Post 6

As it stated in the video, education has a different purpose now, than it did before. The world we are preparing them for will require students to build, create and problem solve in an active environment. No longer can we expect students to sit still, listen be quiet and ask that they remember all the information and regurgitate it for an assessment. We as teachers have to find a way to incorporate the technology, which WILL BE required as a tool for careers, into our curriculums in and out of the classroom. I find that more and more, teachers are more willing to incorporate technology into the classroom, but have a hard time finding the right way to do so because we want to make sure it is relevant and effective, and isn’t a waste of time or becomes a distraction. This is the “catch” that teachers must be aware of and address appropriately.

I have visited a local school district this year which assigned iPads to each student in the school. They have 1:1 technology. We are about to visit another school district in about a week that uses Google classroom. Both districts, as I have seen and am sure to expect, have issues with the use of technology in the classroom. There will always be times when students become bored, or distracted by the technology in front of them, it is how we deal with it, that will make a difference. Especially in society today, we are obsessed with ‘instant gratification’. This is no different with students in our classroom. The instantaneousness of technology is a great advantage and hindrance at the same time. With technology sitting right in front of us, and a thought enters our head, we go right to the technology to log in to a website to satisfy our hunger for information. This is great, but what about when students should be working on an assignment, and they think of something unrelated, use the resource in front of them, and become distracted with an off topic task? That is up to the teacher to decide how to handle this. We can teach students that ‘multi-tasking’ is a useful skill to have, but we have to make sure they understand how to do it appropriately and effectively. An increased use of technology can be a fantastic addition to the student’s lives within the education world and in the real-world as well, but only if we teach them how to do so diligently.  

Post #5

I believe that classrooms today are DEEP into the technology revolution. We have passed the horizon and are hundreds of miles into the journey of technology in the classroom. Technology started as an outside of the classroom experience. Once teachers started realizing how much students actually interact with technology in their own lives, they/we brought it into the classroom. What better way to keep students interested than to bring what they do in their social lives and make it relevant in the classroom? From watching the video, there are obviously opposing sides to the use of technology in the classroom. From one side, teachers need to be aware of the amount of technology usage and be flexible with our expectations. On the other, teachers are still holding on to the “old school” way of teaching and put technology on the back burner. What we have to admit though, is that incorporating technology into the classroom is a MUST. The question is, how much? As soon as students walk out the door to the school and get on the bus or even wait to get home, phones come out, computers are turned on, anything electronic that can be used to interact with the social media/social networking world is accessed immediately. It is almost like an addiction. In my eyes, it is inevitable, so why not try to find a way to make the use of technology in the classroom relevant to the outside world for our students, and vice versa?

Module 1: Padlet

http://padlet.com/agratton/9y695843gybn

Module 1: Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131036756@N03/

Module 1: Ms. Gratton's Thinglink

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/618857324039110657

Post #4

                 When I think of Bloom’s taxonomy, the word scaffolding comes to mind. The idea behind Bloom’s taxonomy is to incorporate all levels of thinking within an extended lesson or unit to ensure maximum understanding. We want students to be comfortable enough with the material as we move along through the lesson, so we must scaffold the instruction. We begin with the remembering of material, information, strategy or skill, and eventually move into creating. Starting at a lower level of thinking and ending with more critical thinking and application.  One cannot simply learn to the fullest extent by simply jumping straight to the creation level. The taxonomy invokes a process, or order, of thinking. One cannot move to the next “level” without success of the previous “level”.

Throughout the years however, Bloom’s Taxonomy has been revised to coincide with the curriculum of that time. At the moment, it aligns perfectly with the idea of a model 21^st century classroom. What does this mean? TECHNOLOGY, of course! I cannot think of a better way to prepare our students for the real world, where they will have to use their critical thinking and problem solving skills in a world with ever-changing technology, than with the application of Bloom’s Taxonomy in a digital classroom. 

Post #3

     It is astonishing at how many teachers/schools restrict the use of student’s personal technology devices in the classroom. I, on the other hand, am always trying to figure out ways to incorporate them with my lessons. It is a goal of mine to, little by little, flip my classroom. The ONLY way this is possible, is through the use of technology. I strongly believe that technology HAS to be a part of the student’s education every day. Maybe not every class period, but enough to keep students engaged and interested in their learning.

     There has been a video shared across Facebook and other social media platforms against the “overuse” of technology and our NEED for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY I did take the time to show this to my students last year and implied that we, as members of society, need to find a balance between productivity with technology, and getting lost in our technology. I feel this could be applied to our classrooms as well. Teachers, and students, need to find a balance between using technology to engage and enhance a lesson, and using it just for the pure fact of incorporating it because it is the “in thing”. As it stated in the video “Pay Attention”, students use their technology every day and know how to operate these devices. So the question remains, why NOT use them in an educational way in the classroom?