Welcome Tonight the presentation you will witness involves the integration of technology and the reasons we must act now in developing classrooms to meet incoming students’ needs. Our world is changing everyday and we cannot keep resisting the fact that technology is a major part of that.
4 major points will be covered tonight. The first being: 1> Mission and Vision Then: 2> Assessment where we stand now with technology and where the rest of the world is going 3> Integration this starts with the teacher and his/her classroom and finally: 4> Professional Development we must look out for our students, they are our #1 priority – we are setting them up for the rest of their life
*The mission statement states our University will provide an education for the students in which they will be able to expand their lives personally, professionally, and in the end become better people. *Technology has brought upon a whole new world and to allow our students to reach their full potential we must look into the integration of technology. First, we must define both technology and integration: Technology – in terms of education this can get technical. The argument has been raised: “the educational technology that can make the biggest difference to schools and students is not the hardware, but the process of designing effective instruction.” Technology must be surrounded by a good curriculum and plan to bring it into our classrooms. Integration – technologies must be pedagogically sound and must go beyond information retrieval to problem solving; allow new instructional and learning experiences not possible without them; promote deep processing of ideas; increase student interaction with subject matter; promote faculty and student enthusiasm for teaching and learning; and free up time in the classroom. What are the goals and objectives of Technology integration and how do they fit into our mission statement: 1> Stakeholder Involvement: Who are the stakeholders? 1> students 2> teachers 3> schools 4> future employers 5> community 6> virtually our entire world What can our stakeholders do in this process? Students: Be patient and provide insight Teachers: Continued education, willingness to change, think outside of the box Schools: Willingness to change, funding, opportunities for advancement, apply for government funding Community: Support, willingness to change, acceptance World: wait for our learning and teaching to change it once again *** Involving key stakeholders is often the way to achieve the potential promises while addressing and overcoming the related challenges (Waddoups et al ., 2001) as found in (Earle, p. 12)
Today’s student is changing and there is the “new” student, which has evolved overtime. To get a feel for our past history we must look back at history. Generations are defined as I will explain. Starting with the Baby Boomers, which have the characteristics of the following: Confident – are proud of their skills and are not afraid of confrontation Hard-working – they have the daily grind mentality and believe the newer generations must work for the dues, but feel they are handed free will too often Motivated Goal-oriented – they make exciting new challenges and strive to make a difference Competitive – they equate work and position with self-worth, tend to have entrepreneurial characteristics Gen-Xers (Generation X) Individualistic – have become accustomed to rising divorce rates, two-income families, and a languish economy. They are independent, resourceful, and self-sufficient in justification. Technologically enhanced – have grown up with computers and its growing technology Flexible – more willing to change jobs due to the things they have seen growing up Value Work – they work to live, appreciate a fun workplace, and value humor Millennial Independent – they believe being successful is only in their hands Empowered – confidence coming from the belief they can accomplish things entrusted to them Love of family – they rely on their family as a sanctuary Relationship building – rely on close, personal networks of friends and family Mobile – they do not need to stay close to home The “new” student may be anyone from either of these generations. The student may be a 40 year old stay at home mother or a well established teacher in a school going for his/her Master’s Degree. We must be able to adapt for each and every student. Online classes are becoming much more realistic due to these factors as well.
Integration must begin with the teachers. They are going to be the ones to begin the integration into the classroom. As Palozzi and Spradlin noted in their article: Educational Technology in Indiana, the state of Michigan recently became the first state in the nation to require high school students to take at least one credit bearing or non-credit bearing online course as part of their graduation requirements, in preparation for online courses they may trake as part of their postsecondary education. This shows the world is recognizing what capabilities the Internet has. We can reach out to many more human beings with the implementation of technology into our classrooms whether they are in-class or web-based. Web-based classrooms allow us to reach out to many more potential students, which leads to added revenue within the university. Technology is always changing!! The Impact of Education Technology on Student Achievement was a study involving over 700 studies and the glaring statement throughout all of those was: Evidence often showed learning technology is less effective or ineffective when the learning objectives are unclear and the focus of the technology use is diffuse. We must adapt to the new technology and go through the proper training – we must know the objectives, not guess them! Changing technology brings upon new difficulties, but with patience and the proper teaching we will be able to move forward. Resistance: Constraints and Barriers: (Earle) Access to hardware and software as well as funding Is it available or even possible to get Costs involved: Customer support Maintenance Yearly updates Licensures Time for planning, personal exploration, online access, and skill development Continued learning Willingness to learn Technical and administrative support and resources Everyone must be on board Training and expertise Where will this be available from What type of learning styles do our teachers prefer to learn under as well as students? Resistance, passivity, school cultures, and traditions of teaching Need for change What is our school used to? Can they adapt? Vision and leadership We must update both of these things if we want technology to make a difference in our university!
Model provides pre-service teachers with opportunities to develop and implement technology-rich instructional activities in authentic teaching situations so they will enter professional world with the ability to integrate appropriate technologies in their future professional placements. Model provides: 1> pre-service teachers with field-based, situation-specific technology training they are able to integrate into the initial teaching activities they complete as part of their teaching methodologies experiences. 2> ongoing, field-based support to pre-service teachers throughout their student teaching experiences in order to help them utilize technology in the activities they design for their classes, and including technology integration as part of the overall evaluation of their student teaching 3> providing education faculty and field-based mentor teachers with training, guidance, and just-in-time assistance as a means to more effectively enable them to support pre-service teachers with technology integration activities. This is only one example of how colleges are beginning to train their understudies. Programs like this allow educational institutions, no matter what level, to expand technologically because the teachers are being trained properly with their education. No matter the resistance, institutions are going to have to give in.
As found in the movement through our generations, the Millennial group has grown up with today’s technology. That fact and that fact alone is the best argument for technology integration. Graduates from college are becoming almost more important than experienced and tenured employees due to the fact that they have much more experience with the technology of today. For example, word processors and spreadsheets may seem difficult for a Baby Boomer, but the young ones today use that software with no questions asked. Technology is in their blood! If we do not commit to technology, then we will not be able to compete with other universities and even with incoming freshman due to our lack of integration. If we do, however, we will provide professional development for staff members and students alike. There is a growing movement towards group collaboration with the influx of Millennials and the interaction of maturing generations (Oblinger). - provide more group activities to facilitate the likes of our students, which will help them their professional development. Technology at our fingertips: With Blackberries, PDAs, and many more devices with the Internet available in a push of a button, we must embrace this culture. *Facebook and other social networks are available on these devices and no matter how hard we try we won’t be eliminating it. Instead of getting mad at students for using this technology, find other technologies which will enhance their minds! Maybe there is even a way to use Facebook! Technology enhances students minds and it can even be said that these generations are “nerds” who want to learn! We must prepare them as best we can for the world they will step into after graduation!
Only we can decide our own future. Other universities are changing with the times as made evident in the literature I found and anywhere you look. One issue we did not discuss is the cost of technology, but number crunching is still being done by myself, which will be available next meeting. However, I will leave you with the following questions to think about: Where do we want to be in 5 years? Does our mission and vision statements mirror our 5 year plan? What technology is made available to us right now? Is current technology reaching its full potential? What is our cost analysis tell us? -What improvements can we make technologically? What will technology integration do for us in the short run and the long run? Leave them with those questions and we will have a follow up meeting in 2 weeks to discuss findings.
