Final Reflection

            Digital Technology for School Librarians: that alone made me terrified.  The use of technology was never my strongest area and to think that I had to complete an entire course scared me to the point that I almost gave up.  I mentioned before in my previous blogs that I would have to take every assignment one step at a time.  I had to remind myself that as long as I could follow directions, I would be okay.  Throughout the course, there were various assignments using different methods that I’d never even heard of.  I took the leap and decided to work one assignment at a time and one step at a time.  I had to convince myself that I could do it. 

            What I found tedious was creating social media accounts.  I didn’t see the need for them until I actually decided to pay attention to those people I was following.  I found useful articles, great pictures, and exciting news that was coming our way as librarians.  I already had a Facebook account, so following others was easy enough.  Twitter and Instagram was more foreign to me, but easy enough to find my way. 

            What I actually enjoyed working on were Infographics.  This opened a new world to me for working on presentations for work and school.  I was fairly familiar with them, but didn’t really create them frequently.  I had more time to explore the different formats and use what I liked. 

            I also enjoyed creating accounts for the online book communities which I had no idea existed.  My eyes were opened to a whole new world of possibilities and although I felt a bit exposed, I was glad I had that experience.  My absolute favorite assignment to complete was using Animoto.  I was able to play around with that for my class and for my students.  My students loved it!  They became so interested that they asked if they could start using it.  Of course I said yes.  We're in the process of creating some fun reading activities for the holidays.  

            Another fun technology based site we enjoyed as a class was creating comics and cartoons.  I was able to use this for lessons regarding behavior and discipline and had great success with it.  The students became excited and worked in groups to create a group project which they had to present for the class.  This was very successful and I will continue to use this in the future for my upcoming classes and sessions.

            What I found most difficult at times was embedding videos into the blog.  So, basically blogging!  I'm not a blogger, by any means, so writing out what I thought and putting in information was more of a challenge than I expected.  I did a bit of research before starting my own blog and found a bunch of nonsense that people write about.  I found a blog of people pretending to be cats and speaking as a cat, go figure.  Plus, I found blogs that were very helpful and well written.  It took some getting used to, but I was able to muster up enough of an opinion to blog about it.  

            I've had several people ask me what this class was about and if it was difficult.  My response was yes and no.  Yes because I spooked myself into believing that it would be hard and no because I learned to go with the flow.  We often fear what we don't understand and at the end of the day, I can say that I understood a lot more of this new world we live in.  Technology, although intimidating, is actually meant to make things easier.  It takes some getting used to, but it's quite exciting to use.

Teaching Writing with Technology-PEW

                                                                               

Purcell, K., Buchanan, J., Friedrich, L., "The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools." Pew Research Center, July, 2013. 

      http://pewinternet.org//Reports/2013/Teachers-technology-and-writing

As a veteran teacher of 14 years, I am always looking to find new and innovative ideas to teach critical content.  Teaching 1^st grade is obviously not as rigorous as teaching writing in 4^th grade, but it is a true foundation for what is to come.  In reading the article, The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools, I asked myself a multitude of questions and kept an open mind.  I found myself interested in finding out what other teachers thought about integrating technology into the writing process. 

            Advanced Placement middle and high school teachers were surveyed to find out if using digital technology was looked upon as favorable or troublesome.  A total of 2,462 teachers were surveyed as part of the National Writing Project and the majority favored the use of digital technology for instructional purposes.  Teachers were able to see a growth in student performance when it came to Writing.  They agreed that students were doing more and using various formats including social media outlets. 

            There were a variety of pros and cons when using digital technology for writing purposes.  One major con was that teachers now had to find new and interesting ways for better educating students against plagiarism and fair use.  On the other hand, a major pro is being able to share written formats in a variety of ways with a greater audience and more participants and engagement. 

            96% of teachers surveyed agreed that a broader audience is beneficial and 78% agreed that digital technology encourages creativity and personal expression.  Some teachers stated that the quality of written work is suffering due to the various use of digital technology that tends to auto correct misspellings, etc.  They reported seeing fair or poor ratings when using a more traditional written format. 

            The major areas of concern included fair use, copyright, plagiarism, and citation.  Teachers mentioned that despite the challenges, digital tools make teaching writing easier.  Students were avid users in whiteboards, wikis, websites, or blogs.  They use these formats to share their work with other students and teachers.  Of those surveyed, 94% said they still encourage students to write by hand. 

            In reading the article, I wanted my own views to not cloud the findings.  As an elementary teacher, I feel that the foundation needs to be strong in order to fully scaffold the learning throughout the years that come ahead.  I partially agree that the technology is vital in communication and definitely aids in the sharing of information, however, I also feel that if students cannot write an essay by hand then we have not done our students any justice.  First, build the foundation and teach the proper use of grammar and spelling.  Only then can we feel comfortable enough to allow students to venture onto using digital technology to share information. 

            As educators, we look for different ways of approaching content in a way that is enjoyable and engaging to students.  We’re not necessarily looking for easier ways or shortcuts, but a smarter way of teaching content.  As students leave our classrooms, we are hopeful that they have learned the necessary tools to succeed in their upcoming journey.  That journey now includes ways to communicate via digital technology and social media.  It’s fascinating to know that they will venture into blogs and websites to voice their opinions regarding something they’ve read or written.  Let’s get them ready for that.

114 pages

Total PEW pages-189