Week 1 Reflection

I must admit this was a difficult assignment for me, and I'm still not entirely happy with my philosophy. The difficult part for me was incorporating my own teaching philosophies with my objectives when it comes to technology. It was a good exercise, however, because for the first time I was made to actually put my goals and objectives into writing. This gave me much food for thought and acutally caused me to rethink some of my previous goals. Firstly, my educational technology philosophy is helpful because it reminds me of what is really important when it comes to integrating technology into my classroom. I tend to get too excited in using the technology just because it's cool. This assignment reminds me to keep the information first and use the technology as a tool to access and produce that information. My goal in the future is to think first about what I want my students to learn, i.e. the end result, and then figure out what (or if) technology can help me achieve those goals in a meaningful way.

Downes’ article brought up some interesting points that I hadn’t considered before. If we treat the blog as a personal journal where we share our thoughts, interests, and other information we find from the web, then on a personal level I believe we have met the potential of a blog. Particularly when one considers the advancements made in blogging, like embedded applications from other sites we use to manage our interests, i.e. photo sharing, graphics, calendars, etc. In fact, new sites like Twitter and FaceBook have taken blogging to a new level, allowing us to have instant access to our friends’ information and vice versa. This is truly becoming the social networking Downes envisions. However, I still feel that we’ve missed the purpose of true blogging according to Downes when it comes to education. As digital immigrants, many of us are still using the blog as a “cooler” way to do the same old thing, like assign writing prompts and conduct class discussions. This still has its advantages, particularly in the way of access and motivation. We aren’t, however, letting out students take full ownership of the blog and post things that interest them. We are still creating restrictions with assignments, grades, etc. Honestly, I don’t know the best way to get around this. Particularly when you consider just the fact that the teacher will be reading the blog might be enough to hinder many of our students’ creativity. I would love to see a teacher who is using a class blog in a less restrictive way where students are genuine, active participants…other than participating because they simply have to.

I identify the most with November’s point that we need to tell our stories. I agree that we have a very isolated profession. In fact, if you do not seek out the information and connections yourself, you will be very lonely. No one stops by our rooms and says “Hey, I have some wonderful information I’d just love to share with you.” Over the past two years I have worked hard on increasing technology into my own curriculum. This past year, I’ve made it a goal to share what I’ve been doing with my colleagues through email, informal conversations, and staff development. Incorporating technology into your classroom can be a very daunting experience, particularly when you don’t feel you have the technical savvy to troubleshoot basic problems that may arise. Sharing lesson plans, rubrics, successes, and (yes) failures helps boost our confidence. I feel the only way we will get our reluctant teachers on board is to give them the resources and support they need. This belief is one of the main reasons I am working to be a library media specialist, because this will provide me the venue and the time to help teachers be confident digital immigrants willing to face the digital natives head on.