1.) Which ideas from the video reflect what the ELA teachers you interviewed are currently doing to integrate technology with their literacy instruction?
One idea that was taken from the video about teachers not having the proper pedagogy or training in order to effectively implement the technology to enhance student learning. That is what the ELA teacher had told me just in different terms. She said something along the line of "I don't know how to use some of these technologies. I would have to ask one of my kids to help me with it because they use this stuff all the time." She wants to use the technology when it is available and after she feels like she has got a really good grip on the tool and all that it offers. Without the proper training with these social networking tools, it seems that language arts teachers will remain reluctant to implement these technologies.
2.) How can you help change their instructional practices to include the use of technology and the Internet in their literacy and content-area curriculum?
I think that it is very difficult to change a person's instructional practices when the technology availability is lacking. It is important to remember that while we may have budget cuts in the short term, there is a long term commitment out there to seeing technology as part of the everyday experience for all students. I would first recommend to the teacher that it would be a good idea to learn about writing grants, attending city council meetings, and working with different parent and teach groups to get change going.
Having said all of that I would still introduce and teach the language arts teacher how to effectively create, manage, and assess a blog for later use. Because some students may not have internet access at home, the blogging assignment can be issued on a monday and due the following monday so they are given time to use the computer labs. There are such great new literacy ideas that can be accessed through the internet, and eventually with the expansion of more laptops per pupil, they will become increasingly valuable. Having students work with an interface like the one presented in the first reading where students will learn a vocabulary word by making a sentence, and using nonlinguistic skills to interpret the word by drawing on an online drawing software. I would at the very least get the teacher more amped and excited about how much more literacy can be engaging.
3.) What professional development and/or resources will they need in order to make these changes?
As far as I am concerned there are literally thousands of free online resources that teachers can have access to as long as they have an internet connection. It might be a good idea for the teacher to purchase her own hosted web server for like $10 a month and install different programs like moddle, wordpress and other software for students to access. I think it would be beneficial to contact the technology specialist of their district and see if they have any good recommendations for new literacies or technologies to enhance student learning. If you are not successful in that professional development, there are various courses offered through BOCES that are teaching things like the smartboard, and various literacies (blogging). Teachers need two types of skills, cognitive and technology skills. Most teachers already have all of the required cognitive skills, but they are lacking in the technology skills like operating and troubleshooting. We have this gap, which needs to be closed, where the teachers have the cognitive and the students have the tech skills. I would suggest that a teacher manages and learners the ins and outs of a particular device for at least 4-6 month depending on your technology learning curve, before using it with your students in the classroom. I really feel that if you are going to ask the kids to use a technology, you had better have a strong grasp on it and be ready for troubleshooting. When using ICTs (information and communication technologies) teachers should use it to identify questions, locate information, evaluate information, synthesize information to answer questions, and communicate those answers to others.
4.) What ideas do you have for grouping students so they will have equal access to technology in the classroom?
I think that students can be paired up in order to share a laptop or desktop. This will encourage communication and collaboration, an important 21st century skill. Students can work together to locate, evaluate, synthesize and communicate info back to their classmates. Just as the common rule says use technology where it makes sense to, it might not always be beneficial to use groups
Well said, Allen. Teacher training is critical to the successful integration of ICTs and new literacies practices. School administration needs to see the values and affordances of technology so they are willing to support teachers. In our NSF funded grant workshop, Dr. Wang and I are training middle school science teachers to use technologies to enhance new literacies skills that will support the scientific inquiry. We introduce them many ICT tools and use iPad to enhance the mobile learning. One of our seed teacher told his principal about what he learned from the program, the principal immediately ordered him a class set of iPads. The other seed teacher applied grant to buy a class set of probewares after she attended the workshop. With budget cut, but with emphasis on the new literacies, I am sure there are grants that teachers can apply to support what they are doing in the classrooms. Also with the common core ELA standards, technology is stressed in the integrated literacy model. :-)
ReplyDelete