TechQuest Draft 1

When considering a problem of practice, there is one idea that repeatedly comes to mind; the lack of training and consequently use of the SMARTBoards in my building by teachers and students...

Last December, six teachers in my building volunteered to take on SMARTBoards in their classrooms in an attempt to begin to learn a new technology that would be following us to our new, and much more technically advanced building in the fall of 2010. I was one of those six teachers and I took on that new piece of technology with zest and vigor and basically sought out ways to teach myself how to use and integrate it into my teaching. I now use my SMARTBoard on what is close to an everyday basis for interactive teaching and cooperative learning and I have found it to be nothing but a powerful and engaging piece of technology. This unfortunately is not the case with regards to the five other SMARTBoards within my building, which have had very little if any use in the months since they were installed. This has happened, in my opinion, because of a couple of different factors. The first factor is that the teachers do not see the potential in what a SMARTBoard has to offer with teaching and learning and the second one (which is related to the first) is these teachers have not had much of any kind of support or training with these tools and they probably feel very intimidated by them to initiate any sort of self-training on them such as I did. Wow! The technology is there, and is being wasted because the training and the "know-how" is very much lacking or is almost non-existent. What a shame!!

With every classroom teacher getting a SMARTBoard attached to a wall in their classroom next fall in our new building, this problem is also likely to get much bigger and more widespread. To help alleviate this, teachers will need a lot of support and training with the use of SMARTBoards and as the new Technology Facilitator in my building next year, I would like to begin now to create some professional development resources that would help the teachers that have SMARTBoards now, gain a bit of teaching and training with them so that they may begin to do what they were expected to do without training when the SMARTBoards were hung in their classrooms. I will move forward with offering staff development opportunities to all classroom teachers next fall in an effort to help them get the training they need so that they can utilize this 21st century technology with their students who are ready to get out of the 20th century way of being taught.

Rationale...

According to Brophy (2006, p.27), "Cooperative learning creates the potential for cognitive and metacognitive benefits by engaging students in discourse that requires them to make their task-related information-processing and problem-solving strategies explicit (and thus available for discussion and reflection). Students are likely to show improved achievement outcomes when they engage in certain forms of co-operative learning as an alternative to completing assignments on their own." SMARTBoards serve as a perfect opportunity to merge technology and cooperative learning into one, and therefore is the purpose of this TechQuest. Ultimately this teaching will be done using a presentation tool (likely PowerPoint) as well as tutorials because they can be played and used on a SMARTBoard, which would allow for teacher training and interaction with the SMARTBoard together in accordance with each other. Success will be measured based on how many and how often SMARTBoards are used within classrooms through observations, online questionnaires, and general staff comments and feedback.

Final Thoughts...

Just as I was in 810, I am once again amazed at the growth and learning that I feel I have done in just 8 INTENSE, but short weeks! From creating wiki's and talking on blogs to navigating websites and then building or own, this class has packed in a lot of information and learning into a short amount of time! Through building a WebQuest and climbing StAIRs, I am now in much better shape to share and implement technology and online learning with my students and my peers on our race into the 21st Century of learning. I am thrilled with the prospect of integrating (and creating) more WebQuests with my students and will approach the idea of blogging with an open mind that it can work in an elementary setting!

Over the past 8 weeks, I have been both reminded and enlightened about the use of effective teaching strategies when integrating technology. Deductive, Inductive, Mathetics, oh my! It's simply amazing, how even little bits of all of these can help students flourish and grow academically. It can't be a matter of which ONE to use, but rather which ONES to use when considering effective teaching through technology, and I am grateful for that enhanced knowledge.

As I move forward into Session 812 and beyond, the learning that I have done will allow me the opportunity to continue to grow and build upon my passion for educational technology as I continue to reach for "the moon and the stars" with bringing a quality education to my students through technology integration. Simply put, and honestly speaking; it is what they all deserve and I am most determined (and excited) to give it to them!

Online Learning

Wow, there really are a lot of opportunities for a wide variety of activities when it comes to the term "online learning." These opportunities range from blogging, WebQuests, and podcasts, to RSS feeds, online simulations, and educational gaming. And while, some of these activities are too difficult for first graders to use, others, such as WebQuests, or educational gaming, are more relevant and require less direct support and are therefore better suited towards students of this age level.

It appears as though WebQuests are a great way to address needs in Math or Science, while educational gaming can address an even wider range of skills and activities within perhaps any subject area a student is working in. Because of that, and because of the fact that educational gaming can be more easily directed into a slightly more independent and differentiated scope, it becomes the online learning tool that I would use the most within my first grade classroom.

Online gaming serves a great purpose in creating opportunities for skill integration, re-enforcement and guided practice as it provides life-long 21st Century skills through collaboration and strategy formulation all while being engaging and motivational which certainly become equally very important in student learning and achievement.