Ten Things to Think
Why “Ten Things to Think”?
Sometimes it is difficult for
teachers interested in using technology in the classroom to know where to start. There are endless tools, software, hardware, and people who will insist they have the solution, the right thing for your students, the technology everyone needs to know how to use. While I have my favorite tools and software I could tell you all about, I think it is more important to start out with ways of thinking. Learning the ins and outs of tools and hardware will be daunting and meaningless without first establishing how you think about using technology. You need to find what is right for you, and these general things to think will give you a framework and a starting point. Then, the possibilities are endless to have a great experience with technology in your classroom. I hope they are helpful to you in your technology adventures.
There is a main document which can be downloaded here. Also if you visit http://msu.edu/~kelleral/T4.html there is more information and supporting documents including a poster and a lesson checklist available. All of these things are in an early draft, I have planned edits that will be up this summer. If you have any suggestions or comments, please leave them here or email me (kelleral@msu.edu).
Manifesto
Based off the Personal MBA, I created a required reading list or manifesto for becoming an exceptional teacher. The introduction is included in this post, click to view the entire list in a PDF.
As I finish up my final year in the teacher preparation program at Michigan State University, and move towards graduation, my teaching internship, and my life as a teacher, it is important for me to think about the bodies of knowledge I will need to be successful. I have learned a lot in my undergraduate career and even more working on my masters in educational technology, but there is more I will need to know to truly be an expert teacher. While this list is not all-inclusive or faultless, it is a look at the type of things I will need to know, and some places I can go to find information and inspiration. Some of the sources I currently use or have previously read, and others I plan to experience in the future. There are twelve sections which suggest the types of things I will need to know to be an exceptional teacher, each including several books, website, movies, or blogs, that can help me to learn.
– Management Master – Know it All – Language Arts Legend –
– Books to Make Kids Love Books – Classroom of Creativity –
– Tech Teacher – Reach Every Single Child –
– Understand Students – It’s a Kid’s World –
Digital Footprint
When faced with the task of visualizing my technology use over time, I had a hard time knowing where to begin. I started making lists, and became frustrated not knowing what to call technology and what to leave out. I started thinking about the things I use everyday, starting in the morning and realized I could count a toaster as technology, and 500 thread count sheets I am sure took technology to create. Then I tried starting with my birth; I could start with the baby monitor, or even the pregnancy test or sonogram. Should I focus on the most important things over a longer time period, or all of the minutia in the last few years? Should I choose the things most obviously technology related, electronics and computer things, or just use any invented objects that I use. Even the dictionary didn’t help me narrow down what I should consider technology, definitions from dictionary.com include, ”the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization,” and “electronic or digital products and systems considered as a group.” So, I decided to use a narrow definition and a narrow time period. I decided to focus on the computer type technology that I use daily and that is most important to my life, and I decided to use the time period since I arrived at MSU.
Part of the power of technology for me, is the ability to create. I have always had an interest in art making, and enjoy creating with multimedia, using digital images, editing videos, playing with web design, etc. I have minimal experience with these things and digital art is something I would like to use more often and be more competent creating. Because of these interests and goals, I decided to use Photoshop (an application I would like to increase my skills in) to create a visual representation of my technology use over time.
When thinking about the ways I use technology and the ways technology aids my life, the word connection kept coming up. Technology helps me connect my thoughts, memories, and ideas. It helps connect me to people with similar interests, to family, to friends. It connects me to knowledge and information. The idea of using a bridge came to me after thinking on the theme of connection. While technology connections are really more like an intertwined web of networks, a bridge seemed to simplify and symbolize the idea well. I thought immediately of the Brooklyn Bridge because I love New York City and the Brooklyn Bridge. I had recently taken pictures of the bridge and of the NYC skyline, and thought about all of the different types of people, ideas, and experiences that cross that bridge each day. It seemed like the right choice to illustrate my technology use. Also, the gradual incline of the bridge resembles an accurate line graph of my technology use, an upward slope over time. So I cut and pasted some things together, put years on the buildings, and made words on the bridge representing the types of technology I have used in the last five years, lined up generally under the appropriate year. It is a symbolic line graph, a metaphor for connection, and a representation of one of my favorite ways to utilize the power of technology.
Part of why I chose to use Photoshop is because I would like to become a better Photoshop user. There are two things I have wanted to work on that I was able to do with this project. First, I wanted to get a better handle on layers and the possibilities that layers allow for. I also wanted to try using a Wacom graphics tablet with Photoshop. First, I put in the background by layering a picture of the sky behind a picture of water and using transparency and the stamp tool to create a more artistic representation. I then added the buildings by first desaturating and then increasing the contrast on a photo I had taken of the skyline. I mirrored and stuck together the images to create a pattern on which to add the years. For the bridge, I created one layer of the bridge and another over it on which I wrote all of the words of the types of technology using the tablet and pen. I then cut out only the bridge and applied some different effects to get it very light, and removed the rest of the bridge layer.
This project has helped me to see several things about myself and my technology use. First, it became clear not just how technology connects me to my environment, but how highly connected the technologies I use are. That is especially true most recently, and technologies that I use seem to have gotten more and more integrated. When I first started college, I used minimal technologies that were necessary. I used angel for class, computer programs that I needed, and a cell phone and ipod for example, all common technologies. Since 2006 I have started seeking out new technologies and tried to find technologies that will make my daily life simpler and more organized, or that make communication easier. Just the last two years, I have begun to see how technology will impact my future classrooms and my experience as a teacher. It will be interesting to see how my technology use will continue to change.
