Digital Blog Post #L- Chapter 12

 This chapter in the text is all about integrating technology and creating change as teachers. The first topic in the chapter that struck a chord with me was the stages of technology integration. The stages of technological integration include entry, adoption, adaption, appropriation, and invention. In the entry stage, a teacher is learning about information technologies and needs to gain specific skills in computers and technologies before they can think about how to apply new knowledge to classroom situations. In the adoption stage, teachers are working on blending technology into their classroom practices without making any significant changes to those practices and is essentially at a basic level. In the adaption phase, teachers are fully integrating new technologies into traditional classroom practices and is using technology regularly. In the appropriation stage, teachers can easily and confidently use technology both in the classroom and for their own professional work. In the final stages, invention, teachers are beginning to experiment with many instructional patterns and ways of relating to students. They are also exploring new ways to creatively use technology in and out of the classroom and adding emerging technologies to a personal collection of professional skills and practices. I would say that I am currently in between the entry and adoption stages. I have learned about many technological properties throughout this course, but have not yet had the opportunity to apply them.

 The second topic in this chapter that I chose to address is technology integration issues. There are six issues that occur for classroom teachers that directly affect their efforts to integrate technology into teaching. These issues include administrative support and teaching style, unwillingness to change favorite lesson plans, reluctance to use technology in new lesson plans, use of technology as a reward or punishment, use of technology as an add-on to other activities, and use of technology to separate students by ability groups. The issue I am currently experiencing in my classroom is lack of administrative support, specifically lack of sufficient resources. My classroom consists of ten students. There are only six computers in the school and they can only be used by my class on Mondays. My classroom resources are restricted to a dry erase board. Though this is challenging, I am considering creating a WebQuest for my students and having them complete it on the computers. There are many walls we can run into as educators and it can seem like there is nothing we can do about it, but there is always a solution. I believe that creativity is one of the main keys to a successful classroom.

The third and final topic I will be writing about is becoming a technology-leading teacher. There are a few key strategies outlined in the text for becoming a technology-leading teacher. The first of these is writing grants, working with computer-using colleagues, joining professional organizations, celebrating digital learning day, involving students in technology and change, and developing a technology-leading mindset. I believe that the technology-leading mindset is the most important of all. Throughout this entire course, to accomplish any of the things that we are learning about and hoping to accomplish, we have to actually be willing and ready to persevere through all of the challenges that we will soon face. It can be very easy to fall into a routine and just throw something easy and simple together because it can take too much time to learn about something new and integrate it into your classroom, but I believe the most important thing you can do as a teacher is evolve. I, and most of my peers, plan to be in the teaching profession until retirement. That could be up to 50 years. So much can change in 50 years. Because of this obvious fact, we must continually evolve to keep up with our students. Imagine if they were teaching today the same way they were teaching in 1965. We, as humans, are always changing, always advancing. So it is of vital importance that we keep that in mind when we are teaching.

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Morrison, T. (2015, November 28). Chapter 12 Wordle. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.wordle.net/create