Final Reflection

Technology Plan for Greenwood High School 2011-2013

The technology plan developed by Noemi, Ancizar and myself.

Emerging Issues

Cell phone; instructional tool OR annoying communicating device???

Without a doubt, cell phones can cause serious disruption in the classroom. From urgent text messages flying across the room to lessons interrupted by rap-song ringtones, these gadgets are responsible for nationwide frustration among educators. And, in extreme cases, students have used their cell phones to cheat on tests and harass other students, even during class time. While such disturbances are certainly a nuisance in school, not all teachers see cell phones as the enemy. In fact, for some, they’ve become a teaching solution
;Why and how

Smart phones now have hundreds of applications meant to educate kids — from graphic calculators to animation programs that teach spelling and phonics.


   In the article Cell phones have much potential in classrooms  there was this middle school teacher who did not have enough calculators for those testing, and he allowed them to use their cell phones and from then on he started incorporating it in his lessons. the students actually had ideas in taking pictures of the assignment and sending it to the students who are absent.

this video also shows the use of cell phone in classroom.



All this is good but then schools have policies and procedures that have to be followed.For some institutions this may be a decision of the school board. Not to say that you are to sit and be passive Get proactive,as an administator ,present a plan to the board , showing research data ,of course show how the diciplinary concerns will be handled. Request a pilot pilot program to start with.

Educators: Formal PD or Self Taught

In will robinson's blog he poses a very interesting question " Should the URGENCY be all about the teachers right now " and this was because of the frenzy in getting kids urgently ready with the 21st century skills. can this be if the educatrors are not capable of teaching the skills.
One thing I know for sure is that these Net gen learners are by far ahead of some educators in the use of these skills because of the time spent with technology. As educators this should make the job easier ; instead of teaching how to use the goal is now enhancing the lesson .




That brings me to the second point, how do educators learn these tools to use then to enhance the lessons?
Some have said that faculty development is a critical component of a technology plan.  Others have said that in this web application world, teachers should not need formal development, they can pick up the tools themselves - just as their students are doing. 

Well I do think a bit of both is good, like we did in this course that was interesting and as educators we should not wait to be taught, but should be able to take the initiative to learn on our own, especially when there are tutorials on  how to use of course there are some learners who can handle this.
However some tutorials are not easy to follow and one could benefit from some guidance available in a formal professional development . This is what Iwould implement, Iwould select a few tools and have mandatory formal training on those, of which I would like to see incorporated in the lesson.