Since this chapter is jammed packed with a lot of valuable information, I will choose a few items to discuss.
As future teachers, I agree that we need to effectively “integrate technology into student learning (pg. 31).” The question is how to integrate the technology effectively without hindering other important forms of learning. Just the thought of learning these new tools well enough to incorporate them in a classroom setting frightens me a bit, however, I like the challenge it presents.
Knowing students come to school comfortable using the Internet and “knowledgeable about the web and its potential (pg. 31),” how knowledgeable are they? Do they have all the knowledge necessary to use the web to its fullest potential? Can the students effectively use the right procedures to safely use and evaluate what they discover on the web? Depending on each student’s prior knowledge and uniqueness, some may or may not know the procedures needed to safely use the Internet. That is where our role as educators comes into play. We should teach and model how to process and use information they come across wisely. By doing so, it allows us to grow as professionals and students to grow as learners.
Although there are many challenges faced by educators, one of the most prominent is standardized testing. Since the result on standardized testing sadly determines the amount of success educators have, it is hard to go beyond the traditional ways of teaching. This leads to “teaching to the test” which presents some danger of “narrowing instruction to the exclusion of anything more than test materials and “one is not measuring what really matters even if it will matter in the future (pg. 41).” This also leaves teachers who want to use technology in their classrooms in a bind. As a future teacher I know I will face the same situation, but I hope that I will be able take the challenge and find ways to support- in depth learning and increase students learning while providing them with skills to do well on standardized test. Many web 2.0 tools and resources can be helpful in doing so, but getting the administration and others to branch out and look beyond the cover of a book, so to speak, presents a whole other challenge.
I think teaching is an art. It requires a lot of hard work and skills among other things, but we can do it!!
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Dealing with the administration is probably one of the biggest challenges we will face. We come to teaching with idealism and ideas only to have to deal with the reality of keeping the administration happy. Can we do both? Perhaps we can meet half-way between our ideas of incorporating new ideas and technology and those of the administration and their expectations for us as teachers.
ReplyDeleteYou brought ups several good questions that I am sure as educators that we need to address. The problem is that since students are coming into school being comfortable with using the Web they might feel it is not necessary to be taught how to use the internet. Right off the bat the teacher has to let the students know there are procedures to follow when using the Web. I agree with your comment that both parties involved (the teacher and the students) grow as learners.
ReplyDeleteI am not familiar with the standardized testing in public schools. I am aware of some form of testing near the end of the year for every grade level. I am afraid that is where educators sometimes fall into the rut of teaching to test instead of teaching to learn the way our textbook talks about. I pray that by taking this course we will not fall into that trap of teaching.
I agree the nice thing about Web 2.0 is that there is versatility and creative ways to draw the students into critical advanced orders of thinking. Reporting to administrators is one of the hardest obstacles that a new teacher has to overcome. I am glad to see that you are up to the challenge.
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