Week 9 Post

Do you feel that these articles encompass the Essential Conditions for Technology Integration? Why or Why Not? Cite information from the article to support your answer.

"After the Bell, Beyond the Walls" discussed examples of incorporating technology into the classroom. I think that this article encompassed most of the Essential Conditions for Technology. The Virtual Book Club example showed a good use of Shared Vision because schools from different states that were reading the same book participated. The StudyCasts and At Their Own Pace examples showed a good use of Access because these examples were Podcasts that the teachers created. I learned from my In the News article that creating a Podcast is a relatively easy thing to do and doesn't require any state of the art equipment. All the examples in the article showed a good use of Skilled Educators because the projects that they chose to do were simple to execute, but still effective. I don't think that any of the examples showed a good use of Professional Development or Technical Assistance. However, I do think that the Virtual Book Club showed a good use of Content Standards and Curriculum Resources because the teacher incorporated books that the students had to read into a multimedia project. StudyCasts showed a good use of Student-Centered Teaching, especially when the author said that the students sought out the teacher by e-mailing her when the link was down so that they could study for their test. I think that At Their Own Pace showed good Community Support and Assessment because when the author realized that her students with reading disabilities were having trouble keeping up, you asked the special education teacher to record the text for them. After the project was over the author was able to reflect and see how technology can be useful for these students. I think that the Virtual Book Club showed a good use of Support Policies because even the president of the school board participated.
"It’s Magic: An Educator’s Vision of the Future" was the author's envision of what education will be like in the future. I think that this article encompassed most of the Essential Conditions for Technology, but then again, this wasn't a real example of what had been done. The article showed Shared Vision because the entire education system had been reconstructed so that students were paired with one mentor for grades K-12. With this, students had Access to their mentors weekly as well as both mentor and student having Access to many new technologies. All mentors were Skilled Educators because in order to become a mentor that had to be familiar with current technologies. This article also showed areas for Professional Development because the mentors met with each other to discuss what their students were doing. The article didn't really go into receiving Technical Assistance, but maybe that's because the author feels that in the future people won't need Technical Assistance because they will already know how to do it. Because this article took place in the future, it sounded like the Content Standards and Curriculum Resources had been totally revamped. This article definitely focused on Student-Centered Teaching because Teachers no longer stood in front of a class of 20; instead students met with their mentor and would come up with their own project ideas to fulfill an assignment. The article did not go into Assessment, but Community Support was achieved when mentors met to discuss what the students were accomplishing. It sounded like there were Support Policies because all the mentors and students were equipped with state of the art technology.