I have learned a lot about myself as a teacher after having done my research on critical thinking and then exploring personalized learning. Said and done, my job at the end of the day is to make sure that I am teaching my students for the future which requires me to teach 21st century skills. What I realized was that I was teaching in the past and not leveraging technology in my classroom enough in order to teach my students for the future mostly because I was not knowledgeable enough but also because I was skeptical. There isn't an exact science to teaching so I have just been putting my feelers out there. How Technology Can Play a Role in Mastery Learning and 21st Century Learning As a new teacher, my first duty was trying to understand PBL/PrBL. I learned what it was, how to design them, and how to implement them (sorta) so I wasn't really focusing on technology use or how it could support learning in my classroom until I entered the Innovative Learning Program. I liked that PBL/PrBL touched on student engagement, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking but it didn't really address the problems I was experiencing with the lack of content mastery. When you think about the skills you need in order to complete a PBL/PrBL units such as critical thinking, in math students really need to have the necessary knowledge base before they can jump from surface level to deeper learning. However, one roadblock seemed to be that 67% of the nation's 8th grade students are not meeting proficiency levels. Thus, my first task was to make sure my students were mastering the content and I wondered how technology might play a role in that. Why the Skepticism I am starting to sound like a broken record but the math content area is really so different from other content areas. I was very frustrated at the fact that a lot of fancy schmancy digital tools worked in other subjects but weren't really applicable to math. All it took to open my mind was a little exposure to new digital tools and be given the time and motivation (a master's degree) to explore them to see what would personally work for me. A lot of teachers don't have the time or motivation because that means doing it on our own time after contract hours. It is time consuming and frustrating for those who are not friends with technology and I am lucky because I was exposed to technology at an early age but technology can be a game changer, especially for the most vulnerable students. This was important to keep in mind because my target audience are also thinking and/or feeling the same way I used to about technology. It is also important to note that before technology can be used effectively, of course there needs to be sound pedagogy and content knowledge. Bumps in the Road in My Second Round of Research I feel like learning about personalized learning and becoming more knowledgeable about digital tools that can help in a math classroom has been a gift. However, I am still struggling with the implementation of it. I have to worry about students having access to devices and internet, that they understand how to use technology appropriately, and that students are able to use their data to create goals independently. With the fires that broke out, there wasn't very much time to roll out my second round of research in the way I wanted to and the amount of time I wanted to dedicate to it. Some students told me they didn't have access to Khan Academy at home, some students weren't motivated to use it because of bad past experiences or just plain lazy, some students weren't familiar with how to navigate Khan Academy, some felt overwhelmed by the amount of assignments from my class and others, as well as for various other reasons. I have collected the assessments, I have graded them, I still need to run T-tests and look through my qualitative data (survey questionnaire). Because of lack of time, I didn't get to experiment with EdPuzzle as much and am wondering if I made my own tutorial videos, if they would've been more effective than Khan Academy or if I was able to embed guiding questions using EdPuzzle, if it would have changed the students' learning experiences. I think there is still a lot more to explore for this research topic.
2 Comments
11/27/2017 08:36:03 pm
Technology is a complex issue because embedded within it is so much more. I never thought that social equality, and personal integrity would be such an integral part of students using the internet. I can't imagine how different my high school and college experience would have been, if I had access to the internet. I think it is important to consider the kinds of things you are thinking about. Not everyone HAS access to technology and that is a really big deal. Not only that, every type of technology does not work for every person. I suppose, like all things with teaching, it is a complicated idea, but complicated ideas are really worthwhile.
Reply
Patrick
11/28/2017 09:18:33 pm
At the risk of also sounding like a broken record, I agree with so many of your points. Tech without sound pedagogy isn't viable in a class. Technology is not inherently equitable, even though sometimes we talk like the internet is the great equalizer. Sometimes, tech tools that someone else made doesn't fit perfectly to our classrooms, just like lesson plans. Technology can be incredibly time intensive, at least in the beginning. Sometimes, tech can create efficiency, but it likely requires a lot of front loaded effort to set up.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Nai Saelee
Middle school math teacher preparing the leaders of the future. Inspiring curiosity, creativity, collaboration Archives
December 2017
Categories |