Technology Reflection

By

Julia Cadena

A reflection paper presented in partial requirements of EDRS 698 – Capstone in Reflective Teaching

Regis University

February 2012

Julia —You nailed it!!!! I would love to know how you moved from the kind of writing you did in the first reflection to this. You demonstrate a great depth of thinking and reflection and you have doen so in away that is visible!100/100 pts

Technology Reflection

I. Puzzle of Practice II. BackgroundIII. Reflection of Puzzle

A. ExperiencesB. Ideal Experience Vignette

IV. Possible Solutions/Conclusion

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Puzzle of Practice:

Access to technology is essential to allowing students to flourish in this

technological age. According to Clements (1998), children as young as the age of 4

and 5 know more about maneuvering through technology and software than many

adults in their 50’s and 60’s. Therefore, children should not be denied the

opportunity to explore their natural abilities with technology. Still, thousands of

children in impoverished communities and school districts do not have nearly as

much access to technology as those children in wealthier homes and school districts,

Gorder (2008). Outward reflection with literature. This leads to my puzzle of

practice of; how does one support and encourage technology use in a lower socio-

economic community so that it does not stop at the school doors? In addition, how

does a teacher aid in lessening the marginalization of very limited access to

technology for these children? Good your very puzzles are critical!

Background:

My background of technology in schools is limited to my 6 years at Ford

elementary in Arvada, Colorado. Ford is a public school in a lower middle class

community, which is filled with single parents, blue-collar workers, and Mexican

immigrants. Ford is a Title I school with close to 80% free and reduced lunch. Even

so, the technology available at Ford has grown immensely since I started there 6 years

ago. Some of the funds for technology comes from the per student funds we receive.

The rest comes from money Ford saved from the stimulus package from 2008-2009

(Smith, 2012). Today at Ford one will find a Smart board in almost every classroom.

There are enough laptops for every student in 4th-6th grade, and every classroom has

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2-3 desktops. Good, I am clear on the resources. Interesting how they saved their

funding!

Personally, I have little training in technology. While I can navigate a computer,

many kinds of software, and the web: I know that I am miles behind my 14-year-old

daughter’s abilities. I feel that those skills are gained through her extensive use of

technology. She has had no official trainings, but has the drive of keeping up with

her peers and the wanting to use the latest and greatest in technology. Good inward

reflection. Many of the students in my class come form homes where technology is

not available. Most do not have computers and many with computers do not have

Internet access. My fears of integrating technology into my daily lessons include

knowing my skills are ancient and unexciting and also the obstacles I anticipate due

to my student’s lack of knowledge. Going back to my puzzle; was I competent

enough to teach my students in a way that richly integrated technology; and were my

students going to be able to handle the technology given their lack of experiences

outside of my classroom? good you are continuing to generate more questions

related to your puzzle.

Reflection of Puzzle: (Experiences)

As an outsider looking in at Ford, one would think “how lucky these students are

to have so much access to technology in such an impoverished school” (Smith, 2012).

While the access to technology is undeniable, there are two issues that prevent the

success of integrating technology into the student’s lives at Ford. First, the teachers

at Ford have had masses of technology thrown at them without any amount of

professional development to aid in the integration of the technology into their daily

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instruction. My student teaching classroom has a Smart board and my cooperative

teacher and I both had to muddle our way through using the Smart board during

lessons. The lack of training on the Smart board made it difficult for us to use the

technology in our lessons: and next to impossible to create valuable student

experiences with the Smart board. Good clear inward reflection. Good voice! You

are really getting the hang of it. We did have some small celebrations from a

successful lesson here and there, and we were able to incorporate the children into the

use of the Smart board for lunch count and calendar (Appendix #1). Nonetheless,

more often than not, the lessons including technology only caused delays and

confusion. good, this is a major barrier—inward reflection as well as the limited

pro dev, outward reflection! For many classrooms at Ford technology is saved for

library time, with the librarian and school tech guru, and/or for preloaded, district

mandated assessments for grades 3rd and above (aka YPP). Again leaving out the

younger students (like in my classroom); and denying any creative, in-depth use of

technology for students in their own classrooms.

Second, how does the school compensate for those children who do not have

access to technology outside of the confines of the school building? There is a

population of wealthy families at Ford who open enroll their children into the

school’s dual immersion program. Often, the wealthier students have an advantage

because they are able to use technology on their own time, at home. Because of this,

the lack of access in poorer families puts those children at a great disadvantage. This

disadvantage is quite visible at Ford and does create tensions between advantaged and

disadvantaged students. In one instance in my classroom a disadvantaged, boy,

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student named Daniel took an iPod from the backpack of another boy student who is

from a wealthy home. The boy brought the iPod for his show and tell day. Speaking

with Daniel, his answer for the theft was that he had never heard an iPod and wanted

to show his dad so maybe he would buy him one. tough While I still had the talk

with Daniel about why he should not steal, I felt the reason for his theft was because

he felt marginalized by what the other student had access to (specifically the iPod).

The question here remains, should we place restrictions on technology to prevent

such occurrences; or is it better for the disadvantaged students to have real life

experiences with technology? This question is one I continue to struggle with.

good more concrete examples that relate to your thinking/questioning.

Many of my wealthier kindergarten students already know how to navigate a

computer and tend to take the control when we do computer-based activities. A girl

student (Kimi) (comes from an immigrant family with 5 children) asked another

student (Maggi) (a wealthy, open enrolled, girl from a family with one sibling) if she

could let her be in control of one such activity. A few minutes later Maggi was

crying because Kimi allegedly banged on the keyboard and turned the computer off

without shutting it down properly. Kimi was completely confused because she did

not know the proper way to handle computers, while Maggi has been trained on the

proper handling of technology. After this, I more clearly understood how poorer

children are disadvantaged by their lack of access to technology in the simple

handling of said technology. Good, thick description/concrete examples set in

larger sociocultural context. And I am back again at my puzzle, but without an

answer: how do I support and encourage technology use in so that it does not stop at

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the school doors? In addition, how do I aid in lessening the marginalization of very

limited access to technology for disadvantaged children?

Reflection of Puzzle: (Vignette)

Keith Brown gave a presentation about the technology in the STEM school where

he student taught. He raved about the amount of technology and also how it was used.

His school, a wealthy, Caucasian, 6th-12th, in Longmont, Colorado used $6 million in

Mill Levy monies to buy each student in the school a personal netbook to use while in

class, personal laptops for all 9th – 12th graders, several iPads, several Smart boards, and

even $ 1 million to update the infrastructure and internet connection. He spoke

extensively about how his school was able to incorporate the technology into daily

lessons and how the technology was supported by school wide professional development.

The technological success for his school came from three sources; the passing of a

technology Mill Levy (named Tech-cellence), extensive technology professional

development, and the student’s familiarity with technology from their homes (Brown,

2012).

After much reflection on how I would like for the technology piece to unfold

itself in my classroom, I realized that the technology would look much different in my

class for several reasons. First, my district is extremely underfunded. Professional

development is almost nonexistent. The majority of my students come from homes

without much access to technology, and I am teaching a much younger age level than

Keith was. Therefore I have to be more realistic about how to integrate technology. I

want to give all students access to technology and know it is especially important for

those who have no access outside of the school. So, I came up with a couple of examples

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of my “realistic dream” for technology introductions with my kindergarteners. Yay! I

am excited to read it!

In the first week of school, I would intentionally teach proper use of classroom

computers right along with teaching my procedures and routines. Several students have

never used computer while others are quite familiar. My introductions to computers will

help level the playing field. yes, just as you did with the behavior management.

Me- “As one of our Daily 5 centers today I am going to introduce Listen to Reading.

During Listen to Reading you will be using the computers to listen to books and play

learning games.”

Girl- “I am so excited!!!! I have never used a computer before!”

Boy- “Oh, I have. I have my own laptop at home and I know how to go on Disney

Channel.com and play games.”

Me- “That is wonderful! Both of you will be learning how I want you to use the

computers while you are here at school. You all will learn some new games and learn

about a website called Tumblebooks! I will assign 6 students to visit Listen to Reading

today where I will be showing you how to turn the computer on and how to get to the

games and Tumblebooks website.”

~After assigning groups, I will spend the entire Daily 5 rotation for the next 2-3two-three

days at Listen to Reading where I will show students the reading games and

Tumblebooks website. During those lessons, I would imbed procedures for taking care

of the computers; turning them on and off, clicking with the mouse (only once and double

clicks), getting back to the home page of a program or website, etc…~ Great vignette. I

see what you are doing/talking about and how you expect the students to respond. I also

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see how you plan to address this significant difference in resources in a way that respects

all of the children. This vignette offers a lot of information in a small amount of space!

My cooperative teacher simply let the students loose on the computers, and while

they had to stay on the specific program, they were not taught proper computer use. This

lack of training caused problems that linger still today. I am betting that she had

unconcious assumptions that they would just pick up the proper computer use… Things

happen like students turning the sound up too loud, turning computers off instead of

shutting them down, exiting programs instead of just going back to the home page, and

many other issues that disrupt teaching. I feel that the above scenario will help to prevent

some of these issues and keep the Listen to Reading center running more independently.

Good!

The second scenario has to do with the Smart board. We also ran into many

problems using the Smart board during my student teaching. Students were too rough on

the screen, when moving an object they would use 2 hands instead of 1; which prevents

the Smart board from functioning properly, and they would move the Smart board cart;

causing us to have to repeatedly recalibrate. Like the above scenario, I would spend the

first week introducing proper usage of the Smart board. I imagine the teachings going

something like this:

Me- “Today we will start using the Smart board to take lunch count and to do the

calendar. Once we know how to use the Smart board, we will be able to use it for other

fun games and lessons”

Girl- “What’s a Smart board?” Others- “Yeah!!! What’s a Smart board?”

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Me- Showing the Smart board “This is a Smart board. It is just like a white board but we

never use real markers on it because it has special electronic markers that only work on

the Smart board.”

Boy- “What will happen if we use a real marker?”

Me- “Good question! If we used real markers, the Smart board would break and we will

no longer be able to use it. So we NEVER use a real marker.” I will show the Smart

board markers and let student point and repeat what markers to use and why. “Now we

will practice touching the Smart board with the magic egg” (a plastic egg for them to use

when dragging items on the Smart board). “You can only touch the screen with one hand

or the Smart board will get confused and not work.”

Girl- “Can I try?”

Me- “Yes, each of you will move your name to hot or cold lunch today” ~As they come

up to move their names we talk about issues as they arise, such as someone touching with

two hands or someone being too rough.~Good, again, I can really see what you mean. If

you had simply written thatyou would teach proper usage, I have far less information to

go on!

The above two vignettes may seem very basic, but I have noticed that with my student’s

ages and lack of experience with technology these are the issues that have prevented the

technology from running smoothly in my classroom. In a short response to my puzzle,

while I cannot know what types of access the students will have outside of school, I can

help students learn and use technology while at school. I can “give them stepping-stones

and encourage a positive attitude towards technology use” in my classroom (Anderson,

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2005). Yes, and you might provide some resources to parents that let them know what

is available to them in the community to help level the playing field!

Possible Solutions and Conclusion:

My decision as an educator now is to educate myself on technology. I search out

Smart board trainings that are offered by colleagues and online. I ask my oldest daughter

to show me new programs to use with students. I spend the time, which I would if

professional development were available, teaching myself. This way, I can be more

confident in the programs that are available to me at school. My confidence will help

limit the frustrations I encountered during student teaching.

My first steps in the classroom will be to close the knowledge gaps between those

students with access to technology at home and those without. I will do this beginning

the first days of school with my technology introductions and continue with more in

depth usage throughout the year. YES~ As I have mentioned, I cannot predict or

change which students will have technology in their homes, but I can teach every student

how to appropriately use technology and give them all lots of opportunities to use

technology throughout the day. This will help even the technology playing field and

build a path to more knowledge that they will need in their futures.

One thing that I can do to connect parents to the technology we use at school is to

offer basic computer classes for my student’s parents in the evenings. YES! You

might even try and recruit from regis teacher ed to help support your efforts! I can show

them basic computer skills and guide them through our district’s online system. In

addition, I can show parents our computer lab and let them know when they are able to

come in to use the computers. I can set this time up with the school librarian. I probably

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will also help them all get library cards so they can use computers for free at the local

library. Yes, yes, yes! I know this is a small step, but it may help build a more positive

outlook on technology for parents without access so that they can help encourage their

child’s growth with technology.

In Keith Brown’s case the use of technology and access to it appear to be no big

deal. If I were looking through Keith’s lens of an upper class community where there is

an abundance technology, I may feel the same way. Nevertheless, I am looking from a

place in which students do not have computers, much less the Internet. They would be

lucky to have a hand-held video game systems and surely do not have iPods or iPads. It

has become my job to introduce them to their future. Technology is not leaving us, if we

continue to ignore the fact that millions of children are denied access to learning and

using technology, we are creating even larger gaps between the haves and the have nots

in our society. Fantastic! I have chills

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REFERENCES

Anderson, N. (2005). "Mindstorms" and "Mindtools" Aren't Happening: Digital Streaming of Students via Socio-Economic Disadvantage. E-Learning, 2(2), 144-152. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from ERIC (EJ873374)

Brown, Keith. Prezi Presentation on Technology. Regis University. February 2012.

Clements, D. (1998). Young Children and Technology. Retrieved (ED416991) from ERIC database on February 2, 2012

Gorder, L. (2008). A Study of Teacher Perceptions of Instructional Technology Integration in the Classroom. Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, 50(2), 63-76. Retrieved (EJ826493) from ERIC on February 2, 2012

Smith, Carla. (2012). Ford Elementary Librarian

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APPENDIX

#1 Smart board for lunch count and calendar:

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