Surprised in a Good Way

I recently decided to complete my Masters Degree with Shenandoah University and enrolled in EDU 585 as the first of my last four classes needed to complete my degree. I chose to take this class first because it was an online class and I knew I would be very busy setting up the school year at Tuscarora. I had taken online classes before, and believed I knew the drill. Read an article, comment on it on Blackboard, respond to other student's comments. Since the week was beyond busy for me at work, I didn't even look at the course until Thursday. Wait a minute..I already missed 6 assignments? There was a Hangout that evening!  It is obvious what I learned in my first week of class! Even a woman of my age knows what OMG means!

So, off I went at a gallop to catch up. And now I sit here doing what I have purposefully avoided over the last 8 years. Writing a blog. To say I have been disappointed with how slow public education has been to embrace and use technology is an understatement. I have no issue with expressing myself and have always known a blog would be dangerous for me. I do need my job. I will chose my words carefully and attempt not to offend. Maybe.

To explain where I am coming from, let me tell you an experience with technology and public education...It was the spring of 2008. I had been working in a high school for a few years by then and gotten over the shock that there were no courses teaching students Word, Power Point, or Excel. We were being told we would get a book to read over the summer. I had read "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" by Dr. James Paul Gee ( James Paul Gee Website ) and trying in vain to get other teachers to read it. So I went to the administration and gave a pitch for why we should read this book. I was told that the administration was getting tired of me pushing technology and I needed to get my act together. I should be focusing on teaching, not technology. You see, a few months before I had gone asking why we were not using the web page feature on LCPS websites. And a few months before that, and a few months before that. You get the picture. People in my school saw me as someone trying to tear down the established way of teaching. So, I kept my opinions to myself, started making mega amounts of photo copied worksheets, and went about "teaching". The school system since has gone the other way, throwing technology at teachers in bucket loads with no understanding that adults need just in time instruction to use new tools effectively.

I suppose that this assignments and everything I do in the class relates to the NETS's standards in the sense that I am engaging in Professional Growth. There is much I expect I will learn from this class, including my fellow student's views on technology in the classroom and how other students will implement what we are learning. Technology is simply a tool, as is a pencil or pen. Technology for technology's sake is what needs to be avoided and technology where it can enhance a child's learning experience is much harder to implement.