Technology Skills to Learn and Share

Technology Skills that I would like to develop:

• digital storytelling - I would like to implement this in my technology classes to help students be creative when writing.
  
• web design- I have several students in my technology club that have expressed interest in creating a web page for our club. This is an exciting way for them to develop communication skills.
  
• finding and using online resources- Although I tap many resources for lesson development and student research, I know I am only tasting a tiny bite of what is available, and I want to be able to share these with teachers and students.
  
• using photoshop programs effectively-The use of digital movies and photography is so powerful for students to use to create projects over any subject matter.
  
• troubleshooting - I would love to be able to solve more of my campuses computer woes without contacting the tech guys who are so over worked. This would help teachers and students not have as many breaks in their access to technology.

Technology Skills to share:

• Use of Kid Pix Deluxe in elementary classrooms
• Desktop Publishing and Powerpoint
  
• Scavenger Hunts and Web Quests
• Windows Movie Maker
  

Educational/Instructional Technology- Defined

A prevalent definition of Instructional Technology is as follows:

Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development,
utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning. ...
(Seals, B.B., & Richey R.C. (1994).

In response to this, Rodney S. Earle (Vol. 42, No. 1 January-February, 2002, ET Magazine) writes that:
despite this viewpoint that instructional technology encompasses the broader
processes of teaching and learning, the public perspective incorporates instructional
technology as a synonym for computer technology. In other words, as noted above
technology means computers in the minds of many.

After reading various definitions and Earle's perspective of the topic, I believe that instructional technology can be much more than just the teaching of how to use hardware and software. That insturctional technology is the task of developing ways for students and teachers to solve educational problems, find innovative ways to relate to a subject matter, and teach and learn more effectively.

I'm sure as I progress through this course I will gain more insight and be able to add to this definition.

My Family

Here we are in the stockyards in Fort Worth. Yee Haw!

My Vision

As I walked through the 3rd grade hall of my school last week, I was thrilled to see that teachers had displayed work that their students had done in the computer lab. One of my goals as the technology teacher is to get the teachers as well as the students excited about the use of technology in their lessons. The work that was displayed was created in a program that had been introduced to the students in my technology class and to the teachers in a mini workshop that a colleague and I held. It is my vision that as I progress through this course and work towards my degree, I will learn of many more programs and technology skills that I can share with students and teachers. I want to learn ways to help teachers use technology in their classrooms to enhance learning and make their jobs easier. I feel that technology in the classroom should not be something that is just added to meet a PDAS requirement, but as a tool that is used as readily as a textbook to help students understand a concept or acquire knowledge.