The presentation form is a Prezi on You Tube.
Personal Technology Plan
My vision for education in the future isn’t one that is brings technology to education, but one that brings education out of technology. I envision an educational environment in which technology and education aren’t sisters, but are one. Instead of just attempting to plop technology into our educational system, we need to pull out our educational experiences from technology. This doesn’t mean we need to have an iPad on every student’s lap at every moment, but we need to really use what we have to enhance learning. My vision for the future of education is that there is no longer a sense of “technology” being separated from education, just as there is no real sense that paper and pencils are independent of schools today. We don’t have to have the discussion with principals of K-12 schools, or administrators of higher education institutions, that paper and pencils will be needed in order for learning to happen. I envision a time when this will be the case with technology. In my mind, it shouldn’t exist as a separate dimension that we need to incorporate into our educational system, it should be synonymous with it.
Included in this vision is a seamless experience for students in which they can have access to course material while on campus, at home in front of their laptops, or at the local coffee shop. I’d like the educational experience to be available whenever and wherever a student is ready to receive it. If the moment strikes in an intriguing conversation over mochas and lattes at Starbucks with friends, then students should be able to grab some reliable information from a course site and use it to enhance their own teaching moment. I think that much of the course content can be digested later when one leaves class and thinks about it within the real world. Why deny students the ability to use critical thinking skills because they aren’t sitting at a desk in a classroom, or in front of their laptops in the library. It might be argued that the most substantial learning happens when the student is out in the real world applying the concepts in real time and in real, perhaps spontaneous, conversations.
All this is great, but is it realistic, at least in my workplace? Well, it can be for me. I have the freedom to develop my own class as long as it follows our Course Master. The Course Master only delineates what type of material needs to be covered in a course, not how it needs to be delivered in the classroom. As long as I am providing meaningful assignments to my students, I have the freedom to use whatever methods I deem adequate for students to learn the content of the course. I also have some support from our Instructional Technology Department, which strives to provide emerging technology and help in executing lessons and assignments for class.
This seems to be my new mission. I am hoping to set forth on the journey to carry out my mission to use emerging technology to enhance the learning of world religions and to make the experience seamless for students. This is a dreamy and lofty goal. Yes, I have the freedom to carry it out in my own class, but there is a pitfall. There isn’t a good deal of support from colleagues in this area. Many of my colleagues don’t feel the need for technology in the classroom, beyond pre-made Power Point slides. I can just imagine what will happen when I tell one of these colleagues that I am actually going to allow cell phone use in my next face-to-face classroom. They may just send in the Dean to observe me…and he really doesn’t like cell phones to even rear their digital heads in class. And so, I sit here asking myself how I will build a bridge over this pit so that I don’t fall in. I will probably quietly experiment for a semester or two. Then, when I am confident that techniques are actually working, I will begin to let it be known that technology isn’t the enemy, it is the catalyst to learning in the 21st century. I will continue on the journey, despite the possible pitfalls, because I feel that it is only fair, and therefore, my responsibility, to prepare students to get a job when they graduate. If they don’t practice 21st century skills, they won’t be able to demonstrate to possible employers that they can engage in 21st century business, which means, they didn’t receive from the educational institution what they expected. That is a disservice to students.
I teach both campus classes as well as online classes, without consistency. I always have at least one online class, but that may be combined with campus classes one semester and then all online classes the next. I actually like this. It keeps my mind fresh. I feel that I learned a good deal about teaching once I began teaching online and feel that I am a better campus teacher because of it. This is because I learned a completely different way of teaching students course material and realized that I am more comfortable, and effective, as a “facilitator” than a “teacher”. When I am employing technology in the campus sections, I am doing so with this idea in mind. I ask myself how I can help students learn about world religions while gaining 21st century skills. Even when the course is 100% on campus, I use the LMS. Of course, grades are kept there so that students understand the responsibility of keeping track of their own grades, but so is information about our class, such as test dates, final exam dates, assignment dates, announcements about current units of study, links to websites and documents that I have shown in class, as well as discussion boards used for test study. I feel that this gives them a sense of responsibility, accessibility and connection to content, as well as a sense of community outside of class on campus.
During a campus class, I currently use You Tube videos to give real life examples of rituals, religious structures, and the like. I also use websites for photos and illustrations during class and also as supplemental reading material to provide some depth to the course textbook. I have just a couple of Power Point presentations, which are used just as a broad overview of a topic. They contain less than 10 slides as I use them sparingly. And, I have assigned digital stories to the class as a Final Project option.
Beginning in the Winter 2012 semester, I plan to enhance student learning using a good deal more technology in campus classes, some created by me and some that will be assigned to be created by the students. I have some ideas as to how to create some Prezi presentations covering some of the more complex concepts that I cover in class because I would like to present another format for learning that content. Prezi presentations appeal to me for these particular concepts because they will be effective for both visual and auditory learners, as I will add audio using Camtasia, as well as connect the pieces of the concept to the concept as a whole. I plan on assigning a Popplet assignment to students in which they will investigate a certain event in religious history and connect it to other events, rituals, symbols, etc., of religions. I like that the Popplet software can be used to join together boxes. I think this would be a good way to conceptualize how events in history influence religious institutions and how those influences become influenced by other events, illustrating the religion is dynamic, not static.
Currently in online classes, more technology is used by me than in campus classes, mostly due to the venue, which of course is the computer. Outside of the LMS itself, I use You Tube videos, video from DVDs, audio clips for pronunciation of words, websites from numerous sources as well as the written word. Traditional textbooks are used in those classes for at least half of the required reading material.
Like in the campus classes, I will employ Prezi presentations to cover the same concepts as discussed above for campus classes, but will begin that in the Fall 2012 semester. The same exact presentations will serve both venues. I will also require students to create Popplet assignments as described above. And, I think I will hold some Adobe Connect sessions for office hours as well as student presentations. I’d like to get some synchronous group meetings going in online classes, so I will require some student presentations to be given via Adobe Connect. I don’t want to introduce too many new elements into the class all in one semester, lest I get too bogged down, so I will save this idea for the Winter 2013 semester.
My ultimate goal for online classes is to find a way to conduct my online sections without using the LMS. I will be working in the Instructional Technology Department this summer and I am hoping to gain some ground in this regard. I want to start collecting the content for a course in pdf to get it ready to place it in a digital magazine. I want my course to run like an interactive magazine so that it blends traditional elements of the college experience with emerging technology. This will allow students access to their content from mobile devices at any time and any place that they would like to learn.
How should I execute all of the above? I have a plan. Firstly, I’m going to continue to build my skills and expose myself to as much educational technology as I can. I am going to accomplish this goal in two venues starting the first week of May, 2012. The first venue is the esteemed Michigan State University wherein I will continue along the track to attain the MAET Certificate. I will take CEP 811 beginning in May and will take CEP 812 in the Fall 2012 semester. Then, I will consider applying to the Educational Technology M.A. program at MSU.
Concurrently with CEP 811, I will be working in the Instructional Technology Department at Henry Ford Community College, and hope to deepen my experience with educational technology there. I have certain projects slated for my semester there, but I plan on also working on transforming one of my classes into a digital magazine thereby dropping the LMS altogether. I don’t expect to be able to finish this project in the summer, but am hoping that if all works well, I can have a digital magazine course prepared to run in the Winter 2013 semester.
Also, during my semester with the Instructional Technology Department at HFCC, I expect to gain some knowledge of new technologies as well as get some additional experience in applying them to real courses. I will be running a training session for instructors on how to bring technology into both online and campus classes. This training session will focus on technologies that bring innovation and communication to established courses. I expect to gain some additional knowledge about employing technologies to various disciplines.
Overall, I would like to keep my focus on technology. I want to learn about as much educational technology as is possible because I am very passionate about providing students with a quality learning experience, which I don’t believe can happen unless they are exposed to 21st century skills in all fields. Most courses do incorporate critical thinking skills, naturally, but I believe that all courses should begin integrating some level of technology, so that students can be prepared for life beyond college. I don’t think technology for the sake of technology is good, but technology for the sake of a proper and fulfilling education, is just right.
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