Revised Educational Philosophy

I closely identify with the Pragmatism school of thought because I try to make education a necessity to my students, incorporate real-life situations to them, use various forms of technology to instruct them and feel that education is life.  I feel this way because of the support I received as a student in school.  I was given the opportunity to extend my learning through sports, the arts and academic contests as well.  As a kindergarten teacher, I try to keep my students focused and introduce them to various types of technology that is appropriate for their age.  

I think that by reflecting on my Educational Technology Philosophy I have seen changes that I need to make in my teaching style.  I tend to be automate instead of an informate.  Sometimes I think it is the way I have been trained in workshops for technology, but other times I think it is the age I teach.  I teach kindergarten at a school that is largely low socio-economic, thus my students do not have much access to technology at home.  So, I tend to "show" them technology rather than have them "use" it.  I have started letting them use technology a lot more in my classroom.  Through this semester, I learned how to scan items to use for various lessons, access information on YouTube and video streaming.  I have also started incorporating a computer center during my small group reading time.

I am new to aspect of blogging.  However, I feel it will help me stay in touch with my classmates.  I may even start my own blog about my classroom when I feel more comfortable with it. I have started viewing blogs of other teachers to gain ideas about what to include in mine and how to get it started. 

According to the article, I do not feel we have completely met his potential for technology in the educational setting.  We are making improvements by offering more technology classes for students in upper grades, but what about our elementary students.  At my school, we have just started using interactive boards with our students and a computer program that will teach the students basic computer skills.  So, we are striving for improvement, but I do not feel we have met the potential that Mr. Downes mentioned in his article.  One reason for not meeting this potential, I feel, is simply money.  Many times in schools, technology gets overlooked because of budgets.  As budgets shrink for schools, so does the opportunity to add technology.  There should be a way for schools to add as much technology as they can without causing the district to go into debt.  

The one area that stood out to me the most was area four.  I never thought about viewing technology plans as "information communication planning".  This part of the article was interesting to me because I have been part of writing the campus improvement plans for my school and did not take as much thought about the technology plans.  Hopefully in the future I will be able to influence my school about this planning.

In this class, I have already learned quite a bit about how to implement technology rather than overlay it with what I am already doing.  So, I hope to learn ways to use technology as a learning tool rather than a supplemental tool with my students.  I also hope to become more comfortable with technology integration and implementation as well.