Welcome to My Ed Tech 541 Website!
Please click the various links and sub-links on the menu above to view my blog and the class projects I have completed throughout the semester. I hope this site demonstrates how much I have enjoyed learning new and powerful ways to integrate technology into the classroom. Thanks for visiting, and I look forward to your feedback!
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Who Am I?
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My Mission Statement: |
I am a part-time student in the MET program at Boise State University, a full time mom to a toddler, and a full-time Instructional Coach in a K-6 elementary school outside of Philadelphia, PA.
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The goal of educational technology in the teaching and learning environment is to prepare students for the global and digital world they will one day lead. Society is changing at a more rapid pace than ever before, and it is our responsibility, as educators, to prepare our students for their futures as effectively as possible. Effective use, application, and creation via technology is paramount to our students future success. “For student performance to approximate student potential, students need access to a constantly evolving array of technological tools and activities that demand problem-solving, decision-making, teamwork, and innovation.” (Blair, 2012)
Technology in the classroom should not be used to replace instruction but rather to enhance and strengthen instruction, engagement, and opportunity. “If you can do this lesson without technology, that’s great...but if you can do it better with technology, then that’s why you use it.” (Bellows YouTube, 2012) Educators must teach students to not only receive information but to actively seek information, and to create and author original content that has the potential to impact others and to impact society. It is not enough to use technology only for research. Students need to learn how to curate information, distinguishing between reliable and non credible sources. They need to learn that technology is a medium for exploring their interests, expressing their ideas and opinions, and learning from the ideas and opinions of others. Technology gives students the opportunity to collaborate with others outside of the classroom walls, enabling them to communicate with counterparts across the world, thus enhancing their social consciousness. Perhaps, most importantly they need to learn that technology gives them the ability to create and put something new out there in the world that has not been created or seen before. While aspects of several different learning theories support the need for technology integration in the classroom, John Dewey’s Social Activism Theory most closely aligns with my vision and mission statement. Dewey believed that “social consciousness was the ultimate aim of all education.” (Roblyer, 2019) Technology that is effectively and consistently integrated in the classroom will help students to build this social consciousness through the collaborative experiences outlined in the previous paragraph, which, in turn, will help students to learn more about themselves, their society, and their world. Students who know more about themselves, their society, and their world will be better prepared to impact and positively change the world in the future...and I believe this should be the ultimate goal of all educators--to create individuals who will one day make a positive impact on the world. Works Cited: Blair, N. (2012). Technology integration for the new 21st century learner. Principal,Jan/Feb, 8-13. Edutopia. “An Introduction to Technology Integration.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 12 December 2012. Web. 2 June 2018. Roblyer, M.D. (2019). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (8ed). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. |
“For student performance to approximate student potential, students need access to a constantly evolving array of technological tools and activities that demand problem-solving, decision-making, teamwork, and innovation.” (Blair, 2012)
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