Upon reflection...

After taking a thorough look at the last seven weeks of course work for Walden, I am extremely excited at all of the new possibilities and doors that have opened.  Up until this point, this has been the most productive and enlightening course I have been a part of within my graduate work.  I have been exposed to technologies I had heard of but never really been a part of; web 2.0 tools such as blogging, wikis, twitter and pod casts to name a few. Before this class, these were purely "out of school" internet tools that I was unsure of how to utilize.  This course has entirely changed my perspective and now I realize just how beneficial they can be in the classroom...not to mention just how powerful a teaching tool and "real world", 21st century learner tool they are!  On my own personal time, I have joined a few blogs about things I enjoy and also subscribe to golf pod casts, so not only have I learned about this new technology, I am using them outside of the classroom.

A note I feel I should add to my blog is that I was aware of the lack of technology in the district I teach in, but I was ignorant as to just how lacking we truly are. There is nobody to blame, budgets are failing, schools are running out of money, teachers are being released, the education system is struggling but I really feel like the students will be the ones to suffer from the systems lack of funding to educate students for what they will encounter once in the real world (21st century learners).

I was raised in a teacher centered classroom where the teacher spoke, we were quiet and did the work assigned.  Today's learner, and classroom for that matter, should be much more student based where the students work toward finding the information.  A huge positive for the students will be a key word known as collaboration.  Collaboration is something students will be doing once they enter the work force and when is there a better time than to practice but in the classroom while learning.  This task is somewhat already in the works as I have always been somewhere in the middle of teacher based and student based learning.  Learning about technology will undoubtedly make the transition to a complete learner based classroom much easier.

Being that I am somewhat young in the grand scheme of education, I feel it is relatively easy to stay on top of new technology and learn about the existing technology.  It seems as if most of my friends use blogs and podcasts already and we all know some people that play with every new gadget and toy that comes out, so I really just have to pay more attention to what is trending and what people are using.  Another excellent tool that I use will be my graduate work.  The course at Walden U is so far excellent and something I look forward to furthering my education base regarding technology and how to utilize it in the classroom.  All of these resources combined should be more than enough to stay on top of current and up-and-coming technology.

A goal of mine is without question bringing more technology in my classroom.  Up until this point, my use of technology was very limited (some fault due to the district's financial situation, some fault in my own ignorance), but that will change with this new influx of information at my fingertips.  Another goal I have set for myself is being more in tune with modern day technology.  Up until this point, I have been somewhat slow in engaging everything available.  I use the internet for very few reasons, I use my phone purely for phone calls and to text (I do not have a "smart phone"), I had no clue what a pod cast or blog was, and I definitely was lacking in my knowledge of the world of twitter.  Being a young guy, this is somewhat embarrassing and in some ways, unacceptable for my line of work.  I was almost doing an injustice to the students by my personal ignorance of technology.  Those two goals I have set should turn my classroom into one full of 21st century learners technology where students are using the tools they will need on a daily basis when they enter the real world.

As an educator, it is solely our responsibility to teach our students the knowledge and tools needed to be successful in modern day times.  The coursework at Walden U is giving me the knowledge and power to pass along to each and every student that comes through the door of my classroom.

Podcasting...

I have been listening to podcasts for a few years now.  It started listening to baseball recaps, then moved onto reviews of bodybuilding shows to golf podcasts...I now have produced my own podcast.  It was a simple, but time consuming project to put this together but well worth the time and effort. 

The project began in the classroom with a simple poll asking students about technology and their use and ideas of technology. I would have liked to conduct the poll online, but do to the volume of classes and students I have, it was not feasible.  At any rate, the poll went smooth and I was provided with some excellent information to use.  I then interviewed four students, two young men and two young ladies.  The answers they provided were pretty much parallel with the poll results. 

Now came the tricky part of this particular podcast....editing the interviews into a three-five minute single, piece of information.  This actually took a few hours and some ground work to produce and make it run relatively smooth!

All in all, this was a fun project and somewhat of an eye opener!

Ken

Link to my podcast:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/p1umnwyzd37ansv/completepodcast.wav

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Before anything should be said, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, or "P21", is an enormous website with an unbelievable amount of information at the fingertips of the viewer.  I looked through this site for well over an hour and felt like I barely scraped the surface all of the options and pages available to view.  I do find it interesting that the gap between what is being taught and what is actually needed to work in today's world is so big.  This site is dedicated, or acting as a "catalyst" as the mission statement says, in an attempt to fix this monster problem.  I find the "3 R's and the 4 C's" to be an interesting concept to look more into; the graph that accompanies this idea is also very accurate.  While New York state is not listed in the state initiatives section, there is so much to learn and read about it is truly a wonder why New York is not listed being a major city in this country (and world).

After looking through the main branches of the page, I found the "videos21", in the tools and resources section to be one of interest.  There are so many videos to view (I viewed some of the "most viewed" ones to get an idea of what to expect), relating to many different ideas.  I also found the FAQ page under the overview section to be a great place to start when trying to learn more about this program. 

It is hard to really disagree with anything on this website as everything included makes so much sense.  What is being taught in schools today is far from what is needed to be successful in this world.  Our curriculum's are often based on what was relevant many years ago...not what is relevant for the future (aka modern day students in the next 8-10 years).   It is also somewhat difficult to personally look at a way to implement this into a classroom without other teachers collaboration and the school backing you, financially and academically.

There is no way to say if P21 will really take off or fall by the way side.  It does pose some excellent ideas and concepts with the framework to support it.  Even though I am just one educator, I would love to see the great state of New York join in this program and find a way to implement some of the basic ideas.

Attached is the link to the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills
http://www.p21.org/index.php

New to this "wiki" thing...

The weeks assignment is to join a "wiki"....I am entirely unfamiliar with this form of internet technology.  After joining, I am excited to get going and see where it takes us and what exactly a wiki is.  I have had a few ideas about creating some kind of internet site for local golfers to setup matches and post scores, reviews of local courses extra...hopefully with all of the information I am learning in the class, I can put it to use and get this summer golf site up and running!

As I said, I am not familiar with wikis.  I have read a little about it in the textbook for the weekly reading, but until I actually am involved in it, I am unsure of what to expect.  The internet and other modern technologies are an exciting new venue to learn about and use. I very much look forward to it...

Ken

Week 2

Good afternoon everyone, this is the second installment of my blog and this post will be dealing with technology. The resources for the second week of Masters course @ Walden is one of interest to me.  I found all of the videos engaging, especially "Technology's Influence" and "Alvin Toffler's Wave Theory".  Very interesting listening to the theories and ideas about fed ex vs. the Maine education system.  It does bring up a great question, and this very question is one posed to the class from Mr. Kevin Jarret: is technology something that occurs due to another trigger, or is that trigger the reason for the technology occurring?

I am unsure of the answer, also as noted by the resources and Mr. Jarrett, this is the age old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg?  I am leaning towards technology occurring due to the environment around it as opposed to technology evolving regardless of the environment, it would have taken place.  Hall Davidson, an expert in the technology field, says that "war is a great thing for technology", I understand this statement as saying that any given technology that is developed during a time of war,  is developed strictly DUE TO the war taking place.  That technology would not have been founded without there being a trigger (the war, in this case) occurring.

This whole discussion is a good, philosophical question that could be debated back and forth, but in the end, regardless of how the technology is occurring...it is occurring.

Ken

First blog...

This is my first blog.  I'm sitting on my couch watching golf (what a surprise...) and doing some homework.
My legs are sore from Rebecca beating me up in the gym this morning for our weekly, Sunday "big legs day" workout.

-Ken