Technology: Taking the Pain Out of Collaboration

The tools we studied this week showed us how we can take some of the pain out of the collaboration process. We've all read about how important collaboration is for our students, but today our students are busier than ever. Is it really fair to ask them to coordinate their insane schedules in order to create a thoughtful, creative project? I remember hating having to work out times to meet with a group, but thankfully, tools like Wiggio are making it easier than ever to collaborate on a project with what little spare time we may have. 

With Wiggio, students can share links to videos, images, or websites that may help them with class projects, ask each other questions, share ideas, create to-do lists for specific members of their group, set due dates, and even take polls so that they can decide on a common topic or idea. With Wiggio, students can get the majority of their work (or even all of their work) completed before they ever physically meet together. For my first project this week I created a Wiggio from the perspective of a teacher to my students, and posted links and files that my students would need to complete the assignments I made for my Content Area Literacy class, and it was so easy and fun to play around with. 

From a teacher's perspective, Wiggio makes it easy to collaborate with students. It's basically like a more user-friendly version of Blackboard, and with it, teachers can create to-do lists that their students can actually cross off on their own, post anything and everything their students would need for the entire year, and poll the students on anything from how they feel about past assignments and reading strategies, to what the students would like to study next. With Wiggio, we wouldn't have to wade through hundreds of e-mails just to communicate with our students. Everything could be organized in one spot that makes everything easy to find.

For my second project this week, I created a glog on figurative language. Originally, I had to present this lesson by opening up different file folders and different websites to show videos as I went, but with my glog, everything was in one spot so I had to do was scroll and click on what I needed, and the key words that I wanted students to learn were just typed right next to the videos on my glog. As I made the glog, I learned more about figurative language and had fun making it look exactly how I wanted it to. I thought that it might be fun to have my students collaborate on making their own figurative language glogs. Using my glog as a model, they could find their own YouTube skit video that employed the use of figurative language and their own YouTube music video with lyrics that employed the use of figurative language, and then type the kinds of figurative language next to the videos that they chose on their glogs. This way, the students have a chance to choose videos that they enjoy, realize how common and effective figurative language is in writing, and collaborate to create something that they can be proud of.  To help the collaboration process, the groups of students could create a Wiggio group so that they could share videos and ideas they'd want to use before they finally got together to create their glog. 

With these kinds of technological collaborative tools, we can really show our students how important it is to collaborate, and show them that collaboration can make even the biggest, most daunting tasks possible. We as teachers can also use these tools to make our students feel more involved in our classes. We can offer them more opportunities to voice their opinions and share their interests so that our classes can be more fun and more meaningful in the long run.

"Less about the grade, more about the learning."

From the beginning, I could tell that the "Power On Texas" was out to change the minds of even the most stubborn skeptics about implementing technology in the classroom. Video one began with a battlecry that all advocates of technology should add to their repertoire:

"Using technology is about connecting students to the world that they live in today and preparing them for the world they will work in tomorrow."

Truly, how can we as educators continue to gripe about how our students are disinterested, disengaged, and unmotivated in our classrooms if we insist to continue on with an ancient teaching model? Many classrooms today are indistinguishable from classrooms of the 1800s, while the world outside of the classroom's walls is unrecognizable for all the leaps and bounds we have made thanks to technology. It's time to at least meet our students halfway; to bust down a few walls between the classroom and the real world, and that is what technology can help us to achieve as educators.

The most common complaint amongst teachers when it comes to technology is that their schools simply cannot afford all of the shiny new tools that other schools have. I'll save everyone my usual point about how more and more government grants and donations from others are making it more likely for schools to gain technological tools, and point out another interesting fact made within one of our videos. In one school, they could not afford 1 to 1 computing. Instead, only four computers were allowed in each classroom. Within this limitation, however, teachers found an opportunity for their students to learn how to collaborate with one another. Students learned how to share their computers, and each student was assigned a role in a group: recorder, researcher, navigator, etc. As later videos pointed out, it is becoming more important than ever for our students to learn how to work together, and more and more research points to how students can learn substantially more if they are allowed to work together. Realistically, we will never be able to have an ideal situation in our classrooms, especially when it comes to technology. We will always have to endure limitations and make concessions in our classrooms, but if we can learn how to turn limitations into opportunities, we could seize more opportunities to help our students learn more than ever before.

Another common excuse among teachers when it comes to implementing new technology in their classrooms is that they simply do not have the time or resources necessary to learn how to effectively use new technological tools. "Power On Texas" did an excellent job of showing how implementing weekly workshops and assistance can be incredibly effective in helping teachers become more comfortable with technology. As one educator pointed out, "comfort must come before creativity." With these programs in place (i.e. Tech Tuesday), teachers were allowed to collaborate with one another, ask questions, and create lessons so that they were comfortable with technology, and from there their creativity flowed and made for incredible lessons. At the heart of excuses is usually fear. As an educator in one video stated, many teachers are not just afraid the technology won't work, but rather they are afraid of losing control in their classroom once they unleash their students in the world of technology. Schools need to make it clear to teachers that there is nothing to fear when it comes to using technology in their classrooms. Truly, it will take some time to adjust and find what works for them, but ultimately the benefits far outweigh the costs.

Finally, many teachers will cry for proof before they go about the business of reshaping their comfortable, useful lesson plans to integrate technology. For these doubters, the "Power On Texas" videos provided ample evidence that technology works if we know how to use it. With technology, teachers can address multiple intelligences on a daily basis. As one educator stated, "kids that didn't have any interest in paper and pencil tasks just fly with technology." With technology, students can get up and move, listen, watch, type, play, and interact without a teacher having to put on a dog-and-pony show at the front of the room. Through making public service announcements, students have to collaborate, rehearse, act, repeat, and edit, and through their videos they are teaching others a specific concept; and as we all know, teaching someone else is the best way to learn something. With more advanced technological tools such as DyKnow and Mimeo, students can more easily collaborate not just with each other, but also with the teacher in real time, whether they are in the same room or not. DyKnow also allows teachers to keep a closer eye on students without constantly standing over their shoulders.

If all this wasn't enough, these videos also contained dozens of testimonials from real teachers about how technology has helped their students and themselves. Since implementing technology and project-based learning, these teachers have noticed remarkable decreases in discipline problems, and significant increases in attendance, independence, engagement, and motivation in their students. They realize that there is no magic bullet that will solve all of these problems for all students. No matter what we do, there will be some resistant students, but these educators have seen time and time again that implementing more technology can make the difference between a passive learner and an active, excited, and motivated learner, and isn't that what we all want?

Integrating Technology: A "Risky" Business?

In an article entitled "What makes technology 'risky'?: An exploration of teachers' perceived risk in the context of technology integration", Sarah K. Howard takes a closer look at different perspectives on integrating technology in the classroom. Howard interviewed and closely examined roughly 90 participants from schools all over the U.S. and Australia. What Howard found was that "teachers perceived similar risks when considering technology integration, but that these risk perceptions varied in intensity depending on the teachers' beliefs regarding technology's role in teaching and their conception of quality teaching." Basically, Howard came across two different mindsets: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and "I'll try anything if you tell me it works." Howard is suggesting that in order to successfully implement technology in classrooms, schools need to address the needs and worries of both the more reluctant teachers AND the teachers that are up for anything. Even the more open teachers have their doubts and recognize the risks involved with integrating technology in the classroom, and these doubts must be addressed and alleviated if we can ever hope to have more technologically advanced classrooms.

I found this article interesting because it raised some valid points. It began by listing the most common risks that teachers identified as possible threats to student learning. Even the most gung-ho technology advocates voiced some of the same concerns:

-how technology supports notions of effective and quality teaching

-loss of classroom control

-time: lost instruction time and lesson preparation time

-fulfilling cultural expectations

Now, as enlightened students and future educators of a new age, we might be quick to jump down the throats of these pessimistic technology naysayers, but let's take a closer look at these concerns. Truly, it's not so unusual to wonder how various technological tools could support quality teachers if we take into consideration that not all instructors (in fact, very few probably) have been shown how to use many tools like we have. Without being exposed to tools like blogs, googledocs, and explicitly shown how to use them, some teachers might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Another big concern is loss of instruction time, and a commitment to more preparation time in order to integrate technology. Some of us might scoff at teachers who make such complaints, but the truth of the matter is that integrating technology really does require some time commitment, especially in the beginning and even more so if one isn't particularly tech-savvy. 

As excited as we may be about putting the ideas we've learned in this class into practice, we have to remember that it will require making some sacrifices and taking some risks. What matters, though, is how we choose to tackle these obstacles. In this article, two participants were quoted on their beliefs about implementing technology in their classrooms:

Danielle: "I would like to implement anything [technology] that is gong to work to help these kids learn. If someone came up with a new something and said, this is the best thing ever, I'd say, let me try it. All the help I can get."

We'd all like to be more like Danielle. She's up for anything and everything when it comes to technology in the classroom because she doesn't see new tools as something more to learn or cram into her crazy schedule; she sees them as potentially helpful, and she's open to all the help she can get. Some things will work and others won't, but we'll never know until we try. Unfortunately, not everyone is as optimistic or as patient as Danielle. Take Judith for example:

Judith: "If there was more time in the course, maybe I would do something like that [use graphing software], but there isn't. It's tough to get through the course as is, so I don't see the time taken up by that as being a benefit."

Now, before we jump down Judith's throat, let's take a minute to remember where she's coming from. As much as we may hate to see it, it's not so uncommon to see a teacher simply throw their hands up and and dig in their heels when they're faced with yet another request on their time and patience. Truly, there are a lot of expectations thrust upon teachers today, perhaps more than ever. It is for this reason that administrators and policy makers need to adjust their radar a little bit.

This is what Howard was really getting at. The truth is, when it comes to the teachers we have out there today, the Judiths far outnumber the Danielles. We can tell them until we're blue in the face "Technology is great! You should try it!" But unless we can really prove it, and take the time to show the Judiths out there how easy it is to implement technology, we're not going to get very far. We need to let teachers know that we understand where they're coming from, that we recognize all of the worries and risks that they're facing, but that there are hundreds of tools out there that can ultimately make their teaching more effective and their time better-spent. Truthfully, if technology is used well, all of those risks that we identified earlier can be turned on their heads. Technology can enhance quality instruction, promote better classroom control, make the most of instruction time, and help surpass cultural expectations. The bottom line is, we can't just tell teachers these things; we have to SHOW them.


Howard, Sarah. ""What makes technology 'risky'?: An exploration of teachers' perceived risk in the context of technology integration." Academia.edu. 2010. 19 Feb 2010.

http://uow.academia.edu/SarahHoward/Papers/157658/What_Makes_Technology_Risky_An_Exploration_of_Teachers_Perceived_Risk_in_the_Context_of_Technology_Integration

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."

After watching all of the videos and reading the articles this week, I can say that I've found a lot of different ways to integrate technology in classrooms, but I can't honestly say that I know how in the world I'm going to do it when it's my turn! I love all of the ideas, but who really knows what kinds of tools we will (or will not) have available once we get going in our own classrooms? Thankfully, I have found a few ideas that I think I can apply no matter what is in my classroom. What I've learned this week is that integrating technology in the classroom isn't just about bringing in the latest and greatest tools to play around with, it's really more about finding out what our students need to be able to do in the future, and then finding the best methods and tools we can to help them learn those skills.

Through the technology in the classroom videos, I found many great ideas that seem fairly easy to implement in my classroom. One of my favorites was the idea of setting up a classroom blog. One of the teachers stated "everyone speaks up in my blogs, even the shy ones." Setting up discussion boards is now easier than ever, and it's a great way to get students more involved in class discussions. I was always a student who felt much more comfortable writing what I felt than I did speaking about how I felt. How many students are too afraid to speak up in class? How many students just don't get a chance to speak out because other students prefer to hear the sound of their own voice? How many times do we as teachers get so caught up in what we're saying that we forget to check in on our students to make sure that everyone is keeping up with us, and not just the few in the front row nodding their heads? All of these problems could potentially be solved by setting up class discussion boards. These are different from the traditional written responses in many ways. Discussion boards allow students to communicate with each other, and not just with the teacher. As one teacher stated in one of our videos, "technology creates opportunities for teachers to reach students, for students to reach each other." Isn't one of the main goals of 21st Century education to help students learn how to cooperate and communicate effectively with their community? Formal papers provide them formal writing practice, but blogs and discussion boards can provide them with opportunities to relax and have fun with writing, and help them get used to communicating as a community where everyone has a time and a place to speak their piece. Every education textbook I've come across rants that our students need more writing practice in school, and I can honestly say that I've written more in this class through discussion boards and blogs than I have in many other classrooms. It's not nearly as painful, but I'm still writing, I'm still finding my voice, and I'm still thinking critically.  Aren't those all things that we want for our students? Something as simple as setting up a discussion board can accomplish so much; just imagine what the more sophisticated technology tools can help us achieve?

One great example of sophisticated technology helping students was obvious in the teacher video focused on students with reading disabilities. These programs were highly successful, as the students' testimonials and smiling faces proved, and these technological tools helped students in more ways than one. Some teachers may fear that programs such as these may lessen the need for their presence as learning specialists in schools, but I would have to disagree. These new tools are no replacement for a living, breathing teacher, but they do help the students to develop "independence and confidence." Tools like these can teach our students the an important life lesson: everyone needs help sometimes, but they can also achieve more than they ever may have expected all on their own. Technology isn't always about finding answers the easy way, or taking short-cuts. If used correctly, various kinds of technology can be integrated into the classroom in such a way that students will learn bigger life-lessons that can help them immensely in their futures. They're not just learning reading strategies, they're learning how to be more independent. Another teacher pointed out that when students create a video for class, they're not just making a video, they're "synthesizing what they know into something new, working with other people, and effectively communicating it with someone else." Perhaps these ideas seem idealistic. Many schools cannot afford this pricey technology, but does that mean that they never will?

Some of the ideas presented in our articles and videos this week may seem idealistic and out of the question. Sure, maybe some schools will never have a laptop for every student. Surely, we may never have 100% of our students with internet access at home, but does that mean we should stop trying to look for ways to make these ideas work? I might just be a hopeless optimist, but I can't help but think that even the biggest, most outrageous ideas might be possible in the future. Maybe we won't all be able to play with the latest and greatest technological tools, but we've found evidence that we can help our students better prepare for their futures in the 21st Century in all kinds of ways; whether they're using spellcheck or speaking to students in a live-chat on the other side of the world. All that matters is that we stay focused on helping our students acquire the skills and knowledge that they need to be successful in the future. Some ideas seem out of the question now, but who knows where we'll be 15 or even 10 years from now? Imagine what educators were saying was impossible 30 years ago. Imagine what they would say if they watched the teacher videos that we did this week. Maybe some ideas sound idealistic and outrageous now, but who's to say that today's idealistic and outrageous isn't tomorrow's standard?

All of this new technology probably will change my role as a teacher in the coming years in a big way. I can't say that I completely buy into the idea that all education will take place online in the future, but I can say that I completely believe and accept the fact that the role of teacher will be changing. As I mentioned earlier, many technological tools help students to become more independent and confident, thus I may not be as much of a lecturer and demonstrator as I might be a facilitator and assistant. This, frankly, is fine with me. It's not that I want to work less. In fact, I believe that in order to integrate technology effectively in the classroom, I might have to work even harder, just in a different way. I'll have to work at learning what new technology is out there, and work at coming up with unique and innovative lessons and assignments that foster creativity and independence rather than obedience and adherence to the status quo. There's an old saying: "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime." The way I see it, in years past we've been giving our students a fish. We've been throwing information at them so that they could memorize it, pass a standardized test, get their diploma and move on. What technology is doing is helping us to better teach our students "how to fish." We're not just handing over information anymore, we're asking our students to go find it for themselves and not just memorize it, but do something with it. We're not holding their hands so much anymore, we're asking them to trust themselves and find their own sense of independence. That's the kind of future I see in the world of education, and I'm all for it. My role as a teacher will undoubtedly change, but as long as I can stay focused on helping my students learn skills that will help them grow in the future, I'm willing to change too.

METS

My class of 8th grade students will break into small groups and perform research using physical texts, websites, and databases in order to solve a real-world problem of their choosing (i.e. environmental issues, human rights issues, etc.). Their suggested plan of action will be presented to an audience of their peers in the format of their choosing (web page, newsletter, information brochure). Students will collaborate with one another online through blackboard blogs and discussion boards along the way. Students will, of course, be expected to carefully evaluate their sources and cite them appropriately, and their finished product should be free of errors as they will be expected to check their work using technology tools (dictionary, thesaurus, grammar checker, calculator).

This project will satisfy the following METS for grades 6-8:

6-8.CI. Creativity and Innovation

6-8.CI.2. By the end of grade 8 each student will create an original project (i.e. presentation, web page, newsletter, information brochure) using  variety media (e.g., animations, graphs, charts, audio, graphics, video) to present content information to an audience.

6-8.CC. Communication and Collaboration

6-8.CC.1. By the end of grade 8 each student will use digital resources (e.g. discussion groups, podcasts, video conferences, Blackboard, Moodle) to collaborate with peers, experts, and other audiences

6-8.RI. Research and Information Literacy

6-8.RI.2. By the end of grade 8 each student will evaluate information from online information resources for accuracy and bias

6-8.CT. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

6-8.CT.1. By the end of grade 8 each student will use data bases or spreadsheets to make predictions, develop strategies, and evaluate decisions to assist with solving a problem

6-8.DC. Digital Citizenship

6-8.DC.1. By the end of grade 8 each student will provide accurate citations when referencing information sources

6-8.TC. Technology Operations and Concepts

6-8.TC.2. By the end of grade 8 each student will use a variety of technology tools (e.g. a dictionary, thesaurus, grammar-checker, calculator) to maximize the accuracy of technology-produced materials

The articles, videos, and websites we studied this week were full of information about what is needed in our 21st century classrooms. The source that I felt was full of the most information about what a 21st century classroom really should be was the 21st Century Schools website. The author of this site suggests that it is not enough to simply implement new technological tools in the classroom. What is needed, rather, is a shift in our major goals in the classroom. The site lists the following skills as essential in for our students in the future:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Collaboration and leading by influence

Agility and adaptability

Initiative and entrepreneurialism

Oral and written communication

Accessing and analyzing information

Curiosity and imagination (21st Century Schools 2010)

It's hard not to agree that these should be major focus areas in every classroom. One would hope that critical thinking and problem solving, and oral and written communication have always been at the forefront of every classroom, but some of these skills are more important today than ever in our society. Given the statistics we viewed in the "Did You Know" video in class (i.e. people entering the workforce today will have 10-14 jobs by the time they reach age 38), agility and adaptability will be more crucial today than ever before. By implementing new technological tools on a regular basis in the classroom, we will be teaching our students how to tackle new tasks and adapt to changes, and this is a skill that will prove useful both in and out of the classroom for the rest of their lives. The 21st century classroom is about more than just implementing new technologies; it's about giving our students the skills to survive and thrive in a world that is changing quickly and dramatically, and not waiting for anyone to catch up. We as educators need to recognize that "technologies are not an end in themselves. They're tools students use to create knowledge and to create personal and social change" (21st Century Schools 2010).

Although the 21st Century Schools website did a good job of explaining just what we should focus on in our classrooms in the future, it left me with a lot of questions, the biggest one being "how can I do this?" There are so many resources available, so much to choose from, where can I even begin as an educator? The goals are all well and good, but how exactly can we help our students develop these skills in an effective, engaging way? With all of the goals and ideas that the site gave me, I was still left feeling a little overwhelmed and I couldn't help but wonder if after all the years I've spent studying to become an educator I'm really prepared or equipped to do all that is necessary to enhance these skills in my students. This website calls for a complete overhaul of our educational system, but haven't we been trained for years in the old way of education? Hopefully, we will be able to adapt along with our students, and show them how we, too, can learn as we go and roll with the punches, but I can't help but feel a little apprehensive!

Thankfully, I came across "The Power of the Mash-Up" but Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss after I read through the 21st Century Schools website. Finally, here was an article that made some concrete suggestions for implementing technology in the classroom in new and exciting ways. I learned something important from Burg, who showed how "it wasn't the slick new technology that caught his attention, but rather how it would allow him to extend the reach of his proven teaching strategies" (Boss 14). This is how we should all approach technology in our classrooms. We shouldn't use tools just for the sake of having something technological in our classroom, but rather we should see how these tools can increase the effectiveness of what we already want to do. The important thing is knowing what it is we truly want to achieve in our classrooms, and "once you identify a function you need (such as Burg's need to make the literary landscape something students could 'see' to appreciate) you can find an assortment of tools to choose from -- with more arriving tomorrow -- to meet that function" (Boss 17). We don't have to completely overhaul the way we teach everything in the classroom in order to implement new technologies. In many cases, we can simply find ways to enhance what we know already works through technology. It might be a little more work, but it's not as daunting as it sounds, and it can be so much more fun and effective for our students!

If all of these articles and websites weren't enough to convince me of the importance of implementing technology in our classrooms, the article entitled "Social Justice: Choice or Necessity" definitely would have driven the point home for me. For years, many educators have stubbornly stuck by their belief that as long as their teaching methods are effective, they need not implement technological tools in their classrooms. What this article points out is that by not exposing our students to new technologies, we may be ultimately crippling them in the future. Swain and Edyburn state that "in 1992, the U.S. Department of Labor's SCANS report noted that at least 80% of all jobs in the next two decades would require workers to be technologically fluent" (15). In today's global, extremely competitive society, it is more important than ever to provide our students with every opportunity to gain an edge on the competition, and this means exposing them to and giving them the chance to become comfortable with new technological tools. Educators should have the right to decide how they teach their students, but as Swain and Edyburn state, "because the uses of instructional technologies in today's schools influence the opportunities fir future educational and work experiences, instructional technology use in the classroom is a matter of social justice" (18).