Post #1 Educational Technology Philosophy (draft)

Yvonne Trent
ETEC 524
24 January 2010

Educational Technology Philosophy

I am beginning a journey to discover my educational technology philosophy. I have heard of teaching philosophies but I have never put deep thought into evaluating my own. Thus, the journey begins.
When I examine the various philosophical schools of thought, it is difficult to place my thoughts into any one category. I find that my thoughts and beliefs about education blend into at least three schools of thought. I subscribe to Realism because I believe that our educational system needs to return to the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and character development. I consider the classroom a home away from home and that developing a student’s character is as important as academics. I also realize there are some Idealistic thoughts in my philosophy because I believe religion and the classics are valuable fields of study for the classroom. The third school of thought I subscribe to is Constructivism. I believe that the prior knowledge a student brings to the classroom is a building block of any new knowledge he/she acquires. I also endorse authentic tasks in a meaningful context for the learning experience.
I see the role of the learner being a communicator in the classroom between other students and the global community. As Alan November says, technology is about information and communication which encourage relationships. In this digital world, there are no limits to a student connecting with another teacher, a parent, a community member, or someone across the ocean, and this communication coming through the Internet.
My role as a teacher is to learn how to use the Internet efficiently so that I can guide the students on how to use the Internet safely and appropriately. My role is to teach and encourage the use of tools such as blogging, video cams, video streaming, Pod casts, Facebook, and any other tools that are available on the Internet. Since this is constantly changing, I need to keep up with the current trends involving the Internet.
My view of teaching is that I am always the student as well as the educator. I MUST stay in touch with what is “out there” in the current stream of information and communication. I also must be willing to learn from my students who are more digitally adept than me. I must offer students every opportunity to communicate thoughts and knowledge in the most current and effective format, and train those students on how to present their thoughts and knowledge. I also agree with November that I must teach students how to evaluate the accuracy of the information they find on the various Internet sites in order to avoid erroneous or misleading ideas. I expect my students to bring to the classroom a positive attitude and the mental energy to take on the responsibility of using thinking skills from all the levels represented in Bloom’s Taxonomy. I expect students to use computer attack skills to independently trouble-shoot and solve problems.
My approach to teaching is to allow as much student participation as possible with what tools I have available. Every child should get his/her hands on the one interactive whiteboard located in the computer lab. That means I must reserve it and move the students from the classroom to the lab. Every child needs to have his/her own computer with Internet and a printer which means another planned trip to the computer lab.
In conclusion, I am constantly learning so that I can teach my students. The students need to use all the levels of thinking to use information from the Internet. Teachers and students need to practice computer attack skills so they can independently become problem solvers. Teachers and students need to take on the role of informator in order to build authentic relationships.




Writing down my philosopy is helping me to clarify my teaching goals. It is providing a road map for me to follow as I plan activities for my students. This exercise has caused me to think about what my goals are as a teacher and how I want to go about achieving those goals. Putting my philosophy into words is helping me to see my teaching style from the student's perspective - and that is a real eye-opener! I can see there is much room for improvement on my part.




I can see many possibilities for using blogs in my classroom. Students could respond to journal topics in their blogs. They could also reflect on current events. They could communicate with their parents during the school day and with their teacher after school hours. They could even communicate with students in other school districts, and even all over the world. Perhaps the students could blog to other students about what activities they are doing in class, and exchange ideas. The way our district AUP is worded regarding Internet useage, I believe blogging is covered.
Blogging is a new experience for me. I have read blogs but I have never created one - this is a first. And I must admit the the blogs I have read were like diaries or journals. I have not seen blogging used as a classroom assignment. But as Stephen Downes points out in his article, blogging in it's truest form can become contrived if teachers put restrictions on the blogs and then monitor them. I would venture to say that educators have not met the potential for blogging because students are too inhibited by rules and monitoring.



I thoroughly enjoyed Alan November's article Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning. He brought out so many interesting and thought provoking items. The one that stood out to me the most was the idea of videocameras in the classroom. Actually, I have often wondered if this would ever happen, but the reality of it is upon us. In some ways it seems an invasion of privacy, yet I can see advantages also. It would definitely connect parents and students to each other in a way that nothing else can - next to the parents being right there in the room with their child. We do "inclusion" in my district so I have two class periods where there is another adult school employee in the room with me. There are many times that I purposely imagine there is a camera in my room just to check myself as to whether I am conducting myself as professionally as I can. The idea of a videocamera in my classroom is somewhat uncomfortable but as November said, it is something we need to think positively about rather than react to negatively.