TIE536_Learning Theories: Who Cares?

I’ve never been one to sit around pondering the process of learning. Theories, pedagogies ... initially it makes me think that the people who spend time studying and writing about this stuff are not people who actually enjoy being in front of a room full of kids. They like to spend time doing ‘important research’, but really can’t hack it in the classroom. I’m not much of an academic, and have been able to be somewhat successful teaching from my gut. So the thought of actually spending time studying these things makes me want to jam an ice pick into my ear. But it turns out I actually have employed many of these pedagogies--I just have never articulated them as such. Having realized this, I’m turning over a new leaf.

As I grow as an educator, I’m seeing more of the differences in the students in my classroom, and I’m more in tune to the fact that I need a variety of teaching approaches to reach my students. I realize that the more I understand different teaching methods and can consciously employ their strategies, the more effective I will be in creating meaningful learning experiences for my students.

TIE536_Technology In Schools Report

I found the “Technology in Schools Report” to be an interesting read. As I think about my own school situation, we are dramatically behind the technology curve of the surrounding west suburban high schools. It causes me to think about exactly how much is technology integrated into the daily education of our students. We’ve got a great physical plant: a huge building project was completed two years ago that created 47 new classrooms, a multipurpose and dividable classroom or meeting space, a ‘commons’ area for students, new administrative offices, two large instrumental music rooms and a large field house. This addressed the overcrowding issues in classrooms and cafeteria, and also improved the instructional and performance environments for our instrumental music and athletic programs. Our school is immaculate in appearance, but has this all put us in a position to do a better job of preparing our students for life after grade 12?

It certainly has made my school a more pleasant ‘place’ to come each day. However, the fact is that we are still missing a big piece of the educational puzzle: the integration of technology into the curriculum. We face two primary barriers to effective technology integration. First, as stated in the article, is the “the lack of access to reliable, up-to-date technology.” Second is the lack of teacher knowledge and confidence in using technology to enhance their lessons, much less integrate it into the curriculum.

Although my school has a number of computer labs available to students, only two of them have computers that are less than three years old. These labs are specifically dedicated to technology-driven classes and are not available to other classes on a reserve basis. The computers in the other labs have been maxed out on their memory, and are limited by the slow processing speed. The addition of two new laptop carts with 16 laptops each has helped address this issue, but I fear they are being under-utilized. The teacher workstations in most classrooms are older, with slow processors and low amounts of memory. This presents an initial barrier in terms of the ability of an individual teacher to use their prep time to develop any activities that could be integrated into the curriculum. The teacher workstations need to be upgraded to provide equipment with which it is reasonable to create new educational tools and experiences.

Secondly, there is a low level of teacher confidence in integrating technology into the curriculum on a regular basis. Some teachers have begun to venture into this arena on an occasional basis, but the reality is that more professional development in this area is needed. Currently, our administration has started a ‘Tech Time’ program of presentations by the faculty, which can be attended on your prep period. The presenters are given the day off and a sub is provided so that they can present throughout the day. However, attendees must give up their own free time to take advantage of the opportunity. In my opinion, our district needs to be more supportive of this, and use teacher institute days to provide exposure to the different ways to integrate technology into their curriculum.

TIE536_Meaningful Learning

The strongest concept I took from Monday night’s discussion on meaningful learning was the idea of making connections to prior learning and reshaping it. It was clear from the concept map constructed that there are many factors that affect meaningful learning, not the least of which is taking the time to examine the idea closely enough to try to define it.

In doing some extra reading on the topic, I found Judith Boettcher’s examination of the “Ah-Ha experience” interesting and pertinent to this discussion. Her analysis of this experience identifies it as occurring when "the new higher concepts in turn transform the meaning of the lower." She continues by talking about concept experiences, and concludes that “concept can happen when a magnet suddenly organizes lots of bits and bytes. Insight when bits, bytes suddenly are drawn in, attached to existing concept.” Being a visually-oriented person, I love the magnet analogy! I think we’ve all had Ah-Ha moments ourselves, but I thoroughly enjoy it when I observe this happening with one of my students—the moment when all the pieces fall together. The challenge of differentiating instruction is to figure what bits and bytes of knowledge will connect for any given student; or for that matter, figuring out what kind of magnet to use that will attract the right previous learning experiences in the right order to pull the picture together.

I’m paying more attention these days to working on expanding my repertoire of teaching approaches, using a variety of teaching styles, media types and collaborative learning situations to keep it interesting for the students, but also attempting to find the magnet that works for each student. The journey continues.

SOURCES:
Boettcher, Judith V. “Designing for Learning.” 2006. 2 Oct. 2008. http://www.designingforlearning.info/index.htm.

TIE536_Curriculum: What's It All About?

I found my mind wandering back to our discussion of curriculum last Monday. I have always approached how I think about ‘curriculum’ from the traditional viewpoint: an individual course or course of study, approved by a board of education, that leads to a degree or certificate—curriculum in the overt or explicit sense. But it’s quite obvious that there are many other factors at play that are in a very real way a part of every curriculum. The societal curriculum plays a very big role at my school in Wheaton, which might be best know for its unofficial claim as having the most churches per capita in the U.S.A. The hidden curriculum is alive and well at my school—the principal is very ‘hands-on’ and has certain expectations about the behavior within each classroom that become part of the curriculum. I’m not certain about specific things that are not taught in my school, and part of the null curriculum, although as an Art teacher I tend to stay away from highly controversial pieces of art. This may also be due to the fact that I’m new to teaching Art, period, but also new to the school and not yet tenured. That tends to make one more conservative in their choices. These are the aspects of curriculum which stood out most notably, and have led me to think in deeper terms about the decisions I make to include or not to include material in daily lessons, and will influence my future activities when I am involved in the formal writing of curriculum for my district.

TIE536_Technology: The Final Frontier

My 2-year mission at NLU has led me to what I now fully understand is only the beginning of my exploration of strange new worlds of technology, to seek out new life and new civilizations(?), to boldly go where too few teachers have gone before. . .
The challenge of integrating technology into curriculum can be daunting, indeed, especially when given time constraints of a 24-hour day, four teaching preps, extra-curricular assignments and sponsorships, and trying to maintain a healthy family life and make time for my other interests. I’m exhausted just writing this.

The beautiful thing about this is that because of the nature of technology, there will always be new things to explore and the rate of its development seems to be increasing exponentially. Because many of today’s students have been raised with a certain amount of computer technology that is already integrated into their daily lives, there will be little or no resistance from our students as we move forward to further integrate technology into our curriculum and our schools in general. As I explored the phrase, “technology integration” at edutopia.org, I was struck by the observation that the biggest obstacle to overcome in technology integration is the basic human resistance to change. As I am beginning the third career of my life, I’d like to think that I have a track record of being able to embrace change even in the face of adversity. So perhaps I have conquered the biggest hurdle—the rest of this will continue to be an amazing adventure.

Credit
“Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry

TIE536 Technology Integration

I'm in my fourth year of teaching in the Art department at Wheaton North High School; my preps have included Into to Art, Graphic Design, Photography and Interior Design. Each semester I've tried to further integrate technology into my curriculum. This has taken a variety of forms, from using the Internet for a virtual field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to budgeting and planning for a kitchen redesign. I'm comfortable as a technology user, but still consider myself to be in the early stages of learning how to effectively merge my personal use with the development of new teaching strategies and learning opportunities to achieve the goals of my curriculum.

The class definition of technology integration as "a process of bringing the use of technology into learning environments (devoted to other outcomes) in a way that streamlines/enhances/supplements/transforms the understanding of both" describes the goal I've been striving for in my own classrooms. Although there are students that need basic instruction on using computers and the Internet, that is not the focus of my activities. I try to include the 'Big Picture' in each of my lessons, reinforcing that the technology is a tool, not an end unto itself.