Blog #5- Technology Action Plan

Scott Steinberg's article "Technology and Schools: 10 High-Tech Lessons Every Teacher Should Know" makes excellent points. This article pointed out things to me that I can work on and things that I am pretty good at. I will be the first to admit that I am not the most technologically advanced person in the world by any means, in fact I'm pretty goofy with technology BUT one thing I can do is ask for help when needed. Steinberg points out the importance of this quality in his article. The school that I teach at will have a technology staff and other very capable employees. There is no reason not to ask for help when I need it! I am also good at "Keeping up with the lingo" as Steinberg calls it.  I am a fan of pop culture and I truly believe that writing off pop culture is ignorant. This moment is an important time in history. Sure, the terms "OMG" or "selfie" do not seem at all significant or worthwhile things to say or be apart of but these are the things that we will look back on in 25 years with nostalgia and endearment. So, I think it is important to know these things about kids and embrace it rather than try to be the uber serious, no nonsense teacher 100% of the time. It's okay to throw a "YOLO!" out there every now and then to get the students' attention and remind them that despite common belief teachers are real human beings.
Now I also realized that there are things that I could improve on through this article. Steinberg stresses the importance of knowing how to "operate popular apps, gadgets and online services"...Um, I don't even have a smart phone. This is an area I need drastic improvement in. Another area I can improve in is troubleshooting basics.  Not only am I a a Mac user, I have absolutely no knowledge of how to troubleshoot a Mac OR PC. If something is wrong I pay one of my computer science major friends to fix it. Maybe I should have them teach me the basics of troubleshooting next time.
Symbaloo is an awesome way to put many valuable links to various websites all in one setting. On the Bring Your Own Device days I plan on having in my classroom once in a while, I think it would be great if students could have one tab open to a Symbaloo that I have created at all times. This way less class time would be taken up due to students trying to navigate pages.
Another great resource is Jose Bowen's idea of Teaching Naked. He is very wise in that he knows that universities will have a hard time keeping up with online degree programs. He says students need to know that the time and money they pour into an on-campus university is worth it. Bowen proposes we solve this by basically adopting the flipped classroom model. He agrees that universities should be technologically well rounded, but he also believes that technology serves a better purpose outside of the classroom. He proposes that students watch online lecture materials and do schoolwork and homework during class time. I tend to agree with this way of thinking. I like the idea of using class time to do the hard work as a collaboration and save the lecturing and note taking for outside of class.

Resources
Steinberg's Article
Symbaloo
Jose Bowen Video