Assignment #1- Technology Literacy

This article highlights the many ways that teachers can use online resources to enhance their students’ educational advancement. In Exploring the Past with 21st Century Tools, the authors give specific examples of how a teacher can weave history together with technology in the classroom setting. Some of these examples include the viewing of primary documents, personal letters by historical figures, online exhibits, video interviews, online lessons by other teachers, easily-accessed political cartoons, guided online searches for images, and interactive timelines. These educational and historical resources have become important in today’s era because, according to Schrum and Schrum, “Young learners are obsessed about the past and about using technology” (1).
In addition to the many ideas and strategies listed in the article, the authors also show teachers how they can use online resources to encourage young students to become historians themselves. The use of technology does not simply mean passively looking through web pages. Instead, history can come alive and become engaging through the interactive use of technology within an educational setting. Education can involve both traditional and technological tools. As technology has become more readily accepted as an educational tool, teachers have begun to see and implement the learning devices it has to offer. For example, in one school, kindergarten and first grade students created online picture journals of their daily school lives. Instead of technology hindering students’ interactions, these specific children were able to use it to share about their everyday tasks. According to the study, “The activity of making a digital photo journal provides an opportunity for multiple kinds of complex reflection and connection to children’s social networks” (2). Consequently, children participated in a social learning activity while using technology. In doing so, they additionally became historians of their daily lives.
The article continues to point out more ways that children can interact with the past through technological resources. One website mentioned allows students to investigate the original Thanksgiving holiday by reading an eyewitness account of the first Thanksgiving, asking questions of some original sources, and exploring information regarding the oral tradition of the Wampanoag Indian tribe. Another website allows children to embark on a virtual tour of prehistoric caves. Still another enables students to “identify Anglo-Saxon coins, prepare the body of an Egyptian officer for burial, crack a spy code, or dress Victorian and Tudor ladies and gentlemen according to the standards of the day. . . and pose questions to curators at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History about the first gold nugget. . .” (2-3). There are so many possibilities open to children who want to explore the past by using the internet as a resource.
Besides all the avenues of discovery open to students, teachers can easily use online technology to augment their lessons. Not only can educators share valuable sites and teaching ideas with other educators, they can also use various sites to find, create, and execute excellent lessons by accessing and incorporating documented, historical facts. In conclusion, the authors wisely state, “Technology will never replace good strategies for teaching social studies, but it can go a long way in enhancing them” (4).

Through this well-written article, I learned so much more about the many possibilities available to me as a future teacher regarding the use of technology in teaching history. Some may say it can't be done, but I believe that technology is a tool that should be used whenever needed to engage students in the complex process of learning. I'm inspired by this article to look into the many sites and resources available to me and then use them into my future classroom. The specific resources mentioned in "Exploring the Past with 21st Century Tools" are overflowing with lesson ideas. I would love to compile a notebook of these ideas and then create lessons to make history come alive to the students I am teaching. I hope that my future classroom has computers for every student, but I know that even if it does not, I can still encourage my students to explore these historical resources on their own time as well as give them virtual assignments to complete when possible. There are ways to include technology in teaching students that every teacher of any subject should be willing to discover and implement in their classrooms.

Schrum, Kelly, and Lynne Schrum. "Exploring the Past with 21st-Century Tools." Social Studies and the Young Learner 21.4 (2009): 24-27. ERIC. EBSCO. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.

Persistent link to this record (Permalink): ERIC

I am choosing the following NETS for Teachers to focus on this semester:
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Teachers:
a. promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.
c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

This standard is important to me as a teacher for my students because I fully believe children should be allowed to excercise their creativy in order to best learn. If technology can help expand their creativity, then I am all for it in the classroom setting. Technology can help children expand their horizons, imaginations, and interpersonal skills within the realm of education. I will attempt to become more aware of this NETS teacher standard this semester by
1) Brainstorming ways to implement it into my classroom,
2) Being open to finding and pondering creative websites or articles about educational technology to comment on within my blog.
3) Discussing technology and education with the elementary students I am currently working with each week.
Through these three steps, I hope to become comfortable with this specific aspect of the NETS for teachers. I want to reflect a positive attitude toward creative learning about subjects through technology both in my Technology in Education college class as well as with the students I supervise each week at Lakeview Elementary. Hopefully my attitude within each of these three goals will affect others' views toward the benefits that technology has to offer in school.

I am choosing the following standard from the NETS for students:
2. Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
c. develop a cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
d. contribute to project teams to produce original work or solve problems.

This standard is very important for the students that I plan to teach. Since we live in such a technological world, children must get comfortable with not only using technolgy outside of school but within school to fulfill tasks, as well. This standard helps them gain practice in using technology to interact with a variety of people--a skill that they will very much need when they enter the workforce in the future. The more comfortable they become with using technology within peer groups, the better they will be able to work with people in the future to accomplish technology-based tasks and jobs.
In order to help students work together to meet this standard, I could assign them the following two projects:
1. In groups, create an online blog regarding a foreign country. Post several reports about its culture as well as links to other websites that contain additional information regarding the country's people, educational aspects, and customs. Comment and interact with other classmates' blogs.(For older elementary students)
2. In groups, make a digital video of interviews with several adults to find out how they use technology within their specific jobs. Present this brief video to the class when finished. (For mid to older elementary students)