Blast from the past in the late 90′s and from my website in pre-blog days. Is naked no graphics etc. and I did not ask Zemanta for help. I do need to get back to those days…… and think more… but.

Teachers of the past never had a World Wide Web page, used a modem to
communicate, or used a graphics presentation system to accompany a
lecture. The most memorable teachers provided a personal element that
inspired and motivated students to pursue learning using the various tools
and resources available (Hinnant, Oliva)

The tools have changed but the message stays the same it is not simply the tool that is important, not simply the technology it is, however, the teacher that makes it work. The integration of technology into the classroom is no different; it is the teacher, in the end, that controls where, when and how this integration will occur. I feel it is important when examining the extent to which technology can be integrated into the curriculum to keep this completely in focus. Through an examination of past issues, involved with integrating technology into the curriculum, and current challenges one will have a better understanding of the, possibilities and limits, of such integration.

The Days Gone By

When one examines the history of educational computing one notices different phases in the use of technology in the classroom. D. Lamont Johnson identifies three different phases of educational computing. In his article “Integrating Technology into the Classroom the Time Has Come” he states that the use of educational computing has gone from familiarization to acquisition followed by integration. Based on my experience using technology at the Elementary, Middle and High School level I would agree with these basic phases. I would, however, add one phase that needs to take place before integration occurs; internalization.

Early on when technology was introduced in the schools the classroom teacher became aware of some of the possibilities of its educational use. The computer, however, was generally used in a laboratory setting without much impact on classroom instruction. Teachers were aware that the technology was in the building but use was generally relegated to the computer teacher and a programming course in Basic, Logo or Pascal. Teacher interaction with the technology extended to the odd staff inservice and perhaps dropping their class off at the lab for computer instruction. This resulted in a shallow familiarization process where the teacher had not examined the technology with the depth needed for classroom integration.

The next phase, acquisition, involved the mass purchase of the machinery needed to give teachers the resources to utilize the technology. During this phase educational, community and political leaders were convinced of the need to place more computers into schools. The reality of the situation was the computers were purchased and still placed into laboratory settings. Teachers still did not have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the computer and were, therefore, still not prone to utilizing the computers within the classroom. During this phase of mass purchase of technology some interesting things were happening with software. More and more application programs came into being. Computer teachers began utilizing these different applications within in their elective program. No longer only teaching programming, computer applications such as the spread sheet, word processors, and the data base were taught. The tools the classroom teacher needed for classroom integration were developed and refined.

Currently, from the point of view of familiarization and acquisition, I believe many schools have been successful in the use of technology . In my my school district, for example, technology is in place both in the lab and the classroom . The technology, however, has not made a large impact when examining curriculum integration. It is at this point I would consider the role of internalization in the phases of educational computing. From the historical perspective the first two phases occurred but still the technology was used at the laboratory level and classroom integration was not common. This was, and is, true because teachers have not had the opportunity to move from familiarization with the technology to internalizing its use.

Today the opportunity for becoming familiar with technology is increasing. In 1993 according to Mike Grey the number of Internet sites was 130. In 1997 the estimated number of sites was up to 650, 000. If one examines the number of households that have purchased computers during the same approximate time frame you find a similar growth trend. It is reasonable to assume that many of these computer and Internet users are teachers. This trend of increasing numbers of home computers and computer users is bound to have the effect of increasing teacher familiarity with technology. As this familiarity increases, as the knowledge of using the technology as a tool and a resource increases, so to does the likelihood of the teacher internalizing the use of the technology . This, in turn, can lead to a situation in which integration can occur.

It is, of course, reasonable to conclude that many factors come into play when considering how we can facilitate teacher integration of technology. High quality inservice strategies that focus on different models of instruction using technology are needed (Wiburg). Increasing teacher access to the technology is also critical in this process. However, the explosion of the Internet and societies reaction to this explosion has been a major factor in refocusing teachers attention on technology. This refocus is resulting in greater familiarization with the technology and increased the likelihood of curriculum integration.

The Challenge

Based on an assumption of greater teacher access to technology, how difficult will it be to move from familiarization, to internalization and on to actual integration? Is it possible? Is it feasible? Does the classroom teacher have the time? Or are we once again setting ourselves up for failure? (Open Learning Technology Corporation) How realistic is it to expect results without a serious investment of time and money into teacher training. Furthermore, without such investments how can we expect widespread integration of technology into the curriculum.

When one examines the different skills needed for the teacher to be able to make integration a reality they seem unsurmountable. The teachers need to become familiar with, and internalize, the capabilities of the software. In addition, the teacher needs to have an understanding of the standards and curriculum. The teacher needs to combine both of these in order to facilitate student learning through the software. Furthermore, the teacher needs to continually reassess their knowledge level as the technology is ever changing. Is it surprising, as is stated in But He’s Wearing No Clothes “that the rhetoric about the potential of information technologies in education has seldom been realized”?

D. Lamont Johnson points to an Investor’s Business Daily article stating in 1995 “business spent well over $2 Billion in training their employees on the use of technology, but 90 % of the teachers in America reported that they were 100% self taught. The problem, today as in the past, is that the expectations placed on educators is not matched by the training given educators.” Teachers still are not given the time and training needed to fully understand the possibilities of the use of technology in the clasroom. (Wild Cradler ). As is identified in a survey, conducted by Kevin Green , “assisting faculty integrate technology into instruction” and “providing adequate user support” are the top two “single most important” information technology ” issues.

The learning process necessary for the teacher to be able to integrate technology into the classroom is ongoing and needs to be continually addressed. It is not enough to “dip” the teacher in the paint of technology and expect results. Opportunity has to be provided for an ongoing process where the teacher has access to ongoing support . From my experience, I think it is possible to accomplish this with a mentor colleague, who is given the sole task of being involved in a role of continual staff support. In this situation the mentor teacher’s knowledge of technology and learning coupled with the classroom teachers knowledge of the curriculum and learning would result in an integrated technology focused learning environment. (Learning With Software, Mckenzie)

From the past to the present the road to integrating technology into the classroom has been difficult. There are still many problems to face. We have moved from familiarization with technology through to acquisition of technology. Our resources now need to be allocated to the most important component, although not at first the most visible, staff development. With the Internet our attention has been refocused on the possibilities of the uses of technology. We need, however, to use this focus to give teachers the resources and time needed to internalize and integrate the technology into the classroom. Without this the wide spread integration of technology into the classroom becomes, at best, extremely difficult.

teachNbabble - just a place to babble (photos: scenes from our travels)

The grade seven blog template is basically done. I had all the grade seven students add themselves to the blog so I could create link lists. This part of the process should be automated as some of the students had difficulty

Image via Wikipedia

adding their blog URL and name correctly to the sidebar widget. If the ICT office can use Powerschool to create an OPML file that can then be imported into the template blog everything will work a lot better.

So the basic steps I used to create the template was to:

• create a number of menus one for each grade level from grade 4-8
• create a series of tags using teacher name followed by grad year.
• create categories by subject
• add all the students to the blog link list
• create advisory based link categories

teachNbabble - just a place to babble (photos: scenes from our travels)

Image by Dark Liquid via Flickr

Getting excited about another jump into the unknown. I just sent in the PO for the purchase of Minecraft for my lab so that I can start using it next semester. Although I have no idea what I am getting into and where this will take me even with my limited experience I can think of a number of possibilities. Our grade eights do a model country unit. I can only imagine how a creative person would be able to tie this together. Also wonder about other Civilization type games and how that might work with that project. I know I have read a number of ideas that the grade eight teachers could take adapt and call their own.

To keep the curriculum gods happy I plan on keeping things simple. Ask the students to imagine that they are travelling to a new planet, Athos IV, and tell them that they will be the first inhabitants from earth to land on the planet. They will make a journal entry every time they enter the world. I will ask the students to add these blog posts to their own blog then aggregate them all to one main blog using Feedwordpress. This way the one blog will contain a semester’s worth of narratives written by many different students.

We shall see where this takes me!

teachNbabble - just a place to babble (photos: scenes from our travels)

I looked a lot at publishing on Friday. Started by looking at Paper.li and creating a newspaper from our student’s published work.  Since I am having the students use the middle school category for all of their posts and to tag specific post with specific words I can target the content added to the Paper.li account. Right now you would see a lot about Facebook. Also nice looking at the paper on my Ipad as Paper.li now has a mobile app.

Image via Wikipedia

Then looked at Anthologize once again. This is a WordPress plugin that allows you to publish blog content. I can’t seem to get it to work on our multisite installation but I can use Feedwordpress to add the content I want to a standalone WordPress install and then use that blog to publish a pdf and a epub version of the blog posts. I have attached an Epub book of Abby’s blog below. Need to look at photos and how they are brought in as there are some issues but this could be another interesting way of displaying a portfolio. Think my parents would have loved to read what Aaron, currently at the U of A,  was writing back when he was in Middle School. Actually come to think of it I guess I could add Aaron to the site through Feedwordpress and create an Epub of the work he did in grade eight as well.

Also looked at Blogbooker as well. To use this you need to export your blog then use the xml file tou created to make a book with Blogbooker. Once again, you can download the book as a PDF or also send it to Lulu and publish it.

Lots of different possibilities when thinking about publishing your blog content.

Abby’s Ebook

abby’s_portfolio.epub

teachNbabble - just a place to babble (photos: scenes from our travels)

Really thought my next post would be about some of the games my grade 9′s are making using Game Salad. I still have to edit the poor video, of one of the games in action on my Iphone, that I made using a document scanner. Wonder if there is a better way to get at a this? Have added a short video below of what it looks like based on screenshots.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I stopped working on this because I am given a bit of time each day to work on our blogging system. So I spent the rest of  my prep time looking at the one last thing that was bothering me with my portfolio project. It bugs me that the blogroll OPML import does not add categories. This means that students and teachers need to add one extra step and add each imported link to the correct category. Today as I was looking for plugins I came across one that will remove this step.

I tested then added the Import Blogroll With Categories plugin (great name) to our installation. This adds a new OPML importing tool with one important difference as it also creates the Link Categories. So all I will need to do is create the categories and the link rolls and have students import them all into their blog.

Next step in this series of portfolio posts is to test all of this then if all goes well add a last post with a guide.

Portfolio articles from the beginning

• Templates For Categories (teachnbabble.com)
• Getting Ready (teachnbabble.com)
• Getting Ready-Part 1 (teachnbabble.com)
• Finding a Path (teachnbabble.com)
• Fork In The Path (teachnbabble.com)
• Getting Ready Part 2 (teachnbabble.com)
• Blogroll Revisited (teachnbabble.com)

teachNbabble - just a place to babble (photos: scenes from our travels)