Week 3 - Post #1
After reading chapter 3 in the Empowering Students with Technology book, I have found that my worst fear in dealing with educational technology is shifting control. I thrive on being in control. I have found comfort in being the “teacher that gives the problems” as the female student puts it on page 46. It has become apparent to me that I need to change from being a lecturer 100% of the time in my calculus class to empowering my students to take the initiative when it comes to problem-solving.
• How will I overcome these fears and use technology for empowerment?
I have already begun my plan to manage my fears on using technology for empowerment. Last week I attended an AP Calculus workshop and I was so glad that I had read this chapter in our textbook. I intentionally looked for opportunities to use technology to overcome my fear of shifting control and discovered that with a little work on my part, I can overcome this fear. After seeing examples of collaborative learning, calculator exercises and computer activities that other teachers shared at the workshop, I can see myself taking them one step further to shift control to allow the students to manage them as the examples in our textbook suggested.
I loved that this chapter provided some examples that were specific to mathematics. I hope to build on these ideas and promote student responsibility for learning.
• How have the skills I've learned in this class contributed to realizing my hopes?
The skills that I have learned in the class certainly give me hope to use the “shift in control” technique with my students. Dr. Wickersham definitely has shifted control to the students in this class. I am seeing first-hand that all of us can do the major projects in this class in a dozen different ways and still meet the requirements. The technology adds a variety of methods to choose from and makes it more interesting. It has certainly motivated me to work at increasing the opportunities to use technology with my own classes.
• What changes will I make regarding shifting control, mentoring, collegiality and collaboration?
I have already begun to think of activities to shift control and use collaboration more in my math classes. I have found several activities on the internet and in the workshop that I just attended. I have also decided to create a questionnaire to email to all parents of my precalculus and calculus students asking if they use higher math in their jobs and if they would be willing to mentor or collaborate with my students on some projects during the year. I have used reverse mentoring for years. It is amazing what students can share when it comes to using a calculator for a short-cut! As far as collegiality goes, I hope to create my own web site soon and share information with students, teachers and parents. In the meantime, I have emailed my newly created blog address to many of my co-worksers and have already shared some of what I have learned in this class with them.
I am also going to use my e-portfolio to help me benchmark my progress over the years.
• How will I overcome these fears and use technology for empowerment?
I have already begun my plan to manage my fears on using technology for empowerment. Last week I attended an AP Calculus workshop and I was so glad that I had read this chapter in our textbook. I intentionally looked for opportunities to use technology to overcome my fear of shifting control and discovered that with a little work on my part, I can overcome this fear. After seeing examples of collaborative learning, calculator exercises and computer activities that other teachers shared at the workshop, I can see myself taking them one step further to shift control to allow the students to manage them as the examples in our textbook suggested.
I loved that this chapter provided some examples that were specific to mathematics. I hope to build on these ideas and promote student responsibility for learning.
• How have the skills I've learned in this class contributed to realizing my hopes?
The skills that I have learned in the class certainly give me hope to use the “shift in control” technique with my students. Dr. Wickersham definitely has shifted control to the students in this class. I am seeing first-hand that all of us can do the major projects in this class in a dozen different ways and still meet the requirements. The technology adds a variety of methods to choose from and makes it more interesting. It has certainly motivated me to work at increasing the opportunities to use technology with my own classes.
• What changes will I make regarding shifting control, mentoring, collegiality and collaboration?
I have already begun to think of activities to shift control and use collaboration more in my math classes. I have found several activities on the internet and in the workshop that I just attended. I have also decided to create a questionnaire to email to all parents of my precalculus and calculus students asking if they use higher math in their jobs and if they would be willing to mentor or collaborate with my students on some projects during the year. I have used reverse mentoring for years. It is amazing what students can share when it comes to using a calculator for a short-cut! As far as collegiality goes, I hope to create my own web site soon and share information with students, teachers and parents. In the meantime, I have emailed my newly created blog address to many of my co-worksers and have already shared some of what I have learned in this class with them.
I am also going to use my e-portfolio to help me benchmark my progress over the years.
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