Hope Myles Scott

Reflections - EDLD 5306
Concepts of Educational Technology

To borrow words from the assignments for EDLD 5306, I examined the role and responsibilities of an educational technology leader in the 21st century information landscape. Each week focused on different elements.
Week 1: looked at educational technology in terms of the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology, the Technology Applications TEKS, and the Technology Applications Inventory.
This was my first occasion to really look at these items. I currently and constantly have to access the Technology Application TEKS because I teach Web mastering. Prior to this lesson, I did not know that the Applications were divided into strands, namely Foundations, Information Acquisition, Problem Solving, and Communication. I have learned to look at each strand as I plan my lessons. I now create lesson plans that goes beyond the foundation level. I try to incorporate all strands in each lesson plan. The Communication strand has become easier for me to incorporate because of Web 2.0 technology. My students have access to social sites, Edmodo and Schoology, that are safe and that allows me to can see everything they post. This allows them to collaborate and share with peers. Unfortunately, I did not use Thinkquestthis year which would have allowed them to collaborate with students all over the world. In The Case for Open Source, Miguel Gulin points out that "Education, in particular, seems especially well positioned to benefit from today's open source alternative (Gulin, 2007)." The article points out that open source is beneficial as a collaborative communication tool.

Week 2: focused on using data to make informed decisions and gathering data on educational technology through the Texas STaR Charts.
The campus STaR Chart revealed that our school's strengths and weaknesses (MHS STaR Chart). The chart showed our greatest strength as Infrastructure for Technology which is based upon direct connectivity to the internet 75% of the time. The charts shows our greatest weakness is in the area of Educator Preparation and Development which is usually once and done. Our school, like most, offer training that leaves educators feeling frustrated because of the lack of on-going or when you need it training. I learned that educators are required to complete the STaR Chart. I always felt that it was a waste of time until this class. I now understand the importance of being thoughtful when completing the chart and not rushing through it just to finish it. Teachers must model the effective use of technology in our classrooms; this can only happen if we are prepared.

Week 3: focused was on the needs of the “digital natives” we serve, online learning communities, and expectations for educators.
This is the week I created and invited peers and supervisors to visit my wiki. To date, only one of the eight teachers and none of my supervisors have visited the wiki I created. The idea was that I could use the wiki to collaborate with peers in the department. This did not happen; I doubt it ever will. I teach a different subject from other CATE teachers in the department. So, there is really no need for us to collaborate. Most of the time we share ideas for lessons via e-mail. I also learned the term "digital natives" which represents children who have always been exposed to technology. I also learned about RSS (which stands for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication) and blogging (Richardson, 2011). According to Richardson, RSS code, usually referred to as a "feed" (as in "news feed"), makes it possible for readers to "subscribe" to the content that is created on a particular Weblog so they no longer have to visit the blog itself to get it. As is true with traditional syndication, the content comes to you instead of you going to it. This year I added discussions in addition to blogs for my students. Schoology allowed students to have other follow their blogs. Many had friends in their on-line communities who joined and followed their blogs and commented on their posts.

Weeks 4 and 5: discussed online safety and the social, legal, and ethical issues confronting today’s digital-age educators, students, and parents.
This week I learned valuable information about Copyright, Fair Use, and Intellectual Property. As a Web Mastering teacher, my students must get information from the Internet. Copyright and Fair Use can be a slippery slope, especially trying to get students to remember all the sites they used to create their site. Most just want to cite "google" or "yahoo" and not deal with citing sources. Intellectual Property was an eye-opener; this was information I was unaware of. I found it interesting that students retain the rights to anything they create, as authors and inventors (Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia, 1996). I like the following quote "constructivist instructional philosophy and a view that the purpose of schooling is to prepare students for a changing workplace (Constructivism and Technology, 1998)." I created a plan for on-line collaboration with my peers that did not come to fruition. I have not met with colleagues, as I planned, to express my desire to collaborate. I did mention to our principal that I would like to present a staff development on how to use technology effectively on our campus. It largely fell on deaf ears. There is always too many other things that need to be covered by teachers who teach testable subjects. Most of their presentations were rather dull, mainly because it talked about preparing for the TAKS in their subject area. Technology benefits and affects us all! I may have been just as dull, but it would have been a subject that is relevant to all.
Questions for future and further study: How can we ensure that all students understand online safety? What additional information needs to be shared with teachers to that they will take STaR Chart data seriously?

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Guhlin, M. 2007. The Case for Open Source. Retrieved May 29, 2011 from http://www.techlearning.com/article/6944
Richardson, W. 2004. Blogging and RSS - The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators Supervisor of Instructional Technology, Hunterdon Central Regional High School. Retrieved May 29, 2011 from http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml
Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia. 1996. Retrieved May 29, 2011 from http://www.adec.edu/admin/papers/fair10-17.html
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. 1998. Constructivism and Technology, On the Road to Student-Centered Learning. Retrieved May 29, 2011 from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tapinto/v1n1.pdf