Week+2+Assignment+Part+2.2,+Addition+to+Comprehensive+Exam-Ed+Tech+Vision

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**Vision of Educational Technology** My vision of educational technology has been greatly expanded as a result of this program. I have learned so much about so many different aspects of technology in the classroom. I think the best way to define my vision of educational technology is by describing what a model elementary classroom would look like in the next 5 years. I will gear the classroom to upper elementary students, fourth and fifth grade, based on my years of experience with those grade levels. I will also assume there will be no more than 32 students. All components of this model will be to support all the California Education Standards (California State Board of Education 2010) for these grade levels. All students would have their own laptops that can connect wirelessly to the internet. There would be an interactive whiteboard at the front of the room and various large screen HD monitors where students could see them clearly. In addition, there would be a document reader and a projector that could be connected to a laptop or other computer. Other equipment would include digital cameras and video recorders that students could share or check out. Of course there would also be networked color laser printers.

Cooperative learning is one of the seven strategies identified by Pitler, (2007) as one of the classroom strategies found to increase student achievement. Not surprisingly, it is also one of the National Education Technology Standards (ISTE 2007) and is included in Los Angeles Unified School Districts //Instructional Technology Plan// (2000). The classroom would include movable furniture that can be rearranged for whole group, small group, or individual workspaces.

Not only would the physical environment be set up for collaboration, but the digital environment as well. There would be opportunities for the students to interact with other students in their district and around the world. Data collection and ongoing student assessment would be done with digital tools like surveymonkey. The data could be used to group students by ability, interests, etc. Wikis and blogs would allow students to comment on each other’s thinking and work both inside and outside of the classroom.

Depending on the standard and unit of study, the teacher would set up a workspace that would pull in relevant resources like video, music, shared documents, etc. Students could also post relevant information to this space. Parents, administrators, and other trusted adults could also add to and comment on the work that the students are doing.

The collaborative environment would also extend to the teachers who can work with other educators to improve their practice and share ideas. Parents and other caregivers could collaborate with the teacher in cyberspace rather than in face to face meetings or notes going home. Parent conferences could be replaced with video chats that would allow busy parents and teachers to meet when it is convenient for them.

Students would also collaborate with each other using activities such as “the fishbowl” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski 2007) where an inner circle of students discusses classroom material while an outer circle live blogs the discussion. This would allow all students to learn from the thoughts and reflections of their peers. It would also validate and perhaps challenge some of the thinking of those that participated in the discussion.

Additionally, students would use technology to collaborate outside of the classroom. The instructor/facilitator could set up a chat room where professionals could chat with the students according to the unit of study. For instance, they could ask questions of a curator at a California Mission for Social Studies, or a scientist at JPL.

This model classroom is absolutely dependent on the technologies outlined in The Horizon Report (Johnson, Levine, Smith, & Smythe, 2009). Cloud Computing is how many, or even most, of the applications work; whether wikis, blogs, google -docs, etc. The Personal Web (Johnson et al., 2009) can refer to the classroom space that the teacher creates or facilitates in cyberspace and the individual pages and spaces that the students or groups of students create. Online communication tools are vital to collaborate with others outside of the classroom and to communicate with the families. These and other web 2.0 technologies are being used to transform schools and student learning (Solomon & Schrum 2007).

It is important to note that technology is ultimately only a tool to improve teaching and learning. It is not a magic bullet or an expensive distraction. Educational technology should be rooted in the content standards, a sound curriculum, and research-based practices. These tools allow students to access information more directly and gives them different avenues to demonstrate their learning. It makes collaborating easier between all stakeholders. Finally, the technology gives teachers have the ability to see in “real time” the understanding/learning of their students and adjust lessons accordingly. This is my vision of how technology should be utilized in education.

References California State Board of Education. //Content standards.// Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/ International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)//. NETS for students 2007//. Retrieved from [] Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R, and Smythe, T. (2009). //The 2009 horizon report: K-12 edtion.// Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved on February 4, 2010, from [|www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report.pdf] Los Angeles Unified School District. (2000). //Instructional technology plan.// Los Angeles, CA //Using technology with classroom instruction that works//. Alexandria, VA: ACSD Solomon, G, & Schrum, L. (2007) //Web 2.0: New tools, new schools//. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education

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