This is an entry that I just wrote for my other blog... My class blog... The kind that you are required to post in so you learn how to blog... So... These are my thoughts for that... And hopefully my teacher doesn't feel that I am dogging her because that isn't what I meant... but this is what I've been thinking about....
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I'm not sure what I'm supposed to write about or how professional this blog is supposed to be.... I think that is my issue with writing in here. Should it just be my thoughts and feelings or should it be more finished writing. I'm not sure, but I'm just going with it.
I feel that this semester has been unorganized thus far and I have a lot of work to do outside of class, but it all blends together. If I can't find a way to organize myself how am I going to help my students do so. I try notes on post-its, agendas/planners, calendars on my phone that I can also access from any computer with internet, and to-do lists. None of these seem to fit. None get everything I want the to get. I am just so unsure of how to do this, but I've gotten by for the last 20 years of school and had close to a 4.0 the whole time so I guess my many methods sort of work for me. I just feel like a bad student.
As for what I am learning in class... I am learning that there are many teacher candidates who are unwilling or could care less about researching technology use in the classroom. I am learning that instructors ignore what they don't know many times and do not try to challenge themselves. In fact, having students do presentations on different technologies that the instructor does not know would help them to immensely in my opinion. I really feel that there is a huge gap of knowledge. The technology isn't that hard to figure out when you take the time to look it up. There are instructional videos on YouTube.com for almost everything and that doesn't even scrape the surface of the instructionals out there on sites such as ehow.com. I am a huge fan of learning styles in the classroom and was incredibly excited when I found out that they were offering a seminar for it. I will not be enrolling because I have already taken the graduate courses for this, but what if we offered a technology seminar. It seems you always get the big gasp when students are told they need to use technology to present, but when they are shown the steps and how to use it they are in awe. Even PowerPoint is thought to be known and though somewhat outdated it can create almost a video style presentation when desired. Most individuals do not know about this.
I would love to do a professional development type seminar or teaching. There are so many ways to integrate it and use it to engage students. There are so many grants to write and apply for to gather the needed funding to get items that can be used in the classroom to serve this need. We need to reach our students. Technology is not the only way, but it is something that can definitely be used to enhance engagement so long as it is not used as a crutch.
This really seems like a rant, but I just feel that something needs to be done. This disconnect needs to be addressed...but how?
Andrea
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