Personal Mission Statement
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Steve Jobs, Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
As a technology teacher, I am always looking to be inspired, unique and as innovative as I can be so my students are prepared for now, and prepared for their future. Technology changes quickly. Blink. It just changed again. Content that was taught three years ago seems as novel as the introduction of the microwave oven as a newly minted kitchen appliance.
The vision for my blog is to engage, "truly passionate technology innovators to share unique ideas and bold concepts that blend cutting edge technology and status quo blue suits to reinvent education to be truly engaging and incomparably exciting."
What captures me about the Steve Jobs' introductory quote is that it concisely describes most of my core beliefs. I do not want to play follow the leader. I want to learn and experience as much as possible and with this knowledge, I want to create, change and innovate. I want my students to have the same guts, drive and ingenuity. While it can be deemed reckless, it is a fearless and gutsy belief that your new approach can be better. The goal: students can think for themselves and can be leaders in their own right. How can one teach a vision that includes a, "believe in yourself," attitude and project an entirely different persona and do so with passion and authenticity? I do not believe this is possible. I want my students to have a vision of their own and the knowledge to make their vision a reality.
My blog will allow teachers and tech-enthusiasts to share ideas, websites, tools, concepts and other out-of-the-box visions that contribute to the base knowledge of other individuals. With this additional knowledge, educators and innovators (including students) alike can be inspired to achieve their own vision and goals through inspiration instead of imitation.
"Effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyze and synthesize the information, and present it professionally. The technology should become an integral part of how the classroom functions -- as accessible as all other classroom tools." -- National Educational Technology Standards for Students, International Society for Technology in Education. (1)
The quote above neatly summarizes how the resources found in my blog can be utilized in any subject area to seamlessly to create a, "truly engaging and incomparable exciting" learning experience in or outside the classroom. By seamless, I am referring to, "Students employ technology daily in the classroom using a variety of tools to complete assignments and create projects that show a deep understanding of content."(2). Listing the types of technology available would be redundant (web 2.0 tools, wikis, game based learning, etc) as most of us tech savvy or not could easily name them. This blog is more about the unique application of these tools. By identifying the tools that are available and understanding their specific uses and application, this redundancy is eliminated because we are discussing their pure utility for the sake of innovative application and not for the purpose of appearing to falsely integrate technology for cache of impressing other adults or falsely convincing students that the material is more interesting than it is in reality.
Below I listed the noted types of integration I feel are successful in the urban environment where I teach (Camden, NJ) where technology is not always accessible at home. While most students have cell phones, not all students have data plans than can accommodate learning with a mobile device. For the purposes of my vision statement, I will discuss how the tools are utilized in the classroom with the intent of the student investigating on their own with tools they can locate readily.
The four most viable successes in the urban setting:
I would like to briefly close with one word: success. Success=seamless integration + ubiquitous access
Sources:
1. Edutopia. (n.d.). What is successful technology integration? Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-description
2. Edutopia. (n.d.). What is technology integration mean? Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/meaning-tech-integration-elementary-mary-beth-hertz
As a technology teacher, I am always looking to be inspired, unique and as innovative as I can be so my students are prepared for now, and prepared for their future. Technology changes quickly. Blink. It just changed again. Content that was taught three years ago seems as novel as the introduction of the microwave oven as a newly minted kitchen appliance.
The vision for my blog is to engage, "truly passionate technology innovators to share unique ideas and bold concepts that blend cutting edge technology and status quo blue suits to reinvent education to be truly engaging and incomparably exciting."
What captures me about the Steve Jobs' introductory quote is that it concisely describes most of my core beliefs. I do not want to play follow the leader. I want to learn and experience as much as possible and with this knowledge, I want to create, change and innovate. I want my students to have the same guts, drive and ingenuity. While it can be deemed reckless, it is a fearless and gutsy belief that your new approach can be better. The goal: students can think for themselves and can be leaders in their own right. How can one teach a vision that includes a, "believe in yourself," attitude and project an entirely different persona and do so with passion and authenticity? I do not believe this is possible. I want my students to have a vision of their own and the knowledge to make their vision a reality.
My blog will allow teachers and tech-enthusiasts to share ideas, websites, tools, concepts and other out-of-the-box visions that contribute to the base knowledge of other individuals. With this additional knowledge, educators and innovators (including students) alike can be inspired to achieve their own vision and goals through inspiration instead of imitation.
"Effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyze and synthesize the information, and present it professionally. The technology should become an integral part of how the classroom functions -- as accessible as all other classroom tools." -- National Educational Technology Standards for Students, International Society for Technology in Education. (1)
The quote above neatly summarizes how the resources found in my blog can be utilized in any subject area to seamlessly to create a, "truly engaging and incomparable exciting" learning experience in or outside the classroom. By seamless, I am referring to, "Students employ technology daily in the classroom using a variety of tools to complete assignments and create projects that show a deep understanding of content."(2). Listing the types of technology available would be redundant (web 2.0 tools, wikis, game based learning, etc) as most of us tech savvy or not could easily name them. This blog is more about the unique application of these tools. By identifying the tools that are available and understanding their specific uses and application, this redundancy is eliminated because we are discussing their pure utility for the sake of innovative application and not for the purpose of appearing to falsely integrate technology for cache of impressing other adults or falsely convincing students that the material is more interesting than it is in reality.
Below I listed the noted types of integration I feel are successful in the urban environment where I teach (Camden, NJ) where technology is not always accessible at home. While most students have cell phones, not all students have data plans than can accommodate learning with a mobile device. For the purposes of my vision statement, I will discuss how the tools are utilized in the classroom with the intent of the student investigating on their own with tools they can locate readily.
The four most viable successes in the urban setting:
- Web-Based Projects, Explorations, and Research,
- Student-Created Media like Podcasts, Videos, or Slideshows
- Collaborative Online Tools like Wikis or Google Docs
- Using Social Media to Engage Students
I would like to briefly close with one word: success. Success=seamless integration + ubiquitous access
Sources:
1. Edutopia. (n.d.). What is successful technology integration? Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-description
2. Edutopia. (n.d.). What is technology integration mean? Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/meaning-tech-integration-elementary-mary-beth-hertz