Final Reflection

From start to finish, this course has given me more practice with and insight into technologies both old and new.  Practice and insight are not the only two things I am taking away from this course.  In some cases I feel even more confused than I did before and I think that goes back to there not being a clear definition about what it means to be a twenty-first century school.  Without a clear definition, I do not have a path to follow, so instead I like I am groping in the dark to figure out what technology will benefit my students the most. 

I know that technology will be a big part of my student’s lives, but I do not want to institute a new form of LoLcats into my classroom (Shirky, 2010, pg 18).  I want the technology that they use to be meaningful and actually be a benefit to them in the future.  Sometimes the best path seems to be the one that does not teach my students a particular technology, but teaches them how to uses technology efficiently. 

One of the most frustrating things about schools not having a clear definition about what a twenty-first century school should be, is the fact that students are being inundated with technology outside of school and all that technology is changing the way they perceive and manipulate the world and information around them (Carr, 2010, pg 120).  Students are changing, but the institution meant to prepare them for life after school is not keeping up with them and that will lead to unprepared and unproductive adults.   

I have been using some of the technologies that were talked about in class for about 13 weeks now and I have a better insight into how well they work for my classes.  I created a wiki for each of my classes at the beginning of school because technology was our inserivce topic back in August.  For the most part the wiki has been helpful, but not in the way that I had predicted.  Parents and fellow teachers have been using my wiki to help keep students on track with what they should be completing for class. 

Parents were particularly pleased with having the assignments and schedule on the wiki because they felt like they could do something before missing assignments became a problem.  Many of the parents I talked to at parent/teacher conferences felt the wiki was a positive addition to the class because in the past they would not know what assignments were missing until grades were posted and then they were not always certain what the assignments were.  With the information on the wiki page they could access the assignment themselves and see when their child was to have completed it.  Overall they just felt more empowered and it became a better learning experience for them and their children.

Another positive of the wiki was using it for discussions with my sociology students.  The students needed to find time outside of class to complete the discussion, but none of them had trouble doing that.  Many of the students liked it because it allowed them to talk without having to do so in front of a class and they felt like they were able to speak their piece and not have it feel like everyone just wanted them to hurry up and be quiet. The depth of discussion was better than it normally is during class.  Part of that is the fact that the students can take a moment to think before putting their thoughts down and everyone is not trying to speak at once.  It also forces the people who would just sit back to speak because I can see who has all posted and who has not shared. 

At times I felt that some of the stuff we did in class was redundant.  I already had a wiki space, so I knew how to create and manipulate it.  At the same time I realize there were people who did not know how to do that.  I have a better appreciation for how my students feel when they are being taught things they already know because there is a lengthy learning curve between everyone’s prior knowledge.  I also understand why we learned about both wikispaces and googlesites even though they provide a very similar service.  Every technology that was taught has slightly different uses and it could be that slight difference that reaches one more student or reaches a student who would otherwise be missed.  It is difficult to know what technology will be important in the future, so the more exposure teachers have to different types the better their ability to weed through what is useful and what is not.  The potential benefit of a technology outweighs any redundancies I might have felt existed in class. 

Overall the two courses were very helpful to me.  I have more knowledge and skill than I had at the beginning and it was more beneficial than the two days of inservice my district provided at the beginning of the year.  I am still frustrated by the lack of direction in what it means to be a twenty-first century school, but that is not something that we could have decided in our cohort.  Not only do I feel more comfortable with the technology myself, but I feel more comfortable teaching my students how to use these technologies.      

References

Carr, Nicholas (2011). The shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains (paperback ed.). New

                York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

 Shirky, Clay (2010). Cognitive Surplus. New York: Penguin Press.

Shirky Review

Clay Shirky’s book Cognitive Surplus picks up right where Nicholas Carr’s book What the Internet is doing to Our Brains: the Shallows left off.  In his book, Carr is discussing our increased use of technology and how it is affecting people.  Shirky on the other hand is looking out how people have been using their free time and to what use people are putting the new technologies available to them.   At the end of the day Shirky says we can use technology in two ways: first to improve the quality of life or for mindless entertainment.

Shirky gives a number of examples of how people have used technology to improve the quality of life for people within a small area or around the world.  Within this use Shirky suggests that some uses of technology can be a civic or public good (Shirky, 2010, p 174).  A few examples of civic good were Nisha Susan’s Association of pub-going, Loose and Forward Women and Ushahidi.com.  Both groups were working to change things within their country and they were using new social media to allow their respective members to connect.  Ushahidi was created so the people of Kenya would be able to track what was happening within their country while the government was trying to repress the information (Shirky, 2010, pg 15).   Social media does not allow the government to silence their people or for small groups within the country to repress other groups. 

Public good is another way in which technology can be used positively.  A few examples of these types of uses were meetup.com for women with postpartum depression, Wikipedia, or Gorbanites for Charitiy.  Each of these groups are improving the quality of life for the people they are impacting, but they are not attempting to challenge or change the government or social order.   Regardless of whether or not people are attempting to change the world or just trying to help out in their little corner of the world, technology used for public or civic good is positive and productive and in the end we all benefit. 

The other side of the coin needs to be examined as well and on that side society finds uses that serve no purpose beyond entertaining the person using it.  Shirky talks about LoLcats and how people can add captions to cute pictures and share those with their friends (Shirky, 2010, p 18).  The only benefit anyone sees from this activity is the few laughs he or she gets out of what people say.  The same things applies to people when they are using facebook or for the Harry Potter fans who write their own fiction based on JK Rowling’s books.  It could be argued that these people, who would have previously written these stories for their own delight, now have an audience who can communicate and collaborate with them.  Even with the many abuses and mundane things posted on facebook it is nice to be able to keep in touch with people, but no one needs to know that you are going to watch t.v. now. 

It is obvious to any outside observer that the technologies and social networks that provide public and civic good are going to benefit society more than the uses that are solely for entertainment purposes.  It is difficult to know though what route a new technology will take.  For example the Korean band Dong Bang Shin Ki could not have known that their fans would use their website to launch a protest against U.S. beef (Shirky, 2010, p 33).  That reason alone makes it difficult to just write off a technology or social network until it has had time to prove itself and even then it may take some time.  That is also why it is difficult to know how a technology can be used in school.

Schools just like the wider world have the same issues when determining the merits of technology and social networking.  Educators see both types of uses: the ones that bring about a better quality of education and then those that are simply to keep the audience entertained.  In my class student presentations have gone to both extremes.  Some students have created presentations that were engaging and the students taught their classmates a wealth of information.  At the same time there are the students who add all the flair simply to make their presentation look cool, but lack any depth in what they are presenting.   Teachers become teachers to teach and that is what needs to happen with technology.  If students are expected to use technology in a superior way, then the teacher needs to model that behavior. 

It is a reoccurring theme in education, but educators need to decide what it means to be a twenty-first century school.  Everyone who discusses 21^st century schools attaches technology to that discussion and technology can be very good and beneficial.  At the same time though, schools need to do more than just implement a new version of lolcats simply so they can say that they are using technology.  Lolcats may entertain students for a few minutes, but they are not going to improve a student’s life.  Students need to be taught to use technology and social networks for the public and civic good, so they benefit not only themselves but others as well. 

Shirky spends a great deal of time outlining different ways that technology can be used by society.  People can either use that technology for the public or civic good, improving the quality of life for all people, or they can use it to entertain themselves for a few minutes.  The same concept applies to schools; students and teachers can either use the technology to improve education or they can use it to entertain.  In the end the only way society will benefit is if our future leaders are learning how to use new technology and social networking for public and civic good.  People can still entertain themselves, but that should not be the skill teachers are teaching to their students.  

Carr Book Review

How do we adjust to the changes around us?  That question seems to be a reoccurring theme in schools and the literature about technology.   Few people take the time to consider how the changes are affecting how people think or behave.  The fear is that students will not be prepared to take on the new world that will be presented to them.  Nicholas Carr’s book What the Internet is doing to our Brains: the Shallows looks at what technology, the internet in particular, is doing to people’s think processes and behaviors. 

The early part of Carr’s book looks at how people’s brains changed as they moved from an oral society, to a literate society, and now to an internet based society.  Whether people want to admit it or not, society is dominated by people who want information now and they do not want to be burdened with paging through books upon books to get that information.  Carr interviewed 3 writers about their reading habits and how the internet has changed the way that they acquire information.   Media blogger, Scott Karp, told Carr that reading many short snippets of information is more effective than reading a 250 page book (Carr, 2010, p 9).

 Karp’s words are echoed by many of the students at Berlin High School.  Many students express that they are more comfortable using the internet than they are books and when forced to use books student need to be taught how to effectively use a book to find information.   Students do not know how to use the index to look for information or how to scan a page to find pertinent information.  They rely on the internet and in their minds it’s easier because they type in a word and google will spit out information on the topic they are looking for.  Michael Merzenich has studied how changes in mental behavior will alter the way that people think and his study suggest that student’s preference for using the internet is directly related to their heavy use of the internet (Carr, 2010, p 120).  Students use the internet so often that their brains have changed to fit to that thinking style.  Book use is limited, so their brains do not have the path ways necessary to readily use books.

If Merzenich is correct than the more student’s are exposed to the internet, the less able they will be to work with books.  At the same time, if teachers want to preserve the use of books then they need to incorporate the use of books into their classroom more often.  Teachers will also need to teach their students how to properly use books, so it does not become a pointless exercise.  Carr seems convinced that books will eventually become the domain of a few people who choose to continue to use books; if that is the case it would be appear to be a disservice to continue to teach students to use books (Carr, 2010, p 110).   On the flip side, if teachers stop teaching students to use books then those students will automatically become excluded from the elite. 

Schools struggle with the books or technology issue when deciding how to style themselves as 21^st century schools.  Should students still be taught to use books and the reading skills required to read works of literature?  Should students be given all the technology that is available? Will books or technology raise test scores?  And oh, do test scores actually tell if students are becoming smarter? For those who fear technology and the loss of books, google may prove to have a similar affect as the calculator.  Once unencumbered with methods that students are not comfortable with they may be able to go more in depth with their research or have an easier time synthesizing information (Carr, 2010, p 192) The consensus in the cohort seems to be that schools are trying to add more technology, wanted or not.  Cost though is affecting the ability to purchase technology and it is difficult to convince the community to put more money into education. 

Regardless of where a person stands on the books versus technology issue, schools need to determine what it means to be a 21^st century school and from there they must pursue their decision.  Schools need to have a clear message of where they intend to go or teachers and students will get lost in the messiness of bureaucracy.  Change is always difficult to deal with, but change without direction is next to impossible to implement.  If schools cannot rise to the occasion students will not have the skills to make them successful in their life after high school.  Then teachers will truly be doing their students a disservice. 

The first thing that needs to be decided is if the nation as a whole should determine what it means to be a 21^st century school or should it be determined by each school.  In the U.S. very few students are being prepared for factory work, so school structure is teaching students behaviors that are no longer pertinent.  Google uses the scientific method to perfect its business, but at the same time they need people who think for themselves and are capable of doing more than their one assigned task (Carr, 2010, p 150).  Not only is the use of technology important at schools, but also teaching students to work and be responsible without chaining them to desks in rows.     

Carr has demonstrated that technology is beginning to dominate the landscape and it is changing the way our brains operate.  Students are not the same as they were back in the 1950s or even in the 1990s, so why have schools not made the transition with their students?  In order for students to be successful, schools need to transform themselves into 21^st century schools.  To do that though, schools need to decide what it means to be a 21^st century school and then they need to make the transformation. 

Technology Matter Review

In the book Technology Matters, David Nye is attempting to answer key questions that technology has created.  For Nye it is difficult to pin down the answers to some of the questions because there are so many examples and time is always unearthing different perspectives on the same issues.  Some of the few topics that Nye had concrete answers for were determinism and control.  

Nye discusses the fact that technology is not deterministic, and at the same time a person can name all the possible outcomes that might occur with any given technology.   One of those outcomes will come to pass, but there are many factors that go into whether or not a technology will become popular or fail.  One example that Nye discusses is the automobile and how the United States and Europe evolved differently because of the choices they made.   After WWII the United States improved their network of roads and Americans moved out the cities into the suburbs; whereas, in Europe public transportation dominated the landscape.  Popularity is difficult to predict and that is why Nye is adamant that technology is not deterministic.   

The automobile helps to illustrate how unpredictable the outcome of a new technology can be.  At the same time, it would appear that technology influences the way that society changes.  If taken at face value it would look like the automobile has shaped the American landscape by influencing where people choose to live, but in reality Americans shaped the use of automobiles to fit with what they wanted.    People choose the technology they want and discard the rest, so they are not controlled by technology. 

People are not controlled by technology; Nye gives examples such as the Amish and the Japanese when discussing groups who have thrown off the chains of technology (Nye, 2007, P. 17, 18).   The abundance of technology in American society may make it look like people are being controlled by all the devices around them, but most people can choose to put down the technology.  Nye discusses how multi-tasking is both helpful and harmful to people (Nye, 2007, p. 187).  Multi-tasking is helpful because people need to be able to handle distractions when working, but to many distraction and they will not be focusing on right task at the right time.  People choose to use all the technology around them and they make a conscious decision to focus on one source over another and in the case of driving while using their cell phones people are making a dangerous decision (Nye, 2007, p. 186). Technology is not going to help people make good decision because that is a skill that must be applied to the use of technology.   

In chapter nine, Nye discusses how skilled people are at making weapons in the name of security.  The cold war is a perfect example of an escalating crisis in the name of protection.  As the U.S. increased nuclear weapons and other military technology, the Soviet Union increased their weaponry to keep pace with the United States.   It is not the technology itself that is dangerous, but the way in which people put it to use.  Nuclear power is perfectly safe if used correctly, but if put in a bomb it can be extremely hazardous to people and the environment (Nye, 2007, p. 177).  

At the same time the development of technology is not controlled by society.   This idea may seem contradictory because people use technology the way they want to, that must mean they control what is being produced.  In reality, there may be a practical need that is being fulfilled, but that is rarely the reason that a new technology is developed.   Nye explains that the telegraph and the telephone were developed many years before either one actually became a popular method of communicating (Nye, 2007, p. 40).   At different times in history both methods became extremely popular, but it was not society that decided that these new technologies should be invented. 

Once technology is developed people will bend it to their will.  The best example of this is the little boxes of Levittown.  All the houses that were built in the development of Levittown were exactly the same and over time the owners have add variations to make their homes different than their neighbors (Nye, 2007, p. 71).  Even Henry Ford was forced to change his beloved Model T to please the consumers (Nye, 2007, p. 72).  Society looks a certain way because of how people have used technology and the innovations that have been forced due to consumer demand.    When consumers are left to shape the innovation of technology will do not consider the ramifications of their decisions and due to that Nye argues that the government or an agency of some sort should step in and regulate (Nye, 2007, p. 136). 

Technology is an elusive beast that develops autonomously to society. Society has been able to change based on the new options that technology creates, but at the same time it is not controlled by those technologies. Groups such as the Amish and the Japanese have shown people that if they choose to they can walk away from technology.  The automobile, telephone, and telegraph demonstrate that technology is not deterministic and their creation is not dictated by society.    

Google and Diigo reflection

I had used googledocs on a limited basis prior to this course and really liked the experience.  The first time I used a googledoc was for a group presentation for this masters program and it helped the three of us connect without having to be face to face and we could share our materials more easily than we could have in an email.  There is no way that we could have communicated better than we did through the googledoc.    

From that experience, I decided to use googledocs with my sociology students this trimester when they were working on their research paper.  Not only were they able to collaborate better, but they did not have the same amount of difficulty accessing their papers at home.  My district updated their version of Microsoft office a year ago, so student inevitably run into issues with opening and saving documents and then there are the few who do not have the office suit at home.   I was also able to access their papers throughout the whole process, so I could help them with citing issues and was able to guide them so they had the proper amount of depth in their analysis. 

This last weekend I did learn some more things about googledocs that I’m really happy with and plan to use with my students.  I had not taken the time to explore all the options offered to me with googledocs, but class gave me that time and I found some other templates that would work very nicely in economics.  Googledocs offers a number of templates for budgets and it even has a budget sheet that sorts out spending and income by percentages and then graphs it.  For students it’s difficult to understand the breakdown of spending vs. income, so to be able to see it without having to go through all the hassle of figuring out everything by hand will be nice. 

I already have wiki sites for each of my classes, so for me google sites felt a little redundant.  There are definitely things I liked better about google sites, but at the end of the day I’m not going to redo the sites I’ve already made.  The look and feel of the google sites is more professional than a wiki site, but that was really the only thing that stuck out to me as being the biggest difference. 

My first experience with social book marking was an in-service presentation at the beginning of this school year.  The presenter used delicious to share the technology links he wanted to share with us.  I can see a site like diigo being very useful for me.  In my department we share a lot of links with each other and if we are connected on diigo or even have a department diigo we could share links more efficiently.  Diigo would also help me organize all of my links better.  Currently I have the most important links on my favorites bar, but because of how our network is set-up every time I restart my computer I have to go to my toolbars and reselect my favorites bar.  It’s cumbersome and gets annoying, so if I have all my links on diigo then I just have to go to my account and my links are all there.       

wikis and blog reflection

Wikis and blog Reflection

                I put together a wiki for both of the classes I am teaching this trimester right before the school year started.  With my economics class the wiki is more of a class site where they can get assignments when they miss class, a way for parents to keep up with what is going on in class, and a place for announcements.  My sociology wiki has the same components as the economics wiki, but I have also added a discussion portion.  I decided to go with the online discussions for sociology because of the size of my classes.  I have two classes of 30 and high school students are not always the best about discussing in class and with 30 students it is easy for someone to sit back and allow others to talk for them or they may be too intimidated to speak up.  The online arena allows everyone the chance to speak and it forces those who would otherwise choose not to participate to have to add their voices as well. 

                After two weeks of school, it would appear that the economics wiki has been forgotten by most students.  I am not surprised by this and I think when it is needed it will serve its purpose, but at this point feel like a waste of my time to have made it and to maintain it.  At the same time I realize I am getting back out of it what I put into it; which really was not that much time and effort and as the year progresses I might change how that site is used.  I do know that when we get further into the trimester I will be using the site more in class with lessons that are being done.  In the past I have used the schools common folder to post papers and links for students to use in class.  The problem with that folder is that everyone has access and anyone can delete things or save over them.  If I use my wiki as the platform instead I will eliminate those problems.

                The sociology wiki has had a mixed response from students.  The students are nearing the end of their first discussion on the wiki and the results, academically, have been good.  I still have students who voice their discontent with using technology instead of just discussing in class, but the majority of the students have enjoyed the online discussion.  They feel that they have more of an opportunity to say the things they want to without feeling pressured by their classmates to hurry up or having to limit the depth of their response.   From a teacher stand point the quality of discussion is much better than it would be if we just had the discussion in one class period.  I do not give the students very much time to work on the discussion in class, but I have not had anyone come to me to express concern over having enough time or opportunity.     

                I have been toying with the idea of having my students create wikis for the fictitious cultures that they create when we discuss culture and socialization in sociology.  In the past I have had them make posters to display the information for their “culture”, but I think that the wiki will help organize the information better and it might give them an opportunity to create more examples.  For example I can see my students using photoshop or even vokis to create artifacts from their “cultures”. 

                I have not used blogs with my students yet, but I can see the potential for using them.   Not only could I have students read blogs that are written by others, but I could have my students use blogs to complete their discussions.  By having my students read blogs written by other people they are being exposed to other people’s opinions, and they will be given the opportunity to practice their critical thinking skills.  One of the most difficult lessons to teach students is that they cannot take information at face value and leave it at that, but with the use of blogs it might be easier to teach this point.  In blogs, it tends to be easy to pick out opinions based on facts and those based on emotions and prejudices.  

                By having my students use blogs for discussion, I would give them a forum where they have time to think before they put their thoughts out where others can see and comment.  I could have my students post weekly reflections similar to what we are doing in this course and I think it would give the students a better feel for how everyone else is handling the class.  Sometimes I think that students feel isolated when they are not understanding the material and that can lead to frustration if they feel like they are the only one who does not understand.  If they know other people feel the same way it might make it easier for students to seek help and create a better bond between classmates.