when it came to technology.  The amount of new vocabulary was the biggest cause for frustration because without it, you couldn't completely understand the concepts, but because there were so many new words, simply understanding their meanings became the primary focus. 

I am sure that in time some of the material will resurface and I will be able to pull from my background knowledge, created by this course. 

Back It Up!

There was a lot of new information that I got out of last week's class.  While  I was always aware of anti-virus software and the need for it, I don't know that I gave it the attention and appreciation that it deserved.  Back when I used a PC laptop, my understanding of what my responsibilities were for keeping my equipment safe and secure was very naive.  I had Norton Anti-Virus software installed on my computer and ran it weekly, and even had spyware software installed.  However, I don't think that I really understood what my responsibilities were, after the software had run and done it's job.  I absolutely have a better understanding of what my role is in keeping my computer protected and how that is supposed to work.

The one piece of information that I am really implementing into my life, effective immediately, are my backup procedures.  I have been doing a much better job backing up my documents and files on an external hard drive on a more regular schedule, as well as using an online storage service (Dropbox).  Using Dropbox has provided me with a huge sense of comfort, knowing that I can simply drag a document into the folder and the cloud technologies allow me to access that document instantly on any other computer that has Dropbox downloaded or has access to the Internet, so that I can log on to my account.  I am very grateful to have learned about these topics in more detail and at a time in my life where I can appreciate them and understand the impact of losing certain material.