Educational Technology | C.A. Hinger

Time 2021-06-07 12:10:40

Web Name: Educational Technology | C.A. Hinger

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Openness in education has lead to numerous ways people can gain access to education and educational resources. Education is, according to Wiley, Green, Soares (2012) “first and foremost, an enterprise of sharing” (p.2). Openness is certainly required when doing research. Weller’s emphasis on the innumerable tools and programs that are available to use have all facilitated openness and as Wiley, Green, Soares (2012) states the Internet “has empowered us to copy and share with an efficiency never before known or imagined” (p.3). The Internet brings to teaching a wealth of resources that would otherwise not be available or would take a lot of time to create. It always amazes me how many great ideas and resources are on the Internet, which can add content and engage lessons. Others inspire me and when I see great ideas it makes me want to improve my lessons. This would not be the case I didn’t have access to so many different resources and ideas.Openness is seen as a desirable and effective mode of operation in the digital networked environment. Convenience and affordability are two ways openness can be accomplished. I often think of open learning such as MOOCs where people access only the programs they want to learn instead of programs with preselected outcomes. People can conveniently lean what they what to learn. I think this is such an effective way for professional development in education. What a great idea for everyone to learn what they want to learn on a PD day instead of the day being prescribed and irrelevant for some.I am thankful for the openness in my school. Sharing resources and ideas happens all the time and I couldn’t image working in an environment where this doesn’t happen. Resources are remixed and recreated and I am grateful for being able to work in an open environment that is not open.Weller, M. (2012). The openness-creativity cycle in education : A perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education.Wiley, D., Green, C., Soares, L. (2012). Dramatically Bringing down the Cost of Education with OER: How Open Education Resources Unlock the Door to Free Learning. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/open_education_resources.html The very rapid and progressive changes in technology are undoubtedly changing the way students are learning. It is always fascinating to me, as I read through the NMC Horizon reports, the scope of applications and uses of technology in education. It would only be reasonable to say then that with the adoption of anything new including technology come challenges to school boards and teachers.The NMC Horizon report (2013) identifies significant challenges to technology adoption that need to be carefully considered. One challenge that seems to be a consistent focus is professional development for teachers. If teachers do not receive proper assistance in integrating the tools they may use them at all. Another challenge mentioned in the report is teacher’s resistance to change and that technology integration has to be seen as part of the teacher’s role which would require a change in the attitude of teachers toward technology (Johnson, Adams, Cummins, Estrada, Freeman Ludgate, 2013).  I believe effective professional development could help change this attitude as teacher’s overcome some of the barriers that prevent them from implementing technology. What is the best way to break down these barriers and support teachers in their use of technology?I found it interesting but in my experience well stated by Selwyn (2011), that “digital technologies are used inconsistently in educational settings, usually with little large-scale conclusive ‘effect” This inconsistency seems prevalent in many educational settings and it has to come from policy makers to make relevant changes and offer training to teachers. I do see that technology is not the tool for all learning but we live in a world that is integrated with technology and education must keep up with the changing world in order to benefit student learning. What is the effect of this inconsistency in technology and how does this affect student learning?Johnson, L., Adams, S., Cummins, M., Estrada, V., Freeman, A., Ludgate, H. (2013). The NMC horizon report: 2013 higher education edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Estrada V., Freeman, A., Ludgate, H. (2013). NMC horizon report: 2013 K-12 edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.Selwyn, N. (2011). Editorial: In praise of pessimism—the need for negativity in educational technology. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(5), 713-718.The NMC Horizon Report. Sir Ken Robinson points out that technology its really not new if it was invented before you were born. As I spent time learning this summer about how to become an architect for leading, I have discovered that this is one path I really want to travel.  I take with me some great ideas that will help me establish a collaborative culture within my school. setting up networks that build capacity.Perhaps one of the most important elements I have learned in this process revolves around the idea of establishing trust. Building relationships and trusting in each other is such an important part of establishing these strong connections.This concept of trust was clearly evident this summer working with my cohort.  We were able to freely express our opinions, look hard at issues, work together on finding solutions trusting that we would have each other’s backs. We were able to learn and share from each other establishing stronger connections weaving tightly together our network of practice.I will take these experiences and knowledge back to my practice with the aspiration that building a collaborative cultural will start with trust among co-workers.Establishing trust will be  a priority as I work on my leadership  skills giving careful consideration given to:Converging toward a purpose and establishing a common goal among peers.  Focusing on the generative capacity to enable adaptation allowing networks to grow.Working toward unified identity across boundaries but realizing that diversity can create change and inspire new ideas allowing us grow in our practice. (Kowach, 2013)Trust would allow for developing supportive system that is fair and consistent where decisions are made around the needs of the students. With technology we have to ask ourselves when and what is the right tool to use in the classroom for the betterment of student learning.Fullan’s (2008) 2nd Secret of Change encourages the connection with peers to be purposeful. After establishing  trust working toward a common goal is possible. This will set the conditions for collaboration among teachers.In the end, I wonder if leaders fail because they have not done enough work to establish  the trust of the people they work with. But I am confident that over time networks can become strong if they trust in themselves and in the abilities and diversity of others. Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net Fullan, M. (2008). The six secrets of change: What the best leaders do to help their             organizations survive and thrive. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Kowch, E.G. (2013). Towards leading diverse, smarter and more adaptable           organizations that learn. In J.Lewis, A.Green Daniel Surry Editor (Eds.),           Technology as a tool for diversity leadership: Implementation and future implications            (11-34). Hershy, PA: IGI Global. Leadership has gone through some dramatic changes over the last 50 years but I do feel like we are on a pathway to change.As I journey on this path in learning how to become an effective leader, there are questions I hope to find answers to. Are we as leaders working towards an adaptable model for change for our students in our school systems? Can we or do we see this change in leadership “across” our organization? What is the shift in leadership and what role are we to take to ensure we are being effective leaders? Through various discussions with colleagues I have been enlightened to the workings of both effective systems and ineffective systems and I begin to ask myself how can I contribute to this climate of change within such a complex system.Complex systems however are “important because learning and adaptability are connected ideas”  and that these systems look at the conditions and qualities such as diversity, specialization and redundancy as (Kowch, 2013).Diversity allows for individual differences in our thinking. Diversity will bring new, innovative ideas to the table opening up new connections and new pathways.Specialization allows leaders to contribute their expertise and  knowledge to the collective whole eliminating the need to” know it all” taking off the pressure for people and allowing them to flourish in some areas and then taking these ideas and  connecting them together with others.Redundancy, sometimes viewed as being a negative term, actually focus on the positive commonalities that we share. This redundancy “knits” us together as we make these connections with others.There is needs to be a balance between redundancy and diversity that will push us to improve, innovate, move forward, adapt. Both of these need to work together in order for a new model of change to emerge successfully. If there is enough redundancy in an organization it will be more efficient for someone to stand in or  fill in the gaps when needed (Kowch, 2013). This balance needs to be maintained in order for organizations to move forward.As I move forward I look toward Kowch (2013) characteristics for leading and ask myself what can I contribute to this complex system?a clear concept of role- how do I define my role in this complex system?a supporting value system what are the values of the school system and will they support me in and through a leadership position?a shared paradigm/view/belief/ethics about your field Do you share the same vision?ability to generate information internallyto maintain cohesion Collaboration with peers.to organize and manage complex tasks solving the problem at handand the ability to rise above self-interest/ego to work cohesively together as part of a network that works for the good of the community.Recognizing my own diversity and redundancy is a place to start building capacity within the  networking allowing opportunity to build my own and other’s capacity which will undoubtedly “connects peers with purpose” (Fullan, 2008, 2010). Image courtesy of digitalart/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net .Fullan, M. (2008). The six secrets of change: What the best leaders do to help their organizations survive and thrive. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Fullan, M. (2010). Motion leadership: The skinny on becoming change savvy.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.Kowch, E.G. (2013). Towards leading diverse, smarter and more adaptable organizations that     learn. In J.Lewis, A.Green Daniel Surry Editor (Eds.), Technology as a tool for diversity leadership: Implementation and future implications (11-34). Hershy, PA: IGI Global.  Being part of a leadership group involves bringing what you know and what you can contribute to others learning in educational technology. It doesn t necessarily mean that you have to know all the answers but rather that you can contribute your answers to a networking group that will work on problem solving together. It will take trust and shared knowledge between people in order for education to keep moving forward. The NMC Horizon Report: 2014 K-12 Edition discusses new trends and technologies that have discussed and agreed upon by experts belonging to a networking group. The bring their experience and knowledge together and decide which technologies will have a major impact on students learning within the next five years. This information can be used to help guide leaders in educational technology towards making informed decisions about the pros and cons of the latest trends and the challenges related to the issues of technology in education.The NMC Horizon Report http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf Online leaning and planing can be a richly rewarding experience and also a very challenging experience.During my eLuminate experience I started looking at online learning from the perspective of a designer. Wow does this look different. There seems to be many different considerations in planning an online course keeping in mind the objectives and experience for the learner.Meeting the learning needs of students in any educational setting can be ever so challenging but meeting needs through in an online environment comes with it’s own set of issues.Ethics plays a huge part in online learning. Very interesting questions and considerations came from discussions today with colleges. One particular question that spark debate was “is Internet access a basic human right? A question that came to my mind was “is internet access a basic need!”Addressing ethical questions with online learners can be a bit tricky. What I struggle with is that some learners throw the role of digital citizenship out the window which can produce complications online. Learners need to be aware that what they put out in the digital world is there for the world to see. How you communicate with others can have serious consequences if not done in an appropriate way. Cultural issues are another concern. What is ok in one cultural may not be acceptable in another. How do we deal with this when designing a program. Is it up to the facilitator to deal with these issues or should others handle these problems? What are the support systems that are put into place and can they help address these issues if need be?Another cause for alarm is the potential cheating or plagiarizing that may happen online.  Sure this happens in face to face environments however the internet brings advanced communications technologies and the perceived absence of the facilitator, to the table giving learners a false sense of security and mind set that no one will notice them if they do it. (Simonson. 2012)What then does a successful design look like? One that is ethically sound and above all one that meets the ever so diverse needs of the learner.ReferencesSimonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.Image by Stuart Miles, courtesy of FreeDgitalPhotos.netCommunities. What does it take to build?Build a community and will they come? Or will they?So what is a community? This question sparked great debate as to not only what a community is but how we define a community and do connections lead to communities or does communities lead to connections.The definition of community really depends on the context in which it is applied.Is it applied to a farming community ? A learning community? A religious community? A cultural community? An online community? The term community will vary under each of these circumstances but one commonalty remains the same for all these groups and that is that each of these communities from around a common goal.I believe that a common goal is necessary but there also needs to be some sort of social connection or an emotional tie-in to community building. But creating this social element in some types of communities can be tricky.Creating that social component with an online community can be especially challenging. Many factors need to be thought though. How and will there actually be a social connection built into an online community? Is there really a need to be socially connected in order to belong to a community? If in fact social connections are being made in an online community are there then considerations for a safe space to go.Creating a sense of community in a distributed learning environment can be a challenge. It may not be for everyone?  In the course textbook, Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek (2012) have shown that completion rates for online learners increase when the students have an added social component to the experience. Noncompleters tended to be more task orientated and focused on course content with a diminished capacity towards social interaction (pg.72)There is defiantly merit to adding a social component when building an online community. Social collaboration whether it’s online or face to face is very important for building an online community of successful learners.ReferencesSimonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.Image by bplanet, courtesy of FreeDgitalPhotos.net Well I didn’t think it could be done but at the stroke of midnight my article review assignment was handed in. Who knew researching an article and then writing about it could take so much time!! I must admit after finishing this assignment and finally having a chance to sleep on it I was pretty happy with the topic I chose. – Professional Learning in a Digital Age. I was so enticed by the topic that I think I will pursue it for further study – Maybe even another paper!This article resonated with me for several reasons. Professional development is an expectation and obligation in teaching and yet a lot of the time I don’t feel that I really took anything away from these development days. If we are to engage students in their learning then doesn’t it make sense to also engage ourselves? Perhaps this is why I chose to pursue studies in Educational Technology. In this rapidly changing world, education needs to change but so does the way teacher teach. Our strategies for student leaning and engagement have to stay current. So why is it then that I can’t seem to find quality professional development to satisfy my professional needs?This brings me back to the article that I reviewed. This article focuses on online professional development. Why can’t we connect with other teacher world-wide? Wouldn’t it be exciting to see what engages students in Australia, Ukraine, Netherlands or Japan! What does teaching in these areas look like? If we are trying to connect our students in the classroom using real world situations wouldn’t be just as engaging for teachers to connect as well!  Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net . Privacy Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

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