Reflection

=Where I started?=

I started this course as a fairly traditional language arts teacher. Writing with technology pretty much meant composing traditional, multi-paragraph essays on a computer. Assessing student-composition meant using some variation on the 6-trait rubric.

=What I learned in class?=

I learned that technology allows me to significantly expand my notions of what constitutes a composition. But (perhaps more significantly) certain structural, systemic foundations take planning and maintaining if any sort of initiative - especially ones related to technology - are going to succeed and thrive. This class also forced me consider the way in which composition can be more of a performance based learning activity - one that is steeped in real world problem solving. For example, Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs and wikis, where students can organize, synthesize, and create content in corroboration with one another or with students far away will be vital in creating realistic, performance-based learning situations. This class has helped me to realize that our students need to develop traditional composition skills in conjunction with the skills required by new technologies and media / communication forms. Change in these areas is rapid, and students will need to continually adapt. The advent of the information explosion via media technologies and the internet will require students to employ various means to find, organize, synthesize and evaluate which information is useful and valid. Too many of our students are regurgitators, who prefer to be distracted rather than engaged, who prefer passive reception instead of critical thinking, and who view education as a hoop to jump through rather than a staging ground for their 21st Century lives. An expanded definition of what constitutes a "composition" is one means for remedying this mindset.

=Where am I headed? (What will I pay attention to?)= I need to create learning situations where students are demonstrating “what they can do with knowledge”. In other words, hopefully my assessments will not merely ask students to regurgitate knowledge or follow a predetermined formula. They will be an opportunity for students to think through problems, apply concepts / knowledge, and hopefully create something, which to them feels original. Here are some questions I will be struggling with as a result of taking this course:

Where is the infrastructure supporting my technological initiatives in need of bolstering?

Does technology as a tool for composition develop students who. . . - are capable of real innovation? - readily engage in higher order thinking (i.e. moving up Bloom's taxonomy)? - desire to keep learning? (I love this quote from John Dewey and I often return to it when some aspect of my pedagogy is about to change- “ The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning . . .what avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his own soul: loses his appreciation of things worth while, of the values to which these things are relative; if he loses desire to apply what he has learned and, above all, loses the ability to extract meaning from his future experiences as they occur?” – John Dewey Education and Experience p. 48)

The technology explosion has shifted the earth beneath educators’ feet – but is it a necessary component in helping us regain our footing?

As teachers move away from pre-designed curriculum (based on textbooks, detailed standards, and standardized tests) and allow students a more active role in determining their learning activities and projects through things like open source software – should we be concerned that we are paralyzing our students with too many options and filling them with regret when they do choose a learning path?

Does educational technology – like so many of the massively popular online tools – promote narcissism?

To what extent can educational technology provide authentic, contextual, meaningful, self-directed, active learning experiences?