This Bloggers TLC

Phase 1: Awareness

The biggest thing that has come to my awareness is the time spent on using technology in the classroom setting. Especially PowerPoint (tm). Every week we see one or more PowerPoint presentations, projected onto a screen for the whole class to see. What I have been aware of is the great disparity of technology available to teachers in the school setting. I do not know of any teacher who has access to a projector unless they personally have paid for and bought one themselves. Some classes have computers, some do not. Some have only ONE in the class.

Phase 2: Exploration and Filtration

The technologies I want to explore cycle around the notion of how to take powerful learning tools such as PowerPoint and find ways to use them in a lower technology setting. This can include the use of something like the Movie making program that was demonstrated in our classroom, or it could be how to get a video card with a VIDEO in connector set and transfering stuff to a VHS tape. OR the the otherway around. Given the lower cost of DVD players today, I would like to use a DVD burner as the final tool to getting stuff back into the classroom as a starter. I'll start my exploration with the easy make a movie program. Out there somewhere are also programs that will convert a PowerPoint to a movie format. Will need to explore that after playing with the movie making program, as an earlier email from the instructor pointed out that the PowerPoint converters may be highly technical, and not supported by every DVD player.

Phase 3: Learning

My favorite way of learning is to have a project in mind. I would learn to use the product by putting together a presentation. I could either do a new presentation, or I could take a previously made one and see what it takes to convert it to the new format. As a 143 B student next semester, I would have plenty of opportunities to come up with lesson plans, hence, lots of opportunities to have something to make a presentation for. This would also give me a circumstance for getting feedback on the usefulness of such presentations from observing teachers. Another thought about making the movies, is could give a copy to a master teacher ahead for time for comment, and then use the feed back to fine tune the presentation.

Phase 4: Personal and Professional Application

The personal and professional application to me would be the use of the above technology to set up classroom presentations at home and show them in the class on a regular basis. Further application would include finding ways to incorporate movies and movie clips so that I could then use them as part of the presentation. The need here is the use of audio visual projects that fullfil the needs I have in instructing my students in a meaningful and engaging way. Another application would be to allow students to make movies as part of project, which would a) get the students involved in learning in new and interesting ways and b) teach them about technology - killing two standards with one eraser so to speak.

Phase 5: Sharing and Reflection

Reflection to me is a standard task. Did I make the best use of the technology? Have I gotten the time factor down so that it is economical for me to use the technology in class? It will do me little good if it takes me 200 hours to make a 20 minute presentation. Was the presentation engaging? Did it in fact help students learn anything, or were they too busy paying attention to other parts of the presentation that were in fact NOT what I wanted them to pay attention to (Neat graphics Mr. Saidak! Do that again!). Or were the presentations so boring that I cured 30 cases of insomnia before it began?

Sharing is not something I have previously given alot of thought to. I'd be happy to share anything I developed with other people. I suppose I could look for a website where I could upload things to, and share that way. THis would also possibly lead to more feedback for improving things. I know I would let other teachers in my school know what I was doing and how easy it was.

As for adding more technology, that would depend on a number of things. IT is not so much would I add more technology to my "bag of tricks", so much as where and when I finish on the presentations technology, what was emerging then, and what the needs of my students were. It would also depend on who I was sharing with. If I was in a school with a bunch of technophobic teachers, I would have to find someway of finding a pool of teachers who were NOT technophobic. This could be anything from starting a blog to develop my own community, to finding a ready made community such as a "Technology for the Classroom" Association and magazine. Associations and magazines each have their own agenda's, and that agenda would end up influencing my next choice, I'm sure.

I think both my approach in class and work to date has demonstrated that I am not a luddite, and that I can quickly pick up on any technology when I see a need to do so (want an A? or it actively helps me do what I need to do...).