Chip Flemmer

EdTech 504

· Where are you now, in terms of your own teaching practice and the inclusion of educational technology in that process?

I would have to say that I am still developing to be great at creating a student-centered learning environment and incorporating educational technology in the process. Like most of my classmates, I was a product of a mostly teacher-centered learning environment. Most of my recollection of educational technology in my elementary days would consist of playing Oregon Trail on an old Apple II computer in the back of the room.

I would like to think that I am doing better at including educational technology than the majority of teachers in my school. I use your typical Power Point presentations and a wide variety of multimedia sources in my classroom to help enhance our learning, but I really wish that I had more access to student computers in my social studies class. I have zero student computers because my school has an integrations lab (30 computers) as well as a computer literacy class which is geared to teach the students the basics in computer technology.

I can and have taken my students to the integration lab; but it can easily become a pain to reserve the lab and try to make sure all the other social studies teachers are willing to collaborate on a lesson in the lab (we all work together on the same lessons and getting all to agree can sometimes be challenging).

The school where I work has an upper-middle class population and if we have a student without access to the internet it is quite rare. With having this benefit, it is easy to ask students to research things on the internet or type up an assignment at home. So what I am trying to say is that if I am not able to utilize technology as much as I may like in my classroom, at least I can continue to have my students access a variety of technologies which have been incorporated into our assignments.

· What kind of change do you hope to see as a result of this class?

As far as changes in my teaching coming from this class are concerned; I am not sure specifically what I hope see at the end of the semester. Instead of giving specifics, I will list some general items that I hope to see. I want to be able to critique my own teaching styles to make sure that they do line up with a student-centered learning style. I also want to understand a little more about good practices when a teacher-centered style of instruction is used. I also want to figure out more ways that I can incorporate technology into my classroom when I have limited access to student computers. I feel that I do a good job within my circumstances, but I want to learn more to make sure that there isn't something that I could add to my repertoire (I know there will be things to add).

· How might your knowledge and experiences influence the actions of those around you?

I think that having twelve years of teaching experience in a school district where many of our teachers have five years or less of experience can really help influence those newer teachers to listen to what I see and be more willing to take my advice. I worked with a first-year teacher last year and felt that I had a very positive influence on how he improved throughout the year as a teacher. This year he is now teaching in another grade and things are going very well. I will not take the credit, by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that I was able to guide and help him with the knowledge and experience I have through just having been on the job a long time and trying to always get better at what I do.

Looking back to 1997, my first year teaching, makes me feel fortunate to have been in a school district that was on the cutting-edge of technology. I worked for the Union Gap (WA) School District (which is a little K-8 district south of Yakima). Our superintendent was way ahead of the game in regards to technology use in the classroom. This guy was amazing and he wanted to save the district money so he basically did all the leg work to set up our computer lab and intranet. His biggest problem was that he had an older teaching staff which for the most part was apprehensive about utilizing technology in the classroom. I was asked if I wanted to be a part of this group called SHARE 105 which would receive training and work to collect lessons that could be published on the internet. We also received our own web page which I began using to publish my homework assignments as well as pictures of class projects. When I look back to that experience in 1997 it was a great opportunity for a first-year teacher to dive into educational technology head-first. I was rewarded with two or three Power Macs to use in my classroom which was great. It is funny doing the time line activity because I can't believe how quickly technology has expanded since 1997 and I feel fortunate to have had a chance to see these changes take place.

In researching the various epistemological beliefs I have discovered points that I like and agree with from both the behaviorist as well as the constructivist stance. I completely agree that many of us make our decisions based on the consequences that are reinforced from what we expect the result of our decision to be. I have many students (and I was generally this way as well) who want to know what hoop(s) they need to jump through to "get an A." These students know that they will be happy and their parents will be happy with the letter grade. I made no mention of whether or not they learned anything in that class or will even retain a tiny-bit of information that will stay with them once they make their final exit out of the door. With my experience of seeing that behavior so frequently; I see the validity that our behaviors are highly influenced by the reinforcement that generally follows (whether positive or negative).

On the other side, I really like the constructivist school of thought, because I also have personal experience applying learning from one class or avenue of life into another. The idea of our learning being like scaffolding appeals to me, it gives me hope that I can make myself better and any actions and decisions I make are not going to be based strictly on the reinforcement anticipated.

With agreeing with points from both sides, I can see the inconsistencies; however, I accept the fact that I am an anomaly. In my classroom there are consequences to various behaviors (both positive and negative), but I would like to think that my students are building their knowledge-base each day and growing into future leaders and great thinkers.

I try to incorporate technology into my curriculum for the same reason that I try to use visuals, hands-on, lecture, reading assignments, and active learning games; I want to address all the various styles of learning in my classroom. I do have a strong belief that we all learn differently and there isn't a one size fits all for my classroom.

In using the computer, some of my students would thrive with a skill and drill game, others can read and take tests with ease (while other students need paper and pencil tests--something tangible besides a keyboard), and simulations get some of my higher-level students to apply critical thinking into the activity.

Even though I believe that some of the behaviorist theories are valid, I wouldn't go as far as saying that I would fall under the objectivist epistemology.

More reflection after this past week at school (2/21/09)...I realize that when I am in a time crunch that I am a big-time behaviorist and slamming direct-instruction down my student's throats like a mama putting down a vitamin in an unwilling son. When I have time to operate and create a lesson, I become Mr. Constructivist, designing stations with great interactive games that help motivate and educate the students. I don't want to seem hypocritical, but I would like to view myself as a constructivist with student-centered learning taking place; however, when time constraints and deadlines loom, I tend to slip into direct-instruction mode just to get the job done.