SECTION II Technology in Action

       In the past, the communication tools that were used between schools and their districts were slow, expensive and most were not effective. It was only as it began using computer technology that started the development of new changes with more effective communication between schools and districts. These changes brought drastic reductions of phone calls from school and districts, reducing the internal mail, reducing long waits to receive feedback or information between schools and districts. According to Picciano these new changes brought innovative ideas on using different tools such as “databases to manage data and information, electronic spreadsheets to manage and manipulate numerical data and office automation to manage text and communications”(p.54). On the other hand, although these tools are very effective and beneficial for communication, data collection and analysis, many teachers and school staff often do not use them, some for lack of training or simply because they are unaware of their proper use. For example, I can say that in my school most teachers do not use these tools, most prefer to use the telephone as a means of communication between the school and the district or the internal mail, few teachers use spreadsheets for record keeping of students' grades. Most prefer to use the grade book. On occasions the lack of training and improper use of these tools is creating a deficiency in the data-driven decision making. According to Picciano "all of them need to be trained and brought together to use the information resources that will help them make informed decision" (p.74). Many of the problems of data-driven decision making has to do with reflection, misuse of the various technological tools and the lack of effective reasoning to solve the problem. According to Jonassen, 2006, "the more complex the problem, the more sophisticated the causal reasoning must be" (p.61).

       The innovation of the Internet and various software have created a effective growth of the use of technology in the classroom. According to Hanson-Smith and Rilling, 2006 " computers and other electronic technologies have come to permeate many daily activities" (p.1). Because of these technological advances our students are making use of these tools forcing the different school districts and schools to integrate technology as a teaching method in the classroom. According to Picciano "teacher and students are discovering that data communications systems are becoming a major technology to support teaching and learning" (P135). The good use of technology as a tool for the classroom greatly benefit different learning styles of students according to the multiple intelligence theory of Howard Gardner, 1983. For me, technology has changed not only the traditional education to a constructivist education that emphasizes the development of critical thinking in students, but has broken barriers to learning such as the online classes where students can take courses through a computer from home facilities, etc. The creation of these online courses has created the disappearance of television courses, correspondence courses. As to whether also a decrease in physical enrollment of the students in the different universities and a decrease of students in different school libraries because they can access the different sources of information from the library of his school as well as different web side and information links from any computer.

       This change in education has highlighted the importance of taking the teaching and learning outside the classroom to meet the different student’s needs. According to Picciano "online learning activities can be synchronous that can be immediate interactions between teacher and students and students with students" (p.163) or can be "asynchronous perhaps the significant development in distant learning consisting by using a computer networking technology to Provide instruction at any place and any time for example WebCT "(p.164). Both online learning activities foster collaboration among students.

       Lastly, Wiersma (2008) posits that technology could be a powerful tool to help students establish a personal connection with the information being taught and foster collaboration among students. Furthermore, "this connection allowed learning to become more meaningful learning for the students, and as a result, students internalized more concepts, which is consistent with research on best practice" (p. 115). Collaboration can be fostered with the use different tools to motivate the students. In this regard, collaboration is essential because it turn students into activate participants of the process rather than passive recipients of information. For example, blogs, Wikis, Vokis, You Tube video and Podcasts can be incorporated to make the class more fun, interactive and collaborative. These activities promote more interaction in class and at the same time provide immediate feedback, which is a plus.

       On the other hand, the use of the Internet not only benefit students but also the teachers because they bring new ideas to motivate and engage the student in their learning process. According to Picciano "for educators, the Internet provide a pedagogically valuable array of skill activities such as writing, reading, and research, as well as a content-rich resource for culture, science, current events, and so forth" (p. 145).

       The innovation of the Internet has been rather beneficial to the teaching and learning process, but the most controversial issues in the discussion of this section II was the use of the Internet in the classroom and how this information is protected. According to Picciano "the Internet lacks oversight and supervision, and unfortunately, predators be they sexual, commercial, deviant, or hate mongering actively seek out impressionable young people”(p.148). Security of information is the most important for the Department of Education, government, school staff and our society. Although part of the teaching process in the classroom has been affected by the lack of access to the Internet, students have acquired knowledge through the different sources of information as Youtube that teach them how to unlock the security access in the schools. This has arisen because of different technological equipment with Internet access that students bring to school. The computer security problem affects not only the teacher and student in the classroom but also affects the online courses and the different browsers of the Internet networks. A good example of this is when there is a program, which you trust and have “ hakers” trying to get in that is why we need to protect our technological tools from the different computer viruses. I think the most important thing is to continually educate students through various sources such as video, professional speakers, etc on the use and handling of the different sources of information provided by the Internet. This information should come to the student depending on grade level because the student motivation and engagement are essential elements for effective teaching, but also for academic success.

    

References:

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences.

New York: Basic Books.

Hanson-Smith and Rilling, (2006). Learning language through technology,

Virginia:Tesol.

Jonassen, D. H. (2006). Modeling with technology: Mindtools for conceptual change

(3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson.

Picciano, A.G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Wiersma, A. (2008). A study of the teaching methods of high school history teachers. 
The Social Studies, May/Jun, 111-116.

Secure My Cyberspace

http://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/secure/index.html

http://www.securemycyberspace.com/

Training missions

http://www.carnegiecyberacademy.com/missions.html

How to get around website blockers at school

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SCsN0t3puc&feature=related

How to get around website blockers at school

Reflection of Section I Basic Concepts and Foundations

       In this first section the author presents the importance of connecting teaching and learning through the use of technology, which benefits the different students in developing their knowledge through their learning process. This comes as a benefit in the innovation of the Internet as a technological tool. Which developed the interest in connecting the teachers into the different technological media as part of an educational vision, which emphasizes the importance of implementing the application of technology to their daily work plan. In order to improve the education in our school systems, because they began to observe that students take more knowledge skills using the computer outside of school. This change brought as a goal to connect teachers to the various modern digital communications systems, which to my understanding had to be adapted to different educational philosophies.

       On the other hand, the impact of the reductions of the costs of this software developed that schools and teachers can acquire this tools to innovate and develop new teaching and learning techniques according to the different students’ needs to make a class more prosperous and meaningful. Technology is a tool that help to meet the different learning styles of the students to enrich their academic achievement such as students with different backgrounds (digital divide issues) which through its projects they can be creative using different tools and video that where they can create storytelling, etc.

       These new teaching techniques are used by the teachers as a result of their reflections made by the use of the technology in the classroom, which also helps to evaluate the student and self-evaluation as a teacher. This reflection and new teaching techniques also help teachers to share their ideas with peers from which they can receive feedback. According to Picciano "collaboration also allows others to understand a plan, a goal, or a course of action and the purposes behind it" (p.19). This makes me understand the teaching-learning process will be increasingly impacted by the various technological changes.

      This will require the teacher to begin to acquire new knowledge in the use of various technological tools. Recognizing that technology came first to the administrative area and then to the classroom, but today the Internet network come first to the classroom by the student and not by the Department of Education. As my classmates and I have mentioned in the discussion board they don’t have access to the majority of Internet sources in their school weakening classroom teaching. I think the biggest obstacle we are facing today in our schools is the lack of Internet network and not the technology equipment.

       In my personal experiences the use of technology in the classroom helps teachers break the barriers of traditional teaching methods. It also facilitates the integration of innovative teaching strategies that are helpful in increasing student's motivation and academic engagement because it makes material more relevant to them. In turn, this would also foster the development of critical thinking skills, since students feel they are active participants in their learning, have the opportunity to critique what they are learning, and move it beyond the classroom walls. Nowadays, students are expected to search different sources that will help them to answer their questions. In this case, technology plays a very important role in providing access to information.

Reference

Picciano, A.G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Connecting teaching and learning through the use of technology

The new technology in our classroom