Professional Development

I have been following the blog eLearning Technology, and found some very useful information this week.  I really appreciated a model that was created concerning learning about new technology.  I, myself, am not exactly a technological wiz, so this was very useful advice.  The blog talked about considerations a teacher should make when approaching new technology and asked the questions, "Will the content remain roughly the same for two years? Or will it really be out of date in two years? Is the content I need applicable to a relatively large audience or do I have fairly particular needs?"  I definitely need to focus my search when it comes to familiarizing myself with new technology.  I need to think about practicality for the classroom I am in, relevance to promoting learning, and whether or not it is worth my time to invest in new technological advances.  I think that technology is advancing at such an alarming rate that it is important to filter my search for useful tools and consider their relevancy and long term benefits.  I think that this funny commercial depicts this concern better than I can:

Another post on this blog discussed how the effects of technology on education are vastly underestimated. I can definitely see this when I consider how I learned when I was a young student and how I and my peers approach learning as college students.  For example, when I was younger, if I wanted to learn more about a topic, I would go to the library, check out the selection on the topic, check out the books that I thought would be most helpful to me, and go read about the topic.  Now, if I need to find information on something, most of the time, I think I can speak for a majority of my classmates by saying that we walk over to our computers, type the topic into google, and look through the information online.  I am somewhat old fashioned if you couldn't already tell, and in my opinion, this fact is kind of sad.  Now, don't get me wrong; it may be a more effective way of learning when the information is so accessible, but I really learned a lot about changing my attitude about it after reading this post.  I need to get on board because I am underestimating the alarmingly increasing influence that technology has on education. One thing I absolutely agree with is trying to enhance my teaching strategies for the students' benefit, and if technology is a way to do that, I have to be open to the idea.  One question that the post asked that really hit home for me was, "If we are going to force students to sit through lectures, shouldn't they be the absolute best lecture?" I answered yes to this question, and I suppose that means that I am also answering yes to technology.  However, let the record state that I put up a fight!

Another post that I found extremely helpful and that I will be referencing in the future is about evaluating the tools to bee used in the classroom and considering every factor.  As someone with little experience in this area, I really would not know the right questions to ask when considering using new technology in my classroom.  This post provided a list of questions that I think would be valuable for us to check off in this situation.  The list includes:

• Cost: Is the tool free or very-low cost to use? Trial periods wouldn’t count.
• Question Types/Methods: Does the tool offer the ability to create a rich testing experience by offering various question types?
• Multimedia: Does the tool offer the ability to include audio and/or visuals for questions?
• Data Collection: Does the tool provide detailed statistics on individual and/or group performance?
• Grading: Does the tool allow for several methods of grading responses? (i.e. immediate feedback, final results with or without which questions were missed, etc.)
• Download Test Results? : Can the test data be retrieved for analysis or backup?
• Layout/Accessibility: Can the layout of the quiz output be changed and does it handle accessibility issues?
• Security: Are there security methods in place to catch/prevent cheating, hacking, or other similar problems?
• Ease of Use: Is the tool well supported and easy to learn?

I think that without all of these considerations, a tool would become detrimental to the learning process.  If it is going to suck up time, money, and patience by complicating the process of assessing your students, you are going to be frustrated, rushed, and disappointed.  This goes along with what the first post talked about.  I think that above everything I learned from this assignment, I have learned to ask myself, "Is this worth it in that it will greatly benefit learning?"  I think that with these considerations in mind, I can more efficiently answer this question and therefore be a more efficient educator.