ISTE Standard 3- Modeling Technology

In my school, there are new teachers who are digitally literate, teachers who have been there a while but are keeping up with the changing technological times, and teachers who are reluctant to try any technology in their classrooms.  My triggering question for this week was, how can I demonstrate knowledge, and skills around mathematical technologies available to help reluctant teachers create a dynamic and interactive math classroom? As a teacher, I work hard to constantly adapt my practice to fit the needs of my students.  Currently, the shift I am making is in technology.  I am working to bring the level of technology use in my classroom up to the level of technology use my students are looking for.  In my research, I found an article titled No Teacher Left Behind: How to Teach With Technology by James Efaw.  This article talks about the three phases of implementing technology in a school.  It says that, “the three phases are learning, practice and feedback, and continued development” (Efaw, 2005).  As I have been working to get some of the veteran teachers on board with the technology changes I have noticed the same thing as Efaw did, “one of the biggest obstacles is the negative attitude of some faculty toward having technology in the classroom” (Efaw, 2005).  One of the key points in this article is that staff must be trained in the technology we want them to use, they need to practice using the technology they were trained on and then they need to receive feedback on their implementation.  Without those three steps the implementation of technology will fail.  In my school right now, we have occasional technology trainings but they are not focused or intensive enough to set a teacher up for success.  We are also not taking the time to visit each other’s classrooms to provide feedback to teachers making it hard for consistent technology implementation.

My classmate Katie found an article titled Using Technology to Increase Parent Involvement in School.  The focus of this article was around gaining parental involvement in their students’ academic lives.  This is something my school is seriously lacking.  I have begun using a website to communicate due dates, homework assignments, and general expectations with my students and their families.  I have also started using Remind to let students know about upcoming classroom events such as tests, quizzes, homework assignments, or other activities they should know about.  “Schools should be seeking ways to maximize emerging technological tools to promote better communication between teachers and parents” (Olmstead, 2013).  As I work with the technologically reluctant teachers in my department I am striving towards technology use in all aspects of their teaching.  I want to help teachers utilize the technology available to them so that students can access their classes.

As I continued researching my triggering question, I was looking through the assigned readings for my Teaching with Technology course.  There was an article titled, Effective Features in Computer Learning Games.  As I think about the types of technology I want to implement in my classroom and help others implement in theirs, games seem like a fun place to start.  This article talked about the place games have in the classroom.  I find that too often we are so focused on the tests we need to teach to, the content that needs to be covered, and the content as a whole we forget to have fun in our classrooms.  “Computer learning games are not only welcomed as a way to motivate learners, but also can serve as a mechanism for learning” (Su & Draper Rodriguez, n.d.).  Bringing games into the classroom can help students connect with the content, understand the content better, and bring joy into what they are learning.  Through my research, I am able to begin answering my triggering question.  I do not feel that I have the whole answer yet, but I have a place to start.  I am going to start looking for ways to get the technologically reluctant members of my department training on some of the simpler technology tools they can use in their classroom.  Once they have been trained, we will practice implementation, and finally I will observe and provide feedback on their implementation of the technology.  I am also going to talk with the technology person at my school to see if we can start a school wide process for implementing technology in our classrooms.

Works Cited

Efaw, J. (2005, January 1). No Teacher Left Behind: How to Teach with Technology. Educause Quarterly, (4), 26-31. Retrieved November 3, 2016.

Olmstead, C. (2013). Using technology to increase parent involvement in schools. TechTrends, 57(6), 28-37. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=eft&AN=91587612&site=ehost-live

Su, B., & Draper Rodriguez, C. (n.d.). Effective Features in Computer Learning Games. 148-153. Retrieved November 6, 2016.