Week Two Assignment Part 2.5 5370

Week 2 Assignment, Part 2.5 Technology Facilitator III

Self–Assessment

Before I began the Lamar Academic Partnerships master’s program, I was unsure about all that a technology facilitator did. I have a friend in this position, and she enjoys her work very much. As I have worked through the ISTE standards in my internship, I believe Standard III most encompasses what I previously thought this position entailed.

Using technology to help with planning the curriculum to help maximize student learning was the topic of a former professor of mine, Dr. Mike Burger, at Texas A&M University. He tried to sell his software program back in 1987. This was at a time when the first resource websites for research were introduced, and you had to be a formal member of the library association to get access to published papers.

The new information that I have gained concerning addressing students’ needs is that we need to have technology readily available as they live in the “net” generation. The influx of information available to students creates new learning objectives – goals that students learn to be responsible digital citizens, and are able to collaborate, communicate, and think critically. In the book, Web 2.0 - New tools, new schools, the authors state, “constructivism views learning as a process in which the learner actively constructs or generates new ideas or concepts based upon current and past knowledge. With a constructivist approach to learning, students build on what they already know and what they learn…. Teachers encourage students to think about what they already know about a topic, search for new information, and collaborate with others to solve realistic problems and derive new understanding” (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p. 38). I understand better how this is a critical understanding for teachers today.

Learn as a Learner

The approach that I took to fulfill my internship for Standard III was to seek out students and teacher friends to create opportunity to practice. Since I am not employed, I had to be resourceful to get things accomplished. Some of the internship activities completed for Standard III include showing a student how to create a Wordle poster, helping a parent enroll and participate in the Texas Virtual Network for their child, and teaching a student how to create a blog to place their artwork out on the internet.

In addition, as stated in our book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, “Applied effectively, technology implementation not only increases student learning, understanding and achievement but also augments motivation to learn” (Pilter, 2007, p. 3). Motivating students is a key ingredient for a successful learning experience.

Lifelong Learning

Although I have had a late start, earning my master’s degree in my forties has been an exercise in lifelong learning skills. Receiving a degree through an online program has made the degree even more valuable to me because the need for online learning is only going to grow exponentially in the future and now I am ahead of the game. I agree with education blogger David Warlick who states, “The question becomes, ‘What do children need to be learning today, to be ready for an unpredictable future?’ ...and the answer is simple. The best thing we can be teaching our children today, is how to teach themselves” (Warlick, 2011, para. 8).

I definitely believe collaboration with my cohort colleagues on the discussion board was very helpful in giving me a fuller grasp of how we integrate technology into the curriculum. These advisors gave me ideas for my internship activities. I also volunteered to teach a lesson on social networking for a sixth grade teacher, and this friendship led to an opportunity to add technology components to her lesson on rocketry.

In the future, I hope I can continue to utilize available content on the web to learn new things. I will incorporate technology more easily into my children’s lives as I show them ways to use technology to help them learn more effectively. I will try to keep up with the latest technology trends in education. I have to wonder, what will the 2012 Horizon Report say?

Works Cited

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

Warlick, D. (2011, Feb 15). Cracking the "native" information experience in Hong Kong. Retrieved Feb 22, 2011, from David Warlick: http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/