2020

When I think of the year 2020 in ten years, I think there could be some major changes. Then I think back to 1999 and how everyone thought the year 2000 was going to have major computer problems, but they never really happened. Everyone believes things will change drastically in ten years, but I think there will only be minor changes, leading toward major changes in another ten years or so.

I think computers will continue to change the world and education. I think computers will be everywhere and more accessible in ten years. In every home, in cars, at work, in every school and every classroom, etc. Computers keep everyone connected with the push of a button. If you are not by your television to watch the news, no worries, you can find the news online with your computer no matter where you are located. If you want to talk to a friend, but have no phone, no worries, you can chat through Facebook, Myspace, or Skype. Computers will continue to keep us connected at any time and any location.

Since our world will be heavily influenced by computers, school districts will have new requirements when interviewing for all staff positions. Prerequisites for teaching will require technology skills. New staff will need to be able to use a computer and be knowledgeable about the applications that students will use. It will not only affect new staff, but other staff will have job description changes. Librarians may be more of computer technicians for the students. They will need to help students find all the information online. Principals and assistant principals will have to be able to understand how students are learning. They will need to make sure that students are succeeding and using the technology appropriately.

I think being a teacher in 2020 will be different from today’s teacher because every classroom will have at least some computers. Most classrooms will have a class set of computers for students to access the internet to connect with others. Teachers will be responsible to teacher students about the 21st century tools and responsible to make sure the students are using them everyday. Teachers and students will share their websites through social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us. Teachers and students will be sharing their thoughts and knowledge through blogs. Students will collaborate with others through wikis. They will help teach each other by adding/editing others' wikis. In 2020 teachers will not standing up front lecturing, they will be on the sides, as facilitators.

I think the classroom of 2020 will start to change its appearance. Textbooks will be available online and students will not have to carry them around. Classrooms will start to become paperless. Students can no longer say they forgot their homework at school, everything will be accessible online. Students can access books, notebooks, videos, audios, anything that was discussed that day at home. Students may even have more contact with teachers in the evening. Teachers may set up times at time to communicate with their students through Facebook or Skype at night to answer any questions.

Teachers’ roles will change in classrooms where every student has a computer. Teachers will no longer have to take piles of papers home at night to grade. Students will no longer have to wait for the teacher to grade their tests and wonder how they did. Students will complete work on the computer. The work will be sent to the teacher’s computer, where s/he will diagnose it and then send back specific practice for each individual student. This will create Individualized Educational Plans for all students, not just special education students.

Since education will rely heavily on computers, the world will also rely heavily on computers. Students will need to learn and be able to use computers when they enter the work force. Most jobs will have computer skill requirements. No longer will companies have to travel to another country to meet with other staff. They will sit in a conference room and meet through video conferencing. All employees located in different areas for the same business can communicate easier and faster.

Not only will businesses communicate through video conferences, but I can see more high schools being taught online. I teach elementary school and believe it still might be hard to teach the basics through a computer, so I think only high school will be ready to learn online by 2020. High school students have had many years to perfect the use of computers and their applications. Money will always be a problem and a need. If high school students are able to learn through online classes, this will leave them more time to get a job and earn money.

I can see elementary schools communicating to other students around the world through Skype, blogs, or maybe Facebook. Students no longer have to be penpals through snail mail. They can talk to a friend around the world and share their thoughts, then only have to wait on the time zone difference to hear their response. Students will also have more opportunities to visit places online that they are unable to visit in person.

My uses of the 21st century technologies and making my students proficient in using them, will prepare my students for being a good citizen in the world. I can see some minor changes in the world and classroom in ten years. Many roles may change slightly. I think these changes will help prepare our students for their future outside of the classroom.

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is a web application that I could see my students using to make a study guide. During class, my students copy notes off the board that I think are important. Sometimes students do not copy everything and don't ask for more time or they have trouble studying at home. Zoho Notebook allows more than one person to access the notebook at a time. I thought I could have students type their notes and organize them anyway that works for them. Zoho lets you put text anywhere on the page, not just top to bottom like writing in a notebook. I would then have a partner access a friend's page to see if they missed anything important. I like how Zoho also allows you to add presentations, pictures, audio, etc. Students can then go home and study with their parents online.

Paperless Classes

I believe paperless classes would change my role as teacher to more of a facilatator. Students would have more opportunity to share what they are thinking. As an elementary teacher, I would have to teach the students each of the tools they would be using.

Paperless clases change learning by allowing students more advantages in their assignments. Students do not only type their paper, but they can add pictures, audio, video, etc. to help enhance their paper. It also changes where and how students view their assignments. Students can find everything online and at any time. Teachers can measure learning by the students papers and discussions. Students are still responsible to show what they are learning and thinking through discussions and papers.

I think a paperless classroom would make it easier to build a learning network because everything is stored online and can be shared with anyone. Students can also connect with other peers online if needed.

Big Shift: The Web as Notebook

Will Richardson's "Big Shif #7: The Web as Notebook (or Portfolio)" tells teachers that the web is taking the place of paper and pencil. Students use weblogs and wikis to store their ideas. Students can also save audio, video, photography, and more on the web.

Currently, I have not had this shift in my classroom. My students are still using paper and pencil to share their ideas. In the future, I expect my students to create blogs for journalling. I'd like my students to use wikis for the writing process. Students will write their first draft. Then peers will edit. Then the teacher can edit. Finally the students can make any final edits to their paper. I would also like to see more use of photography in the classroom. Students can take pictures of real-life objects that we are learning in a subject and blog about how the picture is connected.

After taking this class, I want to make this shift in the classroom. I would like to set up some examples mentioned above. I am also thinking about posting notes online for students who are absent or for parents who are intersted. I hope to have the students help me put the notes online or let them add any details they think I missed from the class. I started last year with a classroom wiki for students and parents. I hope to incorporate at least one more technology (blog, flickr, etc.)

Connectivism

I viewed the following wiki on Connectivism: http://su10-bceol.wikispaces.com/Group+E+6-A-1

I agree with their statement, "In his 2006 publication Connectivism: a new learning theory Ploen Verhagen opines that Connectivism is not a learning theory, but rather a pedagogy, since it deals with the reasons for and content of learning, rather than explains how learning takes place." For example, one principle of connectivism is the ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill. This is a reason, but does not explain how the learning takes place.

I also agree that Connectivism is relevent to teaching practices. Teachers are no longer lecturing. Teachers are now taking the tasks of amplifying, aggregating, facilitating, and modeling network learning. Teacher centered classrooms are moving to Student centered classrooms with teachers helping the learning.

Skype

I connected with two classmates on Skype to discuss our project. One nice thing about chatting through Skype is you can see when the other person is typing. This allows you to wait for their response before typing more. We didn't get to use the camera component, but I like that idea to see the person you are talking to. This is very fun when it is someone who lives far away and you don't get to see in person often.

I have been thinking about using Skype with my students. I do whole class video conferencing with another class already. I was thinking of using Skype for pen pal conferencing. I thought I would partner one person from my class with one student from the other class. Students could use skype to share projects, journals, etc.

By using this technology, I hope to gain a more personal connection with others. Students will make connections and share their thoughts with others.

Using Podcasts in the Classroom

I found a vodcast (they call it a podcast), Turtle Report, that I thought I could use in my third grade class. In reading, my students read a story called Turtle Bay. The story includes sea turltes' life cycle. I chose this podcast because it gives a lot of information on sea turtles: types, life cycle, what they eat, etc. I will share this podcast with my students as an example of what a podcast is and introduction on creating their own. This podcast will provide more information about sea turtles to build on my class's learning from the story. I will then put students into group and assign one type of sea turtle to each group. The group will be responsible to to research their sea turtle, then create their own podcast on that particular sea turtle. Each group will then share their podcast with the class.

Flickr

Zoutedrop. (2008, July 14). Great Panda Bear. Zoutedrops's Photostream. Retrieved July 1, 2010 from http://www.flickr.com/photos
/zoutedrop/2668580919/.




I thought I could use Flickr in my classroom for my Vertebrate Poster Project. Students make a poster with two animals from each vertebrate group. I would have my students view pictures through Flickr to find animals to use on their poster.

I also thought I could have my students take their own pictures, for example, geometrical shapes around the building. We would then upload them to Flickr and other classmates could comment on the picture, listing characteristics of each shape.

Parent Involvement

How much should parents be involved in their child's education?

Have you ever had a student failing or falling behind? If so, are you able to contact the parent and have positive communication about helping the student succeed? Some of the districts with professional parents expect more from their child. If their child has a 94-95, the parent is contacting the teacher wondering why their child has not scored higher. These parents have unrealistic expectations, even though their child's score is an A, it is not high enough for the parent. The opposite is true in my district. A lot of my students' parents commute to New York or New Jersey, leaving their house at 3-4a.m. and not returning until 7p.m. When I have a student with a D or F on tests, the parents do not contact me with concern and I have a hard time contacting them to discuss my concern.

Is it easier to deal with parents who are overly involved in their child's education or not involved at all?

http://integraonline.com/~familyscience.org/pdfs/nsta_article.pdf is an article that discusses teachers and adminstrations find parent involvement as their greatest challenge and cause the most stress in their job.

http://www.eduwonk.com/2008/05/parental-involvement.html is a blog discussing parent involvement. Some teachers feel they do have enough parent involvement. Some teachers feel their job would be worse without parent invovlement. Some wonder if parent involvement should be in moderation.

Wikis in the Classroom

In my district, I am encountering resistance to using wikis in my classroom. When I learned about wikis, I had high hopes of using them with my students to promote technology and peer interaction. I was told by the technology supervisor that I could not use wikis. They were worried about the open access of editing and commenting. I started a classroom wiki, like a webpage this year. This year, I disabled the discussion section and made it private, only I could edit the wiki. I am not sure if I ruined the purpose of wikis? Next year, now that I have more ideas, I am going to try discussing using a wiki with my principal. Hopefully she can help me with the technology supervisors.

Social Bookmarking

Here is one example I could use social bookmarking with my third grade class.

Obj.-> use at least three websites from Delious to gather facts and pictures about each of the five vertebrate groups.

Activities->
-View Miss Argot's bookmarked websites on Vertebrates in Delious.
-Pick at least three websites to use facts/pictures about each Vertebrate group.
-Create a poster including:
*Vertebrate label
*5 Vertebrate groups labeled: Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish, and Birds
*Two facts from Delious websites about each group.
*Two pictures from Delious websites for each group.
-(Note)If students find useful websites at home, they may share the website to be bookmarked in Delious

Evaluation-> Posters will be graded with a rubric including all the requirements.

Pageflakes

Here is how I started to use a RSS Resource Page:

http://www.pageflakes.com/kristieargot/

RSS Feed

I'm not sure yet how much I will use Google Reader. I don't follow too many websites that I have a need to be told the updates.

When searching for sites with RSS and trying to decide how I would use it in the classroom, I thoughts about TIME magazine. I added the top stories as an RSS to my Google Reader. I thought each day, I would view one top story with my class and discuss why it is a current event.

I also thought about trying to teach my students' parents about RSS and telling them they could set up an account so they are aware of updates to my classroom wiki.

Comment

I left a comment at http://www.thereadingworkshop.com/2009/09/blogging-in-classroom.html

It is awaiting approval and the blog says it is summer vacation, so I don't know if it will be approved in time.

Blog Project Inspiration

Teacher's blog with explaination: http://www.thereadingworkshop.com/2009/09/blogging-in-classroom.html


Example of student blog: http://darrens22.wordpress.com

I found "The Reading Workshop" blog. It had a lot of great examples of both the teacher's blog and students' blogs. I liked how there was video, pictures, and texts used in the blogs. I also liked how the student's blog shows different types of writing: journals, poems, writing a letter, etc. I also like how the teacher's blog includes a rubric for students to know how their blog and comments to other blogs will be graded.

This was a sixth grade class and I only teach third grade, but I still think I could use a similar blog in my class to express ideas, thoughts, and responses about books or what is happening in my students' lives. I thought I could have my students pick their favorite book and write a summary including characters, setting, plot, etc. I also am thinking of a personal narrative in the beginning of the school year about summer vacation.

Read/Write Web in the Classroom

I think the Read/Write Web will make my practice and classroom more inviting, exciting, and hands-on. I currently have a Wiki that makes the classroom inviting for both parents and students. Parents can learn what is happening in the classroom. Students can find their homework, spelling and reading vocabulary at home if they forgot to write it down. It will make the lessons more exciting and hands-on for students because I will post pictures of projects and have students blog to explain what they learned. I am also thinking of using a Wiki as a journaling tool. Students will write a paragraph, and then peers will edit it. I think this is exciting because students will be able to see all the changes.