Reflection (Blog Post)

In the modern world of education, students are required to be proficient in more areas of literacy than the previous century (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009). From the transition of limited textbooks and other tangible research products to the modern digital library on the world wide web, it is difficult for any teacher, novice or experienced, to adapt to the classrooms new twenty first century challenges due to everyday challenges. After taking course EDUC6712I, my way of thinking of education has taken a new path due to the results of my new teaching methods.

David Warlick (2009) suggested that we, as teachers, should embrace the “changing nature of information” (Laureate Education, Inc). The World Wide Web has changed the corporate world, and is now slowly entering into the education world. This year, it is unfortunate that I am without a job; however I have been using many learned techniques with my tutorees. As Dr. Hartman (2009) mentioned, “questioning” is a “new literacy skill” for our students today. As I wrote items on the paper, I found out that my tutorees were not proficient in researchable questioning. After a few tutoring sessions, my tutorees were able to understand the difference between good questions versus bad questions. As Dr. Thornburg (2004) stated, good questions bear more questions (Thornburg, 2004, p. 4). It is essential for students to learn how to question properly because “Inquiry is the essence of active learning…” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p16). On my laptop, my tutorees were able to use search engines to find websites that will offer them support since I only see them once a week. It seemed that they were proficient in searching on the internet. That was expected of a few of my tutorees. This is one of the first steps that my tutorees demonstrate their understanding of questioning since they are to use keywords to find what they are questioning. After fining key words, my tutorees need to learn how to read search engine results. According to Dr. Hartman (2009), students need to be taught how to read the results on their screen. My tutorees actually would click on the first and see if the website would help them. If not, they will go back to the listing results and click on the next. I was shocked to find that they did not even pay attention to the writing underneath the titles of website. As November (2008) mentioned, students may be searching for an idea, but may be mislead because it looks like what they are searching for (p1). This leads to validating information found on websites. In the beginning, I was not able to properly validate websites myself, only having a few tricks that would suggest the website was creditable. If I was this way, then most likely my tutorees were feeling the same. The best part of this was that all of us were learning how to validate the websites together; it was such a wonderful experience. Also for them to say, “Mrs. Osborne, I found one that I can use”. We all went down the checklist on Beth’s ABC guidelines (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009). The most enjoyable part of this was when students started to learn to navigate and validate information. Because this was only tutoring, there was not any teaching on citing however there was a lesson on how to give credit where it is due. Overall the experience of this journey was wonderful and extremely rewarding.

Since this course, I have decided to continue on the same path of teach with the exception on a wider road that contains more technology incorporation and more inquiry process. While teaching my tutorees, I now know what some elements that will need to be addressed. It is important for a teacher to never assume what literacy they know without witnessing it. Also, the process that I have been using to teach my students is the discovery method anyway, so inquiry would be added onto what I already have planned. Even though a classroom may not be full of technology, learning can still take place. As Dr. Warlick (2009) stated, “It’s not all about the technology, it is about connection … and obtaining information.” Having student connect to their peers, other classrooms, or with a classroom that is around the world, connectivity is the key to critical thinking and engaged learning. Students should “share their information online through wikis, blogs, and other tools.”(Laureate Education, Inc, 2009) According to Dr. Hartman (2009), students should “share their information online through wikis, blogs, and other tools.” This helps prepare our students for the future of technology in the corporate world (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009). Not only is just being computer literate is a must in the twenty-first century classroom, but also students needing to learn how to validate and cite information. As teachers, we “should encourage our students to cite” (Laureate Education, Inc, 2009). Validating websites will need to be addressed too. I know that in the beginning of the school year, I need to work on computer literacy skills while reviewing information that students need to recap from the year before. A project will now be incorporated in every six to nine weeks, graded by a rubric system. This will give the students the chance to collaborate and share their ideas over the internet, giving them something to be proud of. Nevertheless, these are some changes that I would love to incorporate into my lesson. Having the final Unit Plan helped me to understand how to plan for a project using technology. This was a great experience.

As a teacher, there are more the one way to become a better mathematics teacher. My goal is to incorporate a little technology at a time, to make the classroom environment more engaging. Professional development would be a great way to upkeep the technology that is constantly changing. Also, this would give me the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers to learn how to implement technology in a particular lesson. Technology blogs, I have already subscribed to a few to see what softwares are out there that may be useable in the classroom or for extra support. These blogs are basically geared towards the corporate world, however if thought out thoroughly and creatively, they can also be used for educational purposes.

All and all, this course has really opened my eyes to the new world of education. It is my duty to figure out how I will use this new found material to mold the future students and our future to become successful in life. It will be a difficult road, especially if I join a small school, but again, this course also taught me was that it is not all about the computers. Students are still capable of learning. Communication is the key to success. Teaching students how to inquire and find answers on their own will create lifelong learners. That is the ultimate goal of every teacher to see their students become independent in their learning.

References:

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry.

New York: The Guilford Press. November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators.

Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting Information Literacy

and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.