One/Two/Three Time Activities
Automate or Informate
Developing a Technology-Leading Mindset
When integrating technologies into the classroom, teachers and other administrators often come across problems such as the participation gap, digital divide, and digital inequality. These situations arise when technological resources are limited, scarce, or nonexistent in educational areas, both inside and outside the classroom. There are, however, strategies that can assist teachers in negating these problems. One such strategy listed by Maloy, et al., is the practice of one/two/three time activities. This instructional method has teachers split the class into groups of two or three and has each group perform a separate activity. After a specific amount of time, the groups will switch to the next activity. Furthermore, one or two of the activities should utilize technology (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 309). I feel like this instructional method would be very beneficial in practice, especially with lower-income schools that do not have the resources to fuel every class's technological needs. Although not every group would be able to have someone advising them, one activity could be specifically designated for having the teacher help the students, or the teacher could be available for questions at a desk/ could be walking around the room asking the students their questions at each station. My only concern is the grading requirements and situations/problems that could arise while doing group work (one student is working more than the others, some students do not understand the activities and can't reach the teacher, etc.); however, this would not happen in every classroom. Therefore, I think this practice would be significant in teaching lower-income schools and classrooms; however, as with any group work, teachers would need to make specific individualized grades to ensure that each student is cooperating.
Changes to the way classrooms teach are necessary for incorporating technology into lessons. The authors state that Alan November has compared two different ways that people use technology in their lives: to automate or to informate. Automate is used to describe the incorporation of technology into a process to make a process easier, faster, or ultimately better. Using my "professional knowledge" in science (i.e. the knowledge I remember from my high school chemistry course), the piece of technology being used and integrated into a process is similar to a catalyst in the body; the catalyst does not change the process/reaction, but instead increases the rate at which the process is performed. On the other hand, utilizing technology to informate learning will alter the process to achieve higher outcomes than without the technology (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 311-312). I believe that introducing technology into the classroom to both automate and informate an activity is important to engage and stimulate the classroom in order to assist the learning process. I have made an example on Padlet (shown below) about how it can help automate and informate the journal-writing process in an English-classroom-like setting.
Because this my second to last Blogger post for my EME 2040 class, I wanted to talk about developing a technology-leading mindset, which was one of my personal goals for this class. A teacher with a technology-leading mindset means that you have to be willing to understand that incorporating technology into the classroom to give your students (and yourself!) an overall better educational experience. And just utilizing technology is not enough; teachers need to be able to continue learning about technology so that it can be used and have a function in the classroom (Maloy, et al, 2013, p. 321). I believe there are two parts of having a technology-leading mindset stated in the book that are the most significant. First, being able to comprehend that making mistakes, experimenting (and sometimes failing), and coming across glitches with technology is all important in building experience. An educator's mistakes could lead to a better understanding of technological material, and that educator will be able to teach that material with full confidence. The second part is knowing that teaching is not equivalent to never learning again. Just because a person becomes an educator, does not mean that they should quit learning and only stick to what they already know. While this concept applies to developing a technology-leading mindset in the book, it also should apply to any educator in any subject. Broadening your horizons might lead you to developing a new teaching style or finding a new tool to use in class. Technology is ever-changing and continuously enhancing, and in as little as ten years, the world will have technological advancements far beyond what we can imagine. Therefore, it will be necessary for educators to keep up with the technological world, be open-minded, and be willing to try new things.
Resources
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.
Steuber, S. (2016, April 22). Automate and Informate Using Padlet in the Classroom Created with Padlet http://padlet.com/shelbysteuber/3iojyxkwi7i9
No comments:
Post a Comment