Reading Review #1
My Reading Review journey on issues and
personal interest topics started with my focus on my current teaching
situation. I am a primary teacher and have taught Grades 1-4 over the last 5
years of my teaching career. I have moved schools every year, and this year I
have finally landed a placement in a school that I can now call “home”. I am
teaching Grade 2 this year and I want to make my research relevant to my
current grade level and my classroom environment, as I probably won’t become a
Teacher-Librarian for a number of years still. I work in an affluent
neighbourhood in Vancouver. Our school used to have a computer lab, but due to
more divisions and classroom spaces needed, the computer lab was converted into
a working classroom. All those desktop computers were dispersed to intermediate
teachers and the primary classes maybe ended up with one or two, if they were
lucky. The school also has 2 desktop computers in the library and an iPad cart
that is shared on a sign-out basis. Two classes are piloting the FreshGrade
program, and therefore have their own class set of iPads. My classroom has a
SmartBoard and teacher computer. Therefore, technology is limited in its
availability for students being able to use their own device, especially in the
primary grades.
As I began to delve into this
assignment, such topics as digital literacy, screen time, reputable online
resources, teacher’s technological knowledge base, access to technology,
assessment tools, and inquiry skills all popped up for me. BC’s redesigned
curriculum is on the right track with its Core Competencies in Personal/Social,
Thinking, and Communication categories. The curriculum has also added the
Applied Skills, Design and Technology curricular area. It premises that
technologies are tools to extend human capabilities. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst/2
However, one major question I have, has
to do with time. How do we, the teachers, find the time to teach, learn,
implement, share, assess all the many facets of technology in today’s world and
then apply them to the classroom?
Here are some of my topics and my
thinking in more detail with a list of resources at the end that I intend to
use to help me investigate these topics further.
1. Lack of money/funds to purchase
technology to implement digital literacy in schools - not enough technology
available
2. Concerns about too much technology
usage with children today – I would be interested in exploring a longitudinal
study of the effects of tech use on social skills in 21st century
children
3. New digital age and changes in
assessment practices
-
Using such tools as
Showbie and FreshGrade and how to manage the work/life balance of being
connected with students and families at all times but also having the
understanding of needing time offline too
4. The daunting/ overwhelming world of
apps- where do we find the time to learn how to choose, do, and use them all
-
Animoto and other presentation apps
-
Activities such as Coding
5. Learning Inquiry Skills and
Collaboration with the wider world
-
how to research
questions with primary students
-
how to teach/examine
online information resources
-
how to deem a
resource as age appropriate/ at their grade level
-
Digital Literacy –
good vs. bad sites
-
Being familiar with
all the Databases that will help inquiry by opening up the possibility of
resources
-
How rapport and relationships
need to be established with students before you can delve into an inquiry
project (relationship building with others online as well)
-
Tools, journals,
reflections needed to facilitate inquiry but which forum is best for a primary
classroom
o
ie. google
docs/drive, google classroom, google sweep, Shutterfly
6. Promotion of Literacy and Reading in
our digital times
-
Children wanting to
read on screens versus traditional books
-
Balance technology
integration – how much screen time children are getting at home and at school
Some of these topics are related and some are
not, so I am going to have to hone in on what I am really passionate about and
figure out which topic I should stick with and explore more thoroughly. Any
suggestions are welcome J
Below is my list of academic resources I
have looked at briefly and will tackle over the next few weeks. I also intend
to visit more educational blog sites, review twitter feeds, and search
libraries and google to see what pops up on my topic. My first keywords search I
plugged into library sites was “technology integration in primary classrooms.”
I may need to alter the wording of this but we will see what I discover in the
process.
Bibliography
Ananiadou, K., & Claro, M. (2009).
21st century skills and competences for new millennium learners in OECD
countries. OECD Education Working Papers, 41.
Benavides, F., Dumont, H., &
Istance, D. (2008b). The search for innovative learning environments. In F.
Benavides, H. Dumont, & D. Istance (Eds.), Innovating
to Learn, Learning to Innovate (p. 21). Paris: OECD Publishing.
Biancarosa, G., & Griffiths, G.
(2011). Technology tools to support reading in the Digital Age. Future of Children, 22.
Gibson, I. W. (2004). Preparing school
leaders for new millennium global learning. The Global
Educator.
Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., &
Hughes, J. E. (2009). Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship in a Digital Age Web
2.0 and Classroom Research: What Path Should We Take Now? Educational Researcher, 38(4), 246-259.
Jewitt, C. (2008). Multimodality and
literacy in school classrooms. Review of research in education,
32(1), 241-267.
Kist, W. (2013). The Global School: Connecting Classroom. Bloomington,
IN: Solution Tree Press.
Kopcha, T. J. (2010). A systems-based
approach to technology integration using mentoring and communities of practice.
Educational Technology Research and
Development, 58(2), 175-190.
McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M. J. W.
(2010). Personalised and self regulated learning in the Web 2.0 era:
International exemplars of innovative pedagogy using social software. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(1),
28-43.
OECD. (2009). Creating Effective
Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS. OECD Publishing Retrieved December 20, 2011, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/17/51/43023606.pdf.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for
classrooms. Corwin.
Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and
Information Are Everywhere. TED Talks.
Smeets, E. (2005). Does ICT contribute
to powerful learning environments in primary education? Computers & Education, 44(3), 343-355.
So, W. W.-m., Pow, J. W.-c., &
Hung, V. H.-k. (2009). The interactive use of a video database in teacher
education: Creating a knowledge base for teaching through a learning community.
Computers & Education, 53(3),
775-786.
United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2008). ICT
competency standards for teachers: Policy framework. Retrieved from
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001562/156210E.pdf
Voogt, J., & Knezek, G. A. (2008). International handbook of information technology in primary and
secondary education (20). Springer.
Links to articles
Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD)
link to resource below
OECD - Centre for Educational Research
and Innovation (CERI)
Link to resource below
New Media Consortium- link to resource
below
Decoding
Learning: The Proof, Promise and Potential of Digital Education
Rosemary Luckin, Brett Bligh, Andrew Manches, Shaaron Ainsworth, Charles Crook, Richard Noss, Nesta November, 2012
Rosemary Luckin, Brett Bligh, Andrew Manches, Shaaron Ainsworth, Charles Crook, Richard Noss, Nesta November, 2012
Cuban, Larry. (2017). (still need to
learn how to site a blog)
School Reform and Classroom Practice.
What is Successful Technology Integration?
(2007)
Factors affecting technology integration in
K-12 classrooms: a path model (2010)
Wow, that is an extensive list of resources already! You are getting ahead of yourself a bit, but I appreciated the enthusiasm for finding and searching out potential resources early in this process. Your context was well described and insightful in sharing your interests and challenges. I think you've come up with a very good direction and have already begun prioritizing your needs and goals for the future. A good first start!
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