Technology Assessment of Sitka High School, Sitka, Alaska

In order to gain a further understanding of the technology culture of Sitka High School, several questions were investigated in a research report.

Research Findings:

Sitka High School is school that is embracing technology from all directions. Teachers, departments, administration, and students are heavily involved in increasing the technological capacity of what the school offers through courses and instruction delivery. The school is equipped with two computer labs, wireless Internet, and digital media equipment. In addition, many teachers provide students with the opportunity to interact with technology in their classrooms. Programs such as Powerpoint, Chief Architect, Auto-CAD, and PLATO are incorporated directly into the curriculum.

After speaking with various faculty members about the technology culture at Sitka High, it has become clear to me that our school is part of the technology movement. The staff and administration have developed a vision and mission statement that will carry our school well into the future.

To read the entire report, please click on the following link:http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddn5bd54_0fmdrjk

The Read/Write Web

• “The Educator’s Guide to the Read/Write Web”, by Will Richardson
  
  Overview
  
  The Read/Write Web is a forum that has revolutionized journalism, politics, business, and the classroom experience. In his article, “The Educator’s Guide to the Read/Write Web”, Will Richardson explains how advances in the Internet open up new avenues for learning and sharing information. Blogs can serve as a powerful tool where students can create and share their data, work, and thoughts with a global audience. The Read/Write Web has provided a wealth of information to the public in the form of blogs, wikis, and Really Simple Syndications (RSS), such as podcasts.
  
  Richardson points out that the quality of student productions greatly improves when the audience is broadened beyond solely the teacher. The flood of information students can now access with the click of a button demands that educators prepare students adequately for synthesizing and evaluating the quality of sources. The scope of literacy has expanded beyond the bounds of simply reading and writing. Today’s students need to understand authenticity, and develop editing skills instead of more simple reading skills. The Read/Write Web takes learning to another level: students have access to professional scientists and authors, classrooms have no walls, and the potential for collaboration takes on new meaning.
  
  
  Reference Points:
  
  1. The Internet is no longer simply a place where digital learners consume information.
  2. Teachers are using blogs to build classroom resource portals and to foster online learning communities.
  3. A wiki is a website that anyone can edit at any time.
  4. There are no technological safeguards against a user putting bogus information into the site or vandalizing an entry; the community of people using the wiki keeps the information accurate by policing itself.
  5. Podcasting, which can best be described as creating amateur home radio programs and widely distributing them on the Web.
  6. The awareness of even a small audience can significantly change the way a student approaches writing and other school assignments.
  7. They [students] need to know how to identify the source’s reputation, compare the information with what’s already known, and make a judgment about its authenticity and relevance.
  8. Digital tools allow students to work together outside school
  9. The Web can also act as a student notebook or portfolio,
  a searchable repository capturing evidence of what a student ahs learned throughout his or her education.
  
  
  
  Reflection:
  
  Just one week into my teaching internship, I was rudely awakened to the alarming fact that many students have not a clue what makes an authentic source. Wikipedia is EVERYWHERE! Bad sources are plentiful and it is essential that we provide students with the skills necessary to navigate and sift through extremely accessible heaps of information. Yes, indeed, blogs and podcasts can be empowering tools that unite voices often unheard or muted by the mainstream media, however, we mustn’t forget to listen, read, absorb with a critical lens.

“Listen to the Natives”, by Marc Prensky

Overview
In his article, “Listen to the Natives”, Marc Prensky calls attention to the fact that while students are rising with the age of technology, the system at large is not. Teachers can’t reach students to the best of their ability without embracing the technologies available and empowering students directly to engage deeper in their learning. Today’s students are intimately connected with technology in a way that most teachers can’t grasp. Incorporating technology and programming skills into a school curriculum does not only benefit students, but has the potential to enhance teaching opportunities and increase the efficiency of day-to-day tasks. Prensky feels that it is the responsibility of educators to include students in school decisions, curriculum development, and teaching methods. Students, in his opinion, need choices and the ability to make their own decisions. With the aid of technology, we have access to a global classroom where students can take learning to a level unimaginable to most adults. It is a time of great change in the classroom. Educators need to accept this change and develop a vision for learning that capitalizes on content that is relevant and meaningful for today’s student.

Reference Points:

1. Our students, as digital natives, will continue to evolve and change so rapidly that we won’t be able to keep up.
2. We also need to select our teachers for their empathy and guidance abilities rather than exclusively for their subject matter knowledge.
3. Our young people often have a much better idea of what the future is bringing than we do.
4. As 21st century educators, we can no longer decide for out students; we must decide with them…. We need to include our students in everything we do in the classroom…
5. It’s only by listening to and valuing the ideas of our 21st century students that we will find solutions to many of our thorniest education problems.
6. If we let our students choose all the groups they want to be part of – without forcing them into any one group- we will all be better off.
7. Programming is perhaps the key skill necessary for 21st century literacy.
8. Teachers can also arrange fro certain students to teach these classes to their peers.
9. Students should be learning 21st century subject matter, such as nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience.

Reflection:
I agree with many of Prensky’s suggestions, and recognize the critical need to incorporate technology in the classroom, however, I feel as though he went a bit overboard. Educators are not entertainers. The focus of school never has been, nor should be, entertainment. Prensky’s claims that cell phones are extensions of students’ brains and that students should reserve the right to use their phones in class if a presentation is not compelling, strikes a powerful discord with me. Learning is work, being a student is a job. In addition to academics, we need to teach our children respect, listening skills, and how to act as a human being. If students can only relate to their ipods and their “virtual realities”, we will loose every sense of connectivity between generations and physical human beings. Is this really the direction we are choosing to head in?

Epic 2015

What impacts could the developments portrayed in epic2015 have on your classroom, particularly with respect to things like podcasting?

I must admit I found the piece slightly overwhelming and even a bit scary. I think the potential impacts of technology in the classroom are enormous. Children, especially teenagers, interact with technology in such an intimate fashion. In fact, I have witnessed this past week, it is in fact their identity in some cases.

The prediction that individuals’ lives will be virtually connected through podcasting and gps delivered news communications is eerily believable. Students may have difficulty discerning between fact and sensational interpretations podcasts. Information is everywhere; this is the amazing, powerful, revolutionizing reality we find ourselves in today. As educators, it is our responsibility to teach students beyond the "standards" and equip them with the skills of critically evaluating information. Perhaps not everything you may read on this blog is true.

It is good to think for yourself.

Futuring Rxn

How would you “grade” or assess Fox Becomes a Better Person, and School Train?
______________________________________________________________
If students are going to create digital media presentations to prove their competency in understanding a subject matter, clear and objective rubrics need to be constructed and explained to the students prior to embarking on the assignment. It is essential that projects are graded objectively and not assessed and/or influenced by the ‘entertainment value’ of the piece. If a creative, entertaining product is desired by the evaluator, this needs to be stated in the rubric as one component of the assignment.

For assessment purposes, it is essential that digital media productions are student created and not contrived by an eager parent or sibling. Pieces need to be purposeful and relevant.

Critical Evaluation: Despite not having the rubric, my gut provides me with a few feelings of its own.

- Even after several painful viewings, I still fail to find the purpose or relevancy of 'School Train'. I'm not entirely convinced that was a authentic student production either. Indeed they were involved, but how does it demonstrate their learning? C

- I admire Hannah immensely. There is no doubt Miss Hannah was the mastermind behind Fox becoming a better person. A+

A Change of Pace

My wanderings have a different feel this year; oddly enough, a laptop computer and some "adult shoes" have replaced my grimy backpack and running kicks.

This web blog is my attempt of digitalizing my technophobic world and embracing the change and education I have jumped into wholeheartedly. In the pages that follow, you will find excerpts of material created for the MAT graduate program at the University of Alaska Southeast.