Final Reflection and Blog Posting on the Impact of Technology

In this reflection essay, I will reflect on how the resources and activities in this course have helped me continue developing my technology skills as a teacher. I’d like to discuss this in the following steps. First, I’d like to discuss the role social bookmarking, wikis, and blogs have played in the continuing development of my teaching technological skills. Second, I’d like to discuss how I have deepened my knowledge from this course and regarding integrating technology in the classroom. Third, of all the technologies discussed in this course, why am I most open to using podcasting in my practice, and where do I see any potential obstacles to its implementation? Fourth, I’d like to specify two long-term SMART goals to help me transform my classroom to better support students in their 21st-century skill development. Finally, what topic of interest do I wish to pursue for further research and understanding? I believe it will be the biggest change in the classroom since the emergence of the classroom computer. By reflecting on this, I can convey the importance of the learning in this course to me as an educational professional.

My use of educational technology resources is quite extensive since I teach junior high school computer science. However, during this course, I was able to experiment with technologies such as social bookmarking, which helped me understand their purpose and value for my practice. Tools such as Diigo enabled me to collaborate with fellow students by sharing and discovering resources and articles that could be used in my practice. Further, I can see these tools being effective in my classroom for students during Project Based Learning (PBL) activities. Technologies such as wikis have proven value in their function as repositories of information and resources for students (Parker, 2007). I have also started to use the wiki framework for increased engagement of students. I found the wiki tools to be a great means of delivering information to students in a cloud-based, anywhere-anytime format that works well in my classroom (Parker, 2007). The wikis also allow me to share multiple means of representation for a lesson and, therefore, meeting my inclusive teaching goal. I have also started to use wikis to collaborate with fellow teachers and share resources, ideas, techniques, and lesson plans to further my growth as a teacher. I found that blogs were a great way to engage others well beyond geographical constraints. Further, I found it an effective way to keep myself professionally abreast of current educational blogs that have timely content, editorials, reviews and best practices all in a format easily obtainable. The blog medium also allows room for questions, debates and continued discussions. For students, I found that the use of blogs helped some of them become more articulate and robust with their writing and opinions. Hence, these tools have influenced my growth as an educational professional. They will no doubt continue to do so for some time.

As a computer science teacher, my use of technology with students in the classroom is a given. However, I found this course helped me understand technologies that I was hesitant to apply because of my limited knowledge of the technology and its application for learning. The course helped me with a journey of exploring new technologies to integrate into my professional practice. This exploration also allowed me to make curriculum alignment and accommodation opportunities. Consequently, I have deepened my knowledge from this course regarding integrating technology in the classroom. 

Of all the technologies discussed in this course, I am most open to using podcasting in my classroom. This is for several reasons.  Podcasting has made my students more comfortable with audio recording and editing software, expanding their skills beyond traditional tools I would have previously used. It allowed some students to have a voice that they would otherwise not have with their limited writing abilities. I believe podcasting offers a dynamic way to deliver content and engage students who prefer audio-visual learning. It allows students to plan, write, record, edit and publish a series of clips that would have previously been a slideshow or a written report. Instead, podcasting opens up a new world of being able to design and produce new media content. From an ISTE Standards for Students perspective, podcasting for students as part of a PBL meets all of the 1.6 Creative Communicator standards (ISTE, n.d.). Students would be allowed to choose the podcasting medium to convey complex learning materials through the creation of original work and customizing the message (ISTE, n.d., “1.6 Creative Communicator”). The development of podcasting skills lends well to my goal of building 21st-century skills for my students. I don’t see any major obstacles in implementing podcasting in my PBL units as we practice privacy law awareness in my classroom as part of their digital citizenship unit, so all of my students are aware of expected behaviours online. This would lend itself to ensuring students used podcasting with an awareness of a global audience and would ensure they limited the disclosure of personal information. As the teacher in the classroom, I noticed firsthand how the tool made students work eagerly in groups and share ideas and skills. Podcasting is, therefore, my most important takeaway technology from this course.

I would like to specify two long-term SMART goals to help me transform my classroom to better support students in their 21st-century skill development. My first SMART goal is that by the end of this school year, I will develop and implement a comprehensive coding and game design curriculum to be used over the next school year to enhance students' technical skills and creativity. I plan to accomplish this goal by reaching out to fellow computer science teachers in the province and collaborating with them on ideas and best practices to achieve this goal. Further, I have reached out to Tynker, a graphics-based coding skill development system, to help set up a customized course that will allow students to develop coding skills through gameplay. As a former software engineer, I will also incorporate the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) framework within the unit to help students develop 21st-century skills. I will measure the success of this SMART goal by reviewing end-of-unit surveys and assessing the student feedback on the course. I will also be able to review the final projects and see how well they turned out compared to past coding projects. My second SMART goal is that by the end of two school years, I will have developed and implemented a year-long technology business startup project-based learning (PBL) module to enhance students' entrepreneurial and technological skills. I will accomplish this by working with local business contacts to help create a system of mentorship for the students and reaching out to our local chamber of commerce for assistance on business start-up specifics. I will leverage existing business-related options material in the Alberta CTF curriculum to help correctly align the unit to outcomes. I will also leverage provincial resources related to business start-ups, including the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium. I will measure the success of this goal by revving the feedback from students through end-of-unit surveys and by the anecdotal evidence of student engagement during this unit. By completing these two SMART goals, my teaching goal is to further create opportunities for student learning that transcend the classroom.

As a teacher, what topic of interest do I wish to pursue for further research and understanding? I believe the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be the biggest change in the classroom since the emergence of the classroom computer. As a junior high school computer science teacher, I am both excited and terrified about the arrival of AI in the classroom. I recognize the power of generative AI services as learning resources to explain abstract concepts to students and help students as potential cloud-based tutors. But I also worry about the generative aspects of AI being used by students to create and complete their assignments for them. I also see the use of generative AI by teachers as a supplemental resource as an interesting development for education (Ministry of Education and Child Care, n.d.). But, I also fear that the over-reliance on generative AI will lead teachers to exclusively use these AI services for unit plans, lesson plans, rubrics, assignments and tests. This leads to my fascination with the emergence of this tool and the impact it will have on teaching and learning in the classroom. I wish to further explore this topic in all aspects with an open mind as I pursue my graduate studies. 

References

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (n.d.). ISTE standards: For students. [Multimedia]. https://iste.org/standards/students

Ministry of Education and Child Care. (n.d.). Considerations for Using AI Tools in K-12 Schools. Retrieved October 12, 2024, from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/ai-in-education/considerations-for-using-ai-tools-in-k-12-schools.pdf

Parker, K. R. (2007). Wiki as Teaching Tool. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Skills and Lifelong Learning, 3(3), 57-72. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.28945/386