I must admit: Before signing up for this course, I had many reservations and concerns about my experience in this class. Personally, I'm not very computer literate. I just upgraded to a new iPhone despite my urge to go back to a basic feature phone (already knowing I will not use it to the fullest capacity), and I am entirely not sure how I feel about integrating technology as an everyday tool in the classroom.
In the beginning of the course, I felt a huge schism between the class readings and my personal opinions. In Leading 21st Century Schools by Lynne Schrum and Barbara B. Levin (2009), the first chapter made me feel out of the loop as an educator, and I'm a relatively new graduate from a school of education. With a call to redefine literacy and knowledge to include technology (p. 10-12), I was afraid of many things:
1. How can I teach children technologies that I'm not familiar with myself? Where will I find the time to learn the technologies and then find a way to make the directions understandable to the children?
2. What if the children are already more fluent than I am with technology. How does that change the flow of my planned lessons? Does it become the children waiting for me to catch up in the classroom?
3. With the new standards and 21st century skills set in place (such as the National Technology Standards for Students [p. 14, Schrum & Levin, 2009]), where do we find the time to address those in addition to the current core curriculum content standards and preparation for testing?
4. Is it really O.K. to expose the children to different technologies at such a young age (with my interest in pre-K through 2nd grade)?
5. What if screen time (television, video games, movies) is suggested to be reduced at younger ages? Where do we draw the line with the various technologies? Do we make exceptions for computers? Do we push for technology mastery over other skills such as language and math?
6. How do we help divide how children treat technology in the classroom (education and research) from how they use it at home (entertainment)? How can we still make the use of technology interesting compared to the use of it at home?
I had these pedagogy related questions looming in my head even before considering my ability to use and master the technology I could hypothetically use in my classroom. If you ask any of my close friends or co-workers, my decision for a new smart phone was a long and tedious process. I was skeptical of my ability to use it to its fullest capacity, I hated and barely understood the hand-me-down smart phone I had at the time, I wasn't sure if I needed all the bells and whistles that would be on my new phone; I couldn't see myself with something that fancy. My friend joked with me all the time, "Amanda, you're the first person I know who would say, 'Woah, woah...I don't need innovation...'" and that I sounded like a grandmother who stumbled upon her grandchild's phone, not knowing what to do. This is me at 25 years old, and I'm afraid of new waves of technology. How can I expect myself to educate others when I am doubtful that I can be educated in technology?
Thus far, I cannot say that my questions and concerns have been entirely calmed yet. I have seen how some individual, more familiar pieces of Web 2.0 can be used as tools to have students communicate among each other and to reach audiences past the classroom. I have also been required to design a web/resource page for a classroom that although I feel looks good on paper (or rather, Word Document), will work out on the web design page. Lastly, through assignments thus far, I feel hat I am being as creative as I can on how to use technology as a tool rather than the main event in lesson plans, to make lessons become more vibrant but still with a purpose. It has been a challenge trying to change my personal and educational technology outlook thus far, but I hope that I can keep moving on with the help of peers. That's what Web 2.0 is all about anyways, right? Instant communication and collaboration?
