Prior
to taking this course, I thought I had a sound understanding of implementing
technology and utilizing a variety of different tools to enhance my
instructional strategies. However, I realized that there are plenty more
opportunities when using technology that even a physical education teacher can
use. If anything, I learned that any and all technology could be related to
physical education, which is something that definitely resonated with me after
completing this course.
The variety media, resources and
activities throughout this course have helped develop my own technology skills
as a professional teacher. As part of this course, we were instructed to create
a blog and twitter page to track and share our findings with our colleagues.
Aside from our own postings, we were also expected to utilize social media and
blog sites as a collaborative tool. Going outside of my own comfort zone and
creating such tools to use and then collaborate within, was a huge advance for
myself as a teacher.
One social media tool that I am
going to try to implement in the classroom is a Wellness Twitter Page. The purpose of the class Twitter will be for
means of communication between teacher and student, as well as communication
and discussion between student and student. “It is important to remember that,
no matter what your position is on social media, for young people it is amongst
the most common mediums in which they write regularly. A survey in January of
this year calculated that there are 11,784,460 Facebook and 2,200,000 Twitter
users in Australia, with an incredible daily average of 1.4 million tweets per
day. Given, many of those tweets are as easily forgettable as they are
laughable. But their occurrence signals the incredible use of social media as a
platform for writing” (November & Mull 2012). This means that with the
opportunity to utilize a widely popular social media tool, students can begin
to see the larger picture of using technology in education and eventually the
work force. Students need to be able to see how social media tools can be used
for other purposes other than meaningless socializing and retweeting of
“garbage.” The tool will be extremely
beneficial in my high school wellness classes since all students have access to
the internet via school provided chromebooks, as well as instant access per use
of their cell phones. Assignments, collaboration, and other discussions can be
completed with ease. Potential roadblocks that I can see happening are students
not being allowed to sign up on twitter per parental or guardian restriction,
lack of internet access at home or issues with privacy and appropriateness. The
latter of the roadblocks is of priority because students at the high school age
are very famililar with twitter and social media use. With this expertise comes
issues of posting appropriate or going against class privacy settings. For
example, how would I ensure, other than class expectations, that students do
not send private messages or post inappropriate tweets in regards to topics we
are discussing? With the expectation of remaining appropriate, students would
be removed and penalized accordingly. My plan to overcome that priority
roadblock would be to truly instill expectations and create a safe environment
for students to ensure the twitter page remain a place of learning.
Twitter use in the classroom
supports ISTE for students standard 2: digital citizen “ students Students
recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning
and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways
that are safe, legal and ethical” (ISTE 2016). Twitter supports engaging in
positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology. This means
they are utilizing the social media tool with responsibility and not
criticizing, bullying or engaging in inappropriate behaviors. The ISTE standard that supports teachers is
standard 2: design and develop digital age learning experiences and
assessments. This standard supports the use of a twitter page because the
teacher is designing a learning experience and digital learning environment
used to aid in development of content knowledge, skills, and attitudes. (ISTE
2006)
One long term smart goal that I will
set for transforming my classroom environment in order to help students gain
needed technological tools for their future is to implement one new Web 2.0
tool a year. By doing so, I will not feel overwhelmed by the number of tools I
could implement, and focus more on just one that I can master and implement. If
I can implement and master one a year, my teaching practice will remain updated
and I will have built a bank of web 2.0 tools. Another long term smart goal is
to become more proficient with the ISTE standards for both students and teacher.
By remaining updated with these standards, the teacher will be able to provide
the utmost learning experience while also staying accountable for teacher
standards.
References
International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE). (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016
International Socitey for Technology in Education
(ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
November, A., & Mull, B. (2012,
October 12). How twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool. Retrieved
from
http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/how-twitter-can-be-used-as-a-powerful-educational-tool/b
