The Journey to Developing my ICT Skills

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

    It’s no secret that I have a lot to learn in terms of technology, so that when thinking constructively about what I will have to do to develop my own ICT skills, I became a bit overwhelmed. When looking at the outline of the areas to focus on in my development: strategies, tools, resources, & networks; I realized that I am going to have to focus mainly on strategies that are going to build my arsenal of tools & resources, and assist in becoming a part of networks that will keep me informed, included in the ever-changing face of ICT in the classroom, and form connections with my fellow educators.  The above infographic is a simple guideline that I found at Education Infographics, and for someone like me, who doesn't really know where to start with ICT in the classroom, this is a good starting point.

 

     One of the strategies that will be essential for me in developing my ICT skills, is actually setting aside time to research new Web 2.0 tools, practicing using them, and becoming comfortable with them, so that I can incorporate them in my lessons and teach students and colleagues how to utilize them as well. Another strategy that will be key for me is to actually follow through on using the networks that I become a part of, and employ these networks to further develop my connections with others who have the same interests as I do, and to learn how to share information via these networks, not just borrow information from them.

 

     Unknowingly, I have actually become an expert in the use of one particular Web 2.0 tool that I started using prior to this course, and that is Pinterest. I actually have taught several of my friends how to get the most out of this tool (after I had two friends who forced a tutorial on me, as they were very aware of my reluctance to use technology). I have several boards that are just for teaching pins, library pins, and book pins, and there are members that I am following so that I get notified of their new pins so that I can peruse them and decide if I want to add them to my boards. Having this one tool that I feel so comfortable with is not enough, so I am trying all the time to see what other people are using and talking about and I am making an effort to explore these tools to build my confidence in using them. Some tools, I just don’t see the value in them, but I am always open to suggestions if anyone would like to leave some suggestions for really useful Web 2.0 tools!

 

     So far, the ICT resources I rely on (that aren’t SD based, or online articles, etc.) are Pinterest, YouTube, TEDTalks, and podcasts. I would like to become more diverse in my resources, but I am not always sure of what I should be looking for, which is where I am open to suggestions again! I did find a very good link that has 28 TL resources that cover online magazine resources to how to create your library webpage: http://www.iasl-online.org/advocacy/resources/slresources.html

 

     For networking, I have subscribed to LM_NET and receive daily emails from them, but I haven’t learned how to add anything of my own to the forum yet; and then the only other networking that I do is through conversations with fellow teachers and librarians. I searched for other networks and came across Ning, Diigo, and Teacherlingo, but I really have no idea where to begin with essential, and valuable, networking. I don’t know if I should become a part of several, a dozen, or more, networks? What’s a realistic number? How do I manage them all? Here is another area that I am open to suggestions and guidance, I’m trying not to become too overwhelmed, but am finding it exceedingly difficult.

Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools

I won’t be able to share any current experiences with using technology to foster a culture of reading within a classroom, but I will share ideas that I plan on implementing with the use of technology, and without, when I become a TL.  In my research, I found several interesting articles that outline some current practices of promoting reading cultures in China that can easily be incorporated in any library or classroom.

I believe modeling is essential in anyone learning pretty much anything, so when students are silently reading, I will too, or if they are doing independent work at their desks or in groups.  My daughter is always asking what I’m reading when we read together, and if she’s allowed to read it, or how old she has to be before she can read it, but the most important thing is that she is interested because she sees that I am.  Something that the librarian in my middle school did, that I would put into practice, was start a book club that met once a week at lunch hour to discuss the book of the month, and when each book was finished, we would put up a rating on our book club poster board. 

As I am not overly familiar with ICT, I asked a couple of teacher friends if there were any favorite tools that they used to encourage reading in their students, the most popular one was any one of the storybooks online, such as: Starfall, Just Books Read Aloud, Mightybook, or, the most popular choice, Tumble Books.  When I did some research on the Internet, I did find some other sites that I have heard of, and used, such as ReadWriteThink and PBS Kids, which both have games and activities that help develop phonics, grammar, spelling, comprehension, and sentence structure.  By providing students with a variety of tools that assist them in strengthening their reading skills, they will be more confident, and willing, to read for pleasure.  Another way that I believe fosters a culture of reading, is having Author Visits to the school, but if physically having the author come to your school is not in the budget, a cheap alternative is to google what Skype Author Visits are planned, and you can Skype with an author via a large projection screen (or laptop, depending on audience size).

 I found seven separate PDF files that make one paper that was put out by the Education Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, outlining the library programs at six of their schools, with each school focusing on the development of a reading culture within their school, and outside, at the homes of their students.  I apologize that I couldn’t find one PDF that covered the whole paper, but each school implements different programs (or schemes) and its worth the trouble to read each section (which are no more than nine pages each, two for the introduction).  I will give the title of the school, point form list of their schemes for developing a culture of reading in their schools, and a link to the PDF.

Introduction

Download Introduction PDF here

Canossa Primary School

-       Reading Star Scheme

-       Class Reading Stars

-       Parents as Reading Companion Scheme

-       Senior Peer Reading Companion Scheme

 

Download Canossa PDF here 

Lam Tin Methodist Primary School

-       Parent-and-Child Reading Scheme

-       Big Brother & Big Sister Scheme

-       Reading Aunts

-       The ISLM Bookmark Project (***an international program that could be brought into your own library!)

-       Production of Braille Books to Enhance Harmony

-       Teacher Reading Award Scheme

-       Promoting Parent Education to Strengthen the Partnership Between Parents and the School

Download Lam TIn PDF here

King’s College Old Boy’s Association Primary School No. 2

-       It’s Fun Reading Together

-       Drama on Shared Reading

-       Reading Bean

-       Mathematics Quest

-       Story Creation Competition

-       Parent-and-Child Reading Scheme

-       Story Brothers & Sisters

-       Big Brother, Big Sister Reading Scheme

Download King's College PDF here

Concordia Lutheran School-North Point

-       Morning Reading Scheme

-       “Reading for All” Reading Programme

-       Top 10 Patrons/Top 10 Books

-       Books Recommendation & Sharing

-       Students’ Participation in External Competitions & Activities

Download Concordia PDF here

Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School

-       The Reading Team: Agency for Communication Between the Librarian & Teachers

-       Morning Reading Programme

-       Reading Variety Show

-       Chinese Language Panel

-       English Language Panel

-       The Mathematics Panel

-       Cross-Curriculum Collaboration

Download Lok Sin PDF here

Tuen Mun Catholic Secondary School

-       Book exhibitions

-       Reading Activity with Taiwan Students-Online Reading Platform

-       Early Morning Reading Scheme

-       TMCSS Reading Club

-       Chinese Extensive Reading Scheme

Download Tuen Mun PDF here

I’m finishing off with the addition of a paper written by Nancy K. Schroeder in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education from the University of Alberta, April 6 2009.  Titled, Developing a Culture of Reading in Middle School: What Teacher-Librarians Can Do, and at 47 pages it is an amazing paper that addresses many issues that TL’s face when trying to promote a culture of reading, and it is definately worth setting aside some to read it.

Download Developing Culture of Reading PDF here

 

TEDTalk by Greg Toppo: A Different Way to Think About Technology in Education

I had to add another video because I found this one by accident, and it actually is another positive outlook on technology.  Greg Toppo charts the rise and evolution of technology in the classroom from the use of chalk on a slate, all the way to computers in the classroom; he also discusses that there have been fears of what will happen to students with each new technology and the effect it will have on their ability to learn.  Watching this made me turn the mirror on myself, and realize that I have not been alone in my fears, but that I don't have to live by them either, because there will always be something newer and better, but it will be my job to make sure that my students get the best education with ALL of the tools available. I think my favorite part was his wish that teachers created an environment just like RIo before carnival, and if you want to know waht he means by that, you have to watch the video :)

Oh my goodness!!!! I just embedded a video for the first time!!!! I feel really proud of myself, even though it may seem stupid and silly, I'm absolutely giddy!!!!

The video is Sugata Mitra in his TEDTalk about child driven education, which is an absolute must see!!!

Reading Review Post #3: Research Synopsis

In researching my issue of technology having a negative effect on its users, I was encouraged to look at the positive aspects as well, and found that there were more articles/blogs/journals dealing with the positive influence that technology is having on the face of education.  I actually had a difficult time trying to find information on most of my keywords that I had chosen, which made me feel a bit better about how much technology is being used, because if I can find more positive feedback than negative, it takes away some of my reasons for being reluctant to utilize it on a more personal level.

I spent more than an hour looking for articles, because I wanted to do more than just skim them, so I must have spent over three hours reading web pages discussing the ways that technology is creating a global community that can learn from one another, which was illustrated so wonderfully in the TEDTalk by Sugata Mitra.  Out of the 20 or so articles that I found, I chose to include the six that discussed the positive side of technology being used in the classroom, and found four articles that addressed two of my “negative” keywords, but with more of a positive spin on them.    

            In terms of relevance to my issue, I found the latter articles reflected some of my concerns, but the way they approached the possible negative side effects of children and adults being inundated with too much technology, was to discuss natural ways to create time away from it and how to create a balance in your life so that it does not consume every waking moment of your life.  The former articles were the absolute opposite of my issue, yet their impact was greater because they were able to alter my long-held viewpoint on technology and its seemingly insidious integration into even basic day-to-day interactions.

            Feeling just a bit more positive than I did before, I decided to learn something new, I don’t know if I’m going to be successful, but here goes...   

Reader Review Post #2

I think that I may have unintentionally given the wrong impression with my first blog post...I don’t hate technology, nor do I want it all to go away. I just feel that maybe we are a little too connected to the gadgets, apps, and techie-stuff in our lives, and not as connected as we could be to each other.  I believe that technology has its place, and that place should not be in our hands and in front of our faces during every waking hour.

 

I realize that most of my keywords didn’t really focus on any positive aspects of technology, so I researched a few things that look at it with a more optimistic lens.  I might have gotten a bit carried away with finding positive information, but I really am wanting to feel good about technology, get rid of the fear, and become a Digital Native, instead of a Digital Immigrant.  The only way that I can start doing that is to really examine the effects that technology is having on every aspect of teaching, not just the negative side-effects of too much technology for the students.

 

So I will start with my optimistic articles, blogs, and video presentations, which are as follows:

 

-         http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html

Lists the positive effects of technology in the classroom

 

-         http://www.edudemic.com/50-education-technology-tools-every-teacher-should-know-about/

50 Web 2.0 Tools listed, with four main categories: Social Learning, Learning, Lesson Planning & Tools, and Useful Tools

 

-         http://smallbusiness.chron.com/five-positive-effects-technology-education-31222.html

Lists five positive effects that technology has had on education

 

-         http://www.melissaedwards.org/imported-20120430010433/2011/1/13/connecting-technology-and-mulitiple-intelligences.html 

The linking of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences with utilizing technology in the classroom, links to many other articles and education blogs!

 

-         http://www.edudemic.com/social-learning/

Blog explaining what social learning is (a term that I am not familiar with), and positing whether or not it works.  There are some interesting statistics and graphs that illustrate the growth and popularity of social networking/learning.

 

-         http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

-         TED Talk about the positive benefits of the child-driven education, when children are exposed to technology when they have never seen it, and how they are still able to teach themselves how to use it. This particular talk by Sugata Mitra, introduced me to the concept of “The Grandmother Method”, and its positive effects on improving student learning.

 

 

I still wanted to include a couple of my original keywords, so I chose the ones that I can link to the above research, in the hopes of creating a balance in my outlook on technology in the classroom.

Digital Burnout

-         http://phys.org/news/2013-06-digital-burn-out.html

Article that discusses the advent of digital burnout, how it is affecting individuals, and other countries, and new tools that are being developed to help people manage it.

 

-         http://tinybuddha.com/blog/how-to-avoid-burnout-and-take-a-digital-break/

Insightful blog on one woman’s journey to unplug for 30 days to relieve the stress of digital burnout, and advice on how other’s can take tech-free holidays, even if they are staying at home.

Technological Saturation

-         http://steveholt.com/home/2010/11/13/overwhelmed-and-overcome/

This blog looks at technological saturation on a more personal level, and the ways in which in it encroaches on our time.

 

-         http://janedapain.net/files/saturationoverload.pdf 

Good Paper on the effects of technological saturation, the ethics (or lack there-of) involved in the continuing development of technology, and how Art can bring a return to our connectedness with nature, so it’s not a nature vs. technology situation, but more of a symbiotic relationship between the two)