Reflective Blog Posting #2

Educational Technology Organizations

ISTE- Internatioal Society for Technology in Education


For more than 30 years ISTE has been helping teachers and educational leaders connect with each other  to revolutionize education. They are committed to advancing excellence in learning and teaching through innovative and effective uses of technology. They provide thousands of resources and learning opportunities to help keep teachers on the cutting edge.

Individual Membership prices are as follows:
Premium: $219
Standard: $99
Retired Educator: $59
Student: $39

There website is a wealth of information from journals to other useful research that we as educator can use in our journey to technology awareness. 

http://www.iste.org/membership.aspx

Association for the
Advancement of Computing in Education

(AACE)

This is an international organization with the purpose to advance knowledge and information technology in education. I found a multiple of journal articles within the website that will help in my field of study. Heres one example:

Journal of Technology and Teacher Education- JTATE serves as a forum for the exchange of knowledge about the use of information technology in teacher education. Journal content covers preservice and inservice teacher education, graduate programs in areas such as curriculum and instruction, educational administration, staff development instructional technology, and educational computing.

http://www.aace.org/

As I continue to study the field of technology, the definition of educational technology changes as I investigate different medians used in this field. To me the challenge is not what the definition is, but how and which area of technology to use with the individual learner. I do not want to get stuck in one use of technology and miss out on others that will engage a learner to understanding.

Educational Technology Philosophy

My educational technology philosophy is based heavily on the idea of adaptation in the learning process. The constructivism learning theory will allow children to develop the skills and confidence to analyze the world around them, create or support solutions to everyday issues, and then justify their words and actions. I would like to encourage students in the learning process while respecting the differences in opinions for the contributions that they can make to the classroom. Constructivist learning requires students to use their prior knowledge and experiences to formulate new concepts in learning. I believe that this can be achieved through the integration of technology. Utilizing technology when teaching with a constructivist perspective, I should choose technologies that reinforce prior learning perhaps in a problem-solving environment.

Education is about looking beyond the child’s intellect, and seeing the whole child. Teaching, to me, is about providing students with opportunities to be challenged and still succeed. Technology has altered the way teachers and students communicate amongst themselves. Every child has the potential to attain greatness. The job of an educator is to harness a child’s abilities and set them free with the confidence and the necessary tools to succeed.

         I believe that learning is making sense of the things we see and do every day. I believe students learn best when they connect what they learn to the environment in which they live. The way students understand the things they hear and read has a lot to do with the way they learn. They need to be able to explain things they have learned, not just memorize them. This demonstrates that students can build a connection between what they see, feel, touch, and hear every day. When this mission is accomplished in my classroom, my vision of educational technology will be complete.

Blogs are about communicating and can be a great tool between the learner and student. The user can observe experiences, reflect on it, and then write about it. Other people read the reflections, respond from their perspectives by commenting or writing their own blog article. What’s in it for me? Blogging can increase communication with students and find a different way to encourage and promote learning through a creative forum.

Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning outlines six areas to think about and changes on the horizon with technology and education. The one that stood out to me the most was Coming attraction: live video cameras in every classroom. To be honest, I never have really thought about what could happen if parents could watch and listen to how the teacher and their child interact on daily basics. My first thought was how could they put that pressure on the teacher but then I smiled thinking of how it might just keep a students behavior in check knowing their parents could be watching. Accountability… You got to love it.