As a student who had limited exposure to technology within my education I found these readings which addressed technology leadership and technology integration into the curriculum to be fascinating. Additionally, as someone who wants to be a teacher and use technology consistently in the curriculum to support my teaching, I thought these chapters were very useful. Chapter Four advocated the ideas of having technology leadership, as opposed to technology administration in schools, and gave tips for administrators to take an active role in promoting technology within their schools. Chapter Five gave really good advice and tips on how to integrate technology effectively into the curriculum (below are two pictures of different ways technology can be integrated into the classroom), especially through practicing reflexivity when brainstorming different integration techniques.
http://www.washloc.k12.oh.us/graphics/technology-classroom.jpg
http://gears.aset.psu.edu/viz/facilities/stereoclassroom/images/stereo2.jpg
I agree very strongly with Chapter Four’s argument that administrators should strive for technology leadership as opposed to technology administration. My agreement partially stems from my own high school experience which made me wish that my high school administrators were interested in and had pursued technology leadership. In my high school, technology that did not have an explicit education purpose (such as books or computers) was not used at all. Cell phones were banned from the school, we were not allowed regular access to the internet and the majority of our assignments did not even involve using anything beyond course books. The only lengthy exposure we had to technology was during computer class where we simply mastered typing and completed one research project using the internet.
Due to my own experience in high school, Chapter Four gave me a lot to think about. I wonder how different my high school education would have been if the administrators had been interested in technology leadership. I believe that my high school education could have been a lot more interesting, that I would have learned and remembered a lot more if my teachers and administrators had tried to incorporate technology and used it to facilitate their curriculum goals.
In order to further see the importance of technology leadership I did a little research and came upon a website which argued for the importance of technology leadership. This website helped facilitate my understanding of the importance of technology leadership but also provided some additional information for me to look at as well as noted some pitfalls that may occur when trying technology leadership. I also came upon a website that showed an example of a school board that seems committed to technology leadership. It is great to see a school board passionate about this and hopefully more school boards have and will continue to adopt this perspective.
Additionally, I also think that many of the ideas in Chapter Five are incredibly useful for me as a future teacher. I thought reading about integration as a reflexive practice was not only interesting, but also something I would choose to implement in the future. This strategy seems like it would be very effective because it would allow me (as the teacher) to think of new possibilities instead of simply being told what to do. I also enjoy how this method does not start thinking about actual technology instantly but instead focuses on the curriculum goals. Focusing first on curriculum goals ensures that technology is supporting the curriculum instead of the other way around. Below is a video that illustrates different ways to incorporate technology into the curriculum. With these resources and hopefully a supportive school board I hope that I can be a teacher that actively uses technology to support my curriculum.
Tags: curriculum, Media, pedagogy, technology
