As I reflect on
my learning in my recent Education, Technology, and Society course, I realize
that I have learned many things that will help me as an online teacher and in
my post-graduate career in Education. I will outline here some of the key
takeaways that I have learned from this course.
The most
challenging assignment that I grew from was the Pecha Kucha video. Previous to
this course, I had never heard of a Pecha Kucha presentation. However, I
attended the Pecha Kucha night in El Paso and was able to see the presentation
in action. There were many interesting topics presented at the Pecha Kucha
night, and I saw the main challenge with all of them was timing. Some of the
Pecha Kucha’s had exact timing, and others were off on their timing. After
seeing the Pecha Kucha in action, I was able to conceptualize how to design my
presentation. For me, the timing was the biggest challenge in creating the
Pecha Kucha. I spent a lot of time cutting my presentation to fit into the time
restraints. It was also hard because it was difficult for me to keep my speech
fluid. I stumbled in many parts of the recording. Each stumble took seconds
away from the presentation. However, I felt deep satisfaction after I completed
the Pecha Kucha presentation. I see the power of this short presentation; its
visual effects combined with concise compacted research really aids in
capturing the audience’s attention. Pecha Kucha’s are more interesting
presentation devices than traditional PowerPoint presentations as presenters
slides are often boring, the listener loses attention, and is also frustrated
when the PowerPoint presenter reverts to slide reading. The Pecha Kucha was a
very important takeaway from this course.
I also learned
about different technology tools to use in the classroom to maximize learning.
I appreciate the strategies that Pacansky-Brock (2013) delivered in her book
and video, as well as the different tools that my classmates shared throughout
the course. I specifically appreciated learning not only what the tool was, but
how Pacansky-Brock (2013) and my classmates use the tool and its effectiveness
in the classroom. It’s important not to be technocentric, to use technology for
technology sake. “It’s not the tool you use with a student that makes the
difference: it’s what you do with the tool. It’s what you accomplish. It’s the
learning that it triggers…(Tools) are nothing without the guidance, support,
and imagination of a teacher” (Johnson, 2011). I have already started using web
meetings with my online classes and have noticed that my student engagement
scores, which are measured by a metric, have increased. I currently use some
video announcements in my course, mainly as an introduction to the course, but
I plan to implement more regular video announcements versus the written
announcements that I currently use to see if this will increase engagement
scores even more. I also will be trying some other new interactive tools in my
classroom that I learned about in this course to help increase engagement and
meet my students learning needs. Some of these tools include blogs, vlogs,
screencasting, Symbaloo, video email, Skype, and Voki, as well as several other
apps that aid the learning process. These tools will help me to add more of a
human touch to my online classes.
Another thing I
learned is to not discard traditional “old” technology, such as PowerPoint. One
of my colleagues shared how she uses PowerPoint with her students. I had
considered PowerPoint to be a “doldrum” tool and prefer to use Prezi or other
interactive presentation tools. However, seeing how the students created
PowerPoint videos with voiceover, uses PowerPoint as a powerful multimedia
tool. Students have the freedom to create and use PowerPoint to share with
other students, and by adding the voiceover component, this tool can be used
online as well. Their peers can also be critics, which makes it even more
dialogic. In Marc Prensky's (2010) book Teaching Digital Natives, he discusses teaching with nouns
(the tools students use to learn to do, or practice) and verbs (the skills that
students need to learn, practice, and master). In this colleague’s example,
PowerPoint is a tool (noun) for presenting (verb). Prensky (2010) has a long
list of noun-verb technological pairs. I plan to copy this list of noun-verb
technological pairs and use it more diligently in teaching my courses.
I learned from
another classmate how to make assignments more participatory. Asking students
to answer a prompt with only pictures is a very powerful assignment that I want
to try with my students. Taking away the words and only portraying ideas and
concepts with pictures is a way of really listening to students and seeing
their unique perspective of the world. It also gives teachers insights into how
students are learning. My classmate asked his students what they wanted for the
future of their education. This is a true example of listening to your
students, understanding their passions, and then teaching to their passions and
desires. It is an example of Prensky’s (2010) pedagogical principle of
partnering and guiding students in their learning.
Finally, Horn
and Staker’s (2015) concept of disruptive innovation caught my attention. Horn
and Staker (2015) discuss disruptive innovation in Blended and bringing disruptive innovations to non-consumers as an
initial inroad to infiltrating the mainstream market with the ultimate goal of
overthrowing the monolithic factory model of education. The authors advocate
for disruptive innovation and state that we need a student-centric model that
focuses on individual student needs to replace the monolithic factory model of
education that has served this country for decades. A student-centric, blended
learning model is needed for our current technology-centric economy. Some
common differences among learners that call for this student-centric model
include: 1) We all learn at different paces; 2) We all bring different levels
of background knowledge to learning experiences; and 3) We all have different
aptitudes, or memory capacities, the amount of information we can absorb and
work with in our mind. Learning about disruptive innovation has sparked my
interest in reading Christensen’s (2011) book The Innovator’s Dilemma.
References
Christensen,
C. (2011). The innovator’s dilemma: The
revolutionary book that will change the way you do business. HarperBusiness.
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to
improve schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Johnson,
S. (2011). Digital tools for teaching: 30
e-tools for collaborating, creating, and publishing across the curriculum. Gainesville,
FL: Maupin House Publishing, Inc.
Pacansky-Brock, M. (2013). Best practices for teaching with emerging
technologies. New York, NY: Rutledge.
Prensky,
M. (2010). Teaching digital natives: Partnering for real
learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
