Technology+Integration

**Technology Integration**
This article was written in response to a video I watched online titled, "Anytime, Anywhere: Online Learning Shapes the Future." It is also a reflection on how I plan to use technology to enhance my teaching in my future classroom. After watching the video, I certainly felt discombobulated. Upon further consideration of how technology could be implemented and utilized, I understand it is entirely necessary in order to better engage students. If it's there, why not take advantage of it? As long as it doesn't replace the traditional classroom, I should be fine. I will use the resources on the website provided by Chuck in order to search for videos that might be productive in my classroom, and I will also keep my eyes open as to new ways technology can aid my teaching.

I think it's important to have a good mix of traditional teaching structures as well as technological advances in the classroom. Integrating technology will help traditional ideas and also maintain the interest levels of the students. Overall, it's a very good idea! I will integrate technology into my classroom in a variety of ways: first, pictures and videos will help students come up with ideas. Second, students will utilize technology to assist them in writing papers and finding information for research papers. Finally, I will use technology to help me publish student work into anthologies in a classroom.

Here is my short response:

//__J__une 13th, 2011//
 * __Short Video Response to “Anytime, Anywhere: Online Learning Shapes the Future”__**

The video I watched, “Anytime, Anywhere: Online Learning Shapes the Future” confirmed some unpleasant suspicions of mine regarding technology and also unsettled me. Although you requested that we reflect on what we liked, I’m going to instead reflect on what I didn’t like, and that was the reason they gave as to why online learning is “teh awesum,” as some lolcatz might read. The video claims that online learning is the learning of the future and, while that may very well be true, I absolutely disagree with the idea that the interwebz method is a “good” one. The video talks about how online learning helps students catch up if they’ve fallen behind—as a student who did this very thing, I can tell you from first-hand experience that everything I “learned” from those “classes” has been forgotten. The video claims that online learning is “personalized,” and that there is more communication between students and teachers—sure, it’s possible for the student to e-mail their teachers, but since the students do their work “on their own time” as the video trumpets, they rarely, if ever, get immediate feedback. That’s not personalized, in my humblest of opinions—additionally, very few teachers know how to add “personal touches” to their e-mails, so there is a huge level of disconnect there as well. How is that personal? As a future English teacher, I could compose an entire essay as to all the flaws and counter-arguments I have for this video, but I will conclude this with two thoughts: many of the things this video proposes are scary in a number of ways, and I learned that more people and professionals are open to the idea than I’d expect. I am.. unsettled.

Nevertheless, it is not technology that scares me; in fact, teaching technological literacy is absolutely imperative in the world of today. As English teachers, we are expected to teach students how to read, write, listen, and speak well. Since the internet, we also have an obligation to teach students how to word process, how to collaborate using the internet, how to find information to write papers about, and also internet decorum and manners. Nowadays, it is more important that students know how to compose a proper e-mail than how to write a traditional letter. Without excellent computer-communicative skills, our high school students will suffer in their eventual job market. Thus, I plan on using collaborative word processors and wikispaces to help students learn how to use the internet. I will require that all final drafts be typed; even students that don’t have computers need to learn how to work them. I will require my students to properly format their e-mails and utilize spell check, and finally, I will teach them how to find, identify, and utilize proper sources and how to avoid sources that are not credible using the internet.