Using technology in the classroom

     Our fifth and final blog for the TCNJ Content Area Literacy course is on the HOT HOT topic of technology in the classroom, which we seem to be constantly discussing.  The current definition of a "good teacher" is one who incorporates technology into their practice while providing students models of tools, skills, and ethical and cybercitizenship.  If one could be bothered to "Google" the search term good teacher technology, or even to "GoogleScholar" it, one might easily choke on the millions of hits it delivers, as if all those billions of bits of data have become physical motes of dust infiltrating the blood-brain barrier and blinding us with sheer numbers.  For teachers like me, it can feel intimidating notwithstanding the fact that the vast majority of these millions of hits will be complete rubbish.  Separating the useful wheat from all that fluffy and offensive chaff could strike a body with digital hay fever.
      But tech is here to stay, at least until some apocalyptic event befalls humankind and we are reduced to once again eking out a living without the internet.  So teachers need to be up on their tech skills, just like we need to know our stuff when it comes to knowledge about the subject we're teaching.  And when it comes to working cooperatively and thinking critically and communicating effectively.  But, you know, other than that it's a pretty easy job.

     Anyway, back to the readings.  Since teachers must get with the tech program if they want to have a future in teaching, the next step is to figure out how bringing some of this stuff into the classroom might work.  We had a lot of experiences with that in this course:  Prof. Lattanzi is a middle school math wiki-master.  The readings (listed below) gave several different viewpoints on how teachers can use tech effectively.


      The main theme linking them all seemed to be that if you're going to use technology, use it right.  Don't just slap it on top of what you're already doing.  Using social networking tools means an adjustment in teaching strategies so that our person-to-person connections with the students and with each other are authentic and meaningful.  If we're going to be more than glorified robots in the process, we need to place greater emphasis on individualizing our guidance to every student.  Teachers need to be aware of the tools available and comfortable using them; we need to be mindful of the students' security; we need to provide them with the knowledge and skills required to evaluate online texts critically; we need to provide students with clear expectations, guidelines, rubrics, codes of conduct, and goals.


     This is a lot to juggle … again, intimidating.  A couple of the readings admitted initial failures in trying to use blogging for English classes, mainly due to lack of consideration for the classroom's role as a "learning community."


     For a couple of decades I have approached all of this scholarly "community-building" stuff skeptically.  But during the second session class with Prof. Monroe, my classmates and I saw the mighty teaching power that lies behind the community.  Personal connections and bonds of friendship are strong natural motivators.  A leader who can facilitate these connections will consequently help everyone in the community feel respected and at ease.  For my money, whether or not you want to call it "technology," perhaps the most important "21st century skill" out there is understanding how to communicate with lots of different kinds of people.


     Back to the specific topic of blogs*, Witte describes them as "a crucial tool in developing 21st century skills."  The author noted that while students had little interest in completing writing assignments for class, during their free time they enthusiastically wrote for their own blog projects.  Through participation in the National Writing Project, and some trial and error, the author has successfully incorporated blogging into the classroom, which opens opportunities for positive and diverse collaborations with other communities.  Activities involving problem-solving and creativity through collaboration with other communities might provide a model for a more equitable society and might even help students learn more effectively.  At this point, I'm convinced.  Blogging is going to start happening in my classroom this year.… I just need to figure out how.


     Not so crucial, but oh so cool and interdisciplinary, is geocaching.  This is basically a real-world treasure hunt using GPS.  Participants use GPS coordinates and some series of clues to find a container.  Within the container is a token left by one of the previous groups, a register to sign, and possibly the first clue about the next location.  A teacher could design lessons centered around geocaching for just about any conceivable subject.  Even if the activity itself doesn't directly involve, say, music, a music teacher could contribute clues based on concepts or tunes studied in music class.


     In a similar multidisciplinary style, digital storytelling shows promise for helping students visualize and refine their writing.  The process of creating storyboards with pictures, narration, and dialogue provides scaffolding for them to succeed at writing.  Not all students are going to excel at producing grammatically correct prose full of succulent vocabulary words, and if you remind them of that then they just might decide writing's not for them.  Instead, digital storytelling offers an alternative but equitable assessment as the students are building the microskills they need to meet the general writing standards.  Moving from storyboard to technology adds a whole new level to the process as students convert their visions into slideshows and animations.


     Basically, if students are collaborating, using technology, problem-solving, and having a good time … where's the downside?  The downside for us teachers is twofold: the insane number of options out there, and the insanely pinched time we have to sort it all out.  But that's why they pay us the big bucks, right?



*  Here's a new word for the Mensa crowd (although it's probably not sufficiently pithy for their taste): bloth (the -th pronounced with a hard /ð/) - a portmanteau of "blog" and "blather"; the verb form would mean "to blog on and on and on about nothing particularly coherent," or it could be a noun meaning "any online post reminiscent of blathering."  In the present continuous: I am blothing about Taylor Swift's new hairstyle, which leads to the  gerund form as in My wife said that she prefers my blothing about fantasy football over having to listen to me talk about it.

 Readings discussed:
 Hungerford-Kresser, H., Wiggins,  J., and Amaro-Jiménez, C.  (2011).  Learning from our mistakes: what matters when incorporating blogging in the content area literacy classroom.  Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 55(4).  Dec. 2011-Jan. 2012.  PDF.


Hutchison, A., Beschorner, B., and Schmidt-Crawford, D.  (2012).  Exploring the use of the iPad for literacy learning.  The Reading Teacher, 66(1).  Sep. 2012.  PDF.

Jewet, P.  (2011).  Multiple literacies gone wild.   The Reading Teacher, 64(5).  Feb. 2011.  PDF.


Mills, K. A., and Levido, A.  (2011).  iPed: pedagogy for digital text production.  The Reading Teacher, 65(1).  PDF.


Partnership for 21st Century Skills.  (2013).  Framework for 21st century learning.  Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework.


Sylvester, R. and Greenidge, W.  (2009).  Digital storytelling: extending the potential for struggling writers.  The Reading Teacher, 63(4).  Dec. 2009-Jan. 2010.  PDF.


Witte, S.  (2007).  "That's online writing, not boring school writing": writing with blogs and the Talkback Project.  Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 51(2).  Oct. 2007.  PDF.