Technological Justice

I feel as though there is no choice on my part whether I can use technology in my classroom or not. I think I HAVE TO use technology in my classroom. "Students must be technologically fluent and able to use technology to solve problems with various sources of information, create new representations of their knowledge, and enhance their learning through the diverse strategies afforded by technology. Students without these skills are at a decided disadvantage in terms of future educational and employment opportunities in our global, technological, and information-based society"(Swain p.15). If this statement is true, and I believe it is true, then how could I remove technology in my classroom. And for those students that do not have access to technology outside of the classroom, they will be at an even bigger disadvantage if I do not use technology. I think I would be doing them a huge injustice if I decided they did not have to use technology.

"An important aspect of adopting a framework of social justice when using technology in the classroom is for the educator to be reflective about how it is used in the classroom" (Swain p. 16). The way I will approach social justice in these terms is by making sure that I use technology inside my classroom walls as often as I can. For those students that do not have access outside the walls of my classroom, I will try to give them more in class time on the computer, and I will have opportunities for them to do their work on the school computers outside of class time.

But even the students that do have access at home, they need a lot of computer time as well. "We might question whether students are really as techno-savvy as popular media often portrays or whether they merely have a positive attitude toward technology systems and a broad knowledge of various basic technologies" (Greenhow p.17). Of course they will be more advanced than the students without access, but they will not be to the level they might need to be to make it to the next level (college or career). As teachers, it is our job to get our students as ready as possible, to push them to be as capable as we can. So both those who don't have access at home and those that do need teachers to require them to work with technology.

References

Swain, C., & Edyburn, D. (2007, March). Social Justice: Choice or Necessity? Learning and Leading with Technology, 14-18.

Greenhow, C. (2008, September/October). Who Are Today’s Learners? Learning and Leading with Technology, 16-17.

The Day of Powerpoint

Wow, there were some amazing powerpoints today. Every person brought something to the table today, and it was good.
-Kristin had some great color combos.
-Mikey had the best sounds, for sure!
-Andy's pictures correlated really well and the color combination worked really well.
-Ian did some amazing things with arrows! And I was especially impressed by his smart art-making Optimus Prime rotate the opposite way as the outside arrows... very cool.
-Alison put together a very organized powerpoint, and I especially liked the lines pointing to the vocab words. And nice find on the video!
-Paul's backgrounds were fantastic... definitely my favorite backgrounds. I also really liked the red cirles that he used to compare traits of birds. I really liked the video too, especially the song. And how did he do that with the moving animals??? Too cool!
-Amy had some really good pictures and good background colors. She totally got me excited to learn about probability. I need to know how the birthday stats work!
-Trevor had a really good picture of two cats which correlated perfectly with his topic. Plus, the Numonic device was used quite well.
-Ibrahim used the powerpoint perfectly to set up his question about the table salt.

The least engaging thing I saw was when people would would look at the smart board and read directly off of it. I think I did that once or twice, but I tried to make it flow. Ibrahim might try printing off some notes so that he doesn't have to read directly from the board.

I thought I put a lot of hard work into my own powerpoint, so I was surprised to find how much better my classmates did on their powerpoints. I knew that I wouldn't have the best, but I didn't think I would be so far from the rest of the group. I think I would have had more lines and circles, like Paul and Alison. I think my color combination was pretty basic, so it did not enhance the powerpoint like it did in Andy's, Paul's, and Kristin's. Additionally, and most importantly, I would have had more movement. And when I learn how to, I will start adding sounds.

I do like using PowerPoint as a lesson presenter. Sitting in as a student today, watching my classmates powerpoints, I thought they did a good job to enhance my learning experience. They kept me enganged and kept my attention. However, in order to make a PowerPoint work, you need to put a it together well. Putting my PowerPoint together took a lot of time, and it was only mediocre. So the pro is that it has the potential to keep the attention of the students, but the con is that it might take too much time to be worth it.

Cell Phones in the Classroom?

I just read a "Point/Counter-Point" article which asked the question, "Should cell phones be banned from classrooms?" I was surprised to find that the arguments that they were making, on both sides, were quite different from the arguments I was expecting. Instead of focusing on cell phones being a distraction to the classroom, they were focusing on financial issues. Josh Allen says, "I’m not going to spend time on the fact that students would use them for purposes other than educational. They already do that, even when they are not being used as a tool. There are plenty of other negatives to focus on." That is the first and the last that he brings up the issue of cell phones being distracting. The only time Liz Kolb, the yes person, only addresses the issue of cell phones being a distraction once as well. She said, "Teachers who are concerned that cell phones will be distracting inside the classroom can set up a social contract with their students defining the structure and rules around cell phone use in the classroom." These were the arguments that I was expecting to read about, however, the arguments they decided to focus on were finances and the educators job to teach media.

I am not firm on either the yes or the no side. Based on the article, I think the no side won, but my personal opinion is probably more on the yes side. In the article the yes person made better arguments about why cell phones could be useful to the classroom, such as using them during field trips and sending pictures. Whereas the no person seemed so against them that he took for granted that they might be useful. The financial aspect is intersting. I think the yes side won that part of the argument, because the school will not be able to fund the opportunity for all students to use a cell phone. If we are using cell phones in our classes, the students that do not have a cell phone will be left out.

Here is my personal opinion: I don't think cell phones should be banned entirely, but I do think there should be boundaries on usage in the classroom. As a teacher, if I can find a way to utilize cell phones in my classroom, I will do that. As of right now, I don't see anything they can do that can't be done in another means (ie a camera can take pictures, a computer can send pictures). I guess the reason I am hesitant to allow cell phone usage in my classroom is because I have seen students in school use them way too much when they shouldn't be; they become a distraction to the classroom.

Some questions that I have as a result to this article are as follows:
1. How can you expect teachers to help students safely navigate the media world if the teachers themselves don't use cell phones as much as the students do?
2. How will schools utilize cell phones in class and make them a part of assignments if some students do not have cell phones?
3. Is there a better way to address the problems with cell phones in classrooms without banning them completely?

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is harassment or threats that occur during online activity or via cell phones. The avenues to use cyberbullying include email, cell phones, chat rooms, blogs, instant messaging, and networking sites. It is anything that damages a person, their reputation, their life, or their computer system. Because bullying no longer requires face-to-face interactions, kids no longer feel safe in their own homes. I have been fortunate enough to be free from any experiences involving cyberbullying. In fact, I can't even think of one person in my life that has been cyberbullied.

The problem that schools face with cyberbullying, is that most of it occurs at home which limits what schools can do to prevent it, even though the effects of the bullying are brought into the classroom. In May of 2007 the Oregon Legislature added cyberbullying to the House Bill 2637, which allowed school to treat cyberbullying as harrassment and intimidation. However, schools are now stuck only reacting to the specific incidences where cyberbullying occurs inside the school or when it effects the school as a whole if done off-campus.
Here are some signs that a teacher might see that could show signs of cyberbullying: the student is visibly upset after intenet or cell phone use, the student withdraws from friends and activiites, their academic performance drops, if the student is already a target for traditional bullying, or if the student develops habits of being absent or tardy.
Knowing that the above list shows the effects of cyberbullying on the classroom, I believe schools should have the ability to regulate off-site bullying. I am not recommending that they put in extra time or effort into monitory all, or any, of their students home activity on the internet. All I propose is that when an off campus cyberbullying incident is brought to the attention of the school, the school should be able to discipline their student for it. Obviously if the bullying causes threat of physical harm, the school should involve law enforcement, but other than that, the school should enforce informal discipline.

In my classroom I will first empower students to solve the issue themselves by encouraging them to tell someone (parent, or other adult). Beyond that, I will have both preemptive and reactionary guidelines. I will have a list of things that I will talk about with my classroom (ie, don't post things somebody else can hold against you, don't hang out with people that hurt you physically or emotionally...). Additionally, I will clearly define what cyberbullying is and explain what the specific disciplines will be for the different types of cyberbullying. I will also explicitly explain how we will go about investigating the process. I will even warn them that there will be informal disciplinary actions taken for off-campus bullying as well (ie, getting parents involved by showing them posts). I will deal only with my classroom, or at least that is my current plan. Maybe down the road sometime I will be on a committee that figures out how to address the entire school on this issue. I know cyberbullying is becoming more and more prominent, but I do not see it being a huge deal in my classroom. I trust that the plan I have set up will take care of the problem nicely.

Google Me

So I just searched for myself via google and pipl. I was not really all that surprised about what came up about me. The only things that could really come up were MySpace, Facebook, and Flickr. My name is quite unique, so the one thing that did surprise me was how many other people named "Andrew Eoff" that it found. Something kind of funny did pop up on piple.com: it had a contact detail of me showing my childhood address and it said I was 51 years old. I am assuming it confused me with my dad, who is 51 years old.

After the search, I decided to delete both my MySpace and Flickr accounts. I decided to delete my MySpace account because I haven't used it in over a year. The reason I deleted my Flickr account was for the same reason (I haven't used it in over a year), and also because my username was "OneWay=Jesus" and I figured I should get that off of there.

I think teachers should be held to a higher community standard, even their personal lives. Administrators are held accountable for hiring teachers that will act appropriately and treat students appropriately. If they are going to be held accountable, then they should be able to hire based on more than just the teachers resume. Also, I am becoming a teacher because I really care about the students, and all the expectations and standards that follow a teacher are for the student's benefit.

I think the most interesting story from the article was the one about Stacy Snyder. She was the woman who was a candidate for a teaching license, but because of her “Drunken Pirate” picture, she was awarded an English Degree instead. For some reason the administration at her school thought that portraying yourself as a drunken pirate is really awful. It does not say how they justified their reasoning, but I am assuming it is by using a mandate similar to Arizona’s which says, teachers must not “engage in conduct which would discredit the teaching profession.” I think this was the most ridiculous story in the article, because there is so much subjectivity involved, and there can be so much context involved that they cannot know.

I do not think there is much I have to change in order to protect myself or my job. As a coach I decided that I would not befriend a student or athlete of mine until they graduate high school. As a teacher I will live by the same rule. This will help me keep a professional relationship with the student, and it will also save me from any potential conflicts that could arise. I am thinking about setting my facebook profile to private, but I keep everything appropriate on there. The reason I am thinking about changing it is because, like some of the stories from this article show, you might not know what “wrong” is until it’s too late.

Digital Natives

The first computer my family ever owned was when I was still in elementary school. This was back in the day of dial up internet, but we did not know any better, so it was fast enough for us. By middle school I was already using AOL instant messenger, as were many of my classmates. I remember my 6th grade year was the first year that AOL instant messaging was created. My latter years in high school were the beginnings of MySpace, and my first year in college was the 1 year anniversary of Facebook.

Even though I did not start using a computer until my later years in elementary school, I still consider myself a “Digital Native.” Prensky explained that Digital Natives “are all ‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet,” while Digital Immigrants “all carry an accent with them, because they had to learn a new language” (Prensky, 2001, October). I believe I am a digital native because I can hear a definite “accent” when speaking to the digital immigrants. It takes a lot of patience on my part to walk my mom through the steps of how to do this or that on the computer, especially when I am teaching the same task multiple times. Plus, I was able to learn the language of the digital world at an age that is not much older than the average age kids are learning it now.

Because I consider myself a digital native, I feel that I can take a firm stand on this topic of how to teach the new digital native generation. As a student, every single one of my elementary, middle, and high school teachers were “digital immigrants.” The only technology that was utilized in the classroom was a radio, CD (or cassette) player, TV, VHS player, or DVD player. Actually, by the time I was in high school some of my teachers expected their students to utilize the internet at home, but we never used it in the classroom. With that said, after reading Prensky’s articles you would think that I felt deprived or bored from my education. However, I never felt the slightest bit of anger toward my teachers for not utilizing the technology that I knew. Prensky argues that “the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language” (Prensky, 2001, October). I feel as though my teachers had no trouble teaching our population that spoke a different technology language, because we all spoke the same classroom language. There was a time to play video games, talk on the cell phone, text message, instant message, browse the internet, etc., but the classroom was not one of those times.

College was a new experience. I attended the University of Oregon, which had a variety of professors, each with their own way of teaching. Some utilized the internet in the classroom, while others did not. Power points were very common, but there were still a number of teachers that lectured on the white board. The biggest difference between high school and college in regards to technology was the reliance of the University on computers and the internet. Assignments were given and graded via an internet program called “Blackboard.” It was impossible to succeed in college without internet access and knowledge of the computer language. Yet, my professors did not “work really hard to earn” my attention (Prensky, 2005). The classes I took were not particularly engaging via technology, but I was engaged because of the content. I will admit, however, that I did benefit from the technology that was utilized by certain professors, such as power points, videos, conference calls, and conversations via email.

I am not yet convinced that the problem that is proposed by Prensky in his 3 articles is indeed a problem. Based on my experience throughout my education, I have no reason to believe that the “educational systems…can actually retard learning for brains developed through game and Web-surfing processes on the computer” (Prensky, 2001, December). However, these articles have actually transformed the way I think about technology in the classroom. They have opened my mind to the ways in which cell phones can be used. I used to be in the school of thought that cell phones should be restricted in classrooms. I may still be in that school of thought, but at least now I am wrestling with the idea of potential benefits to them. I especially like the idea of trying to reach our students where they are instead of forcing them to meet us where we are. We are bringing learning to them, to their table, to their life. I do not agree with everything that Pensky addressed, but I do agree with the overarching theme that we need to be finding ways to make learning fun for our students. My goal as a teacher is to present information in whatever way necessary that will enable them to learn it the best. If that means utilizing podcasts, then so be it. I appreciate these articles and the video very much, because they challenge me and my way of thinking, which can only result in a better way of thinking.


References

Prensky, M. (2001, October). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9 (5).

Prensky, M. (2001, December). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part II: Do They Really Think Differently? On the Horizon, 9 (6).

Prensky, M. (2005, September/October). Engage Me or Enrage Me: What Today's Learners Demand. Educause Review.

Introduction

My name is Andrew Eoff
I want to teach either High School or Middle School in both Social Studies and Math
My favorite animal is a Grey Wolf

Here are some links to some of my favorite websites:
ESPN: Worlwide Leader in Sports
TED: Ideas worth spreading
Northpoint Church Messages