A Personal Experience with Technology

     Every time I look back at my teaching portrait, a summary of a humble experience pops out, sometimes accompanied with pride and others with smiles of the funny instances and events that I once encountered as a technology immigrant. Being freshly graduated with juicy technological ideas and being acknowledged with the importance of integrating technology in education, I discovered new horizons and a new arena where my teaching ship should embark to settle. It is thanks to my personal experience, of using and learning technology, during college years that I have gained a new philosophy and a new approach towards mending my teaching career; by means of meaningful technology integration. To continue, in order not to fall within the cracks, I followed some strategies for managing the technology used, which in their turn proved to be effective on the students’ learning. However, in accordance with Stephen Covey’s (1989) quotation: “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.” Whenever I compare my use of technology, in that flashback of the previous scrapbook of ‘technology integration’ in my teaching experience, to this rapid innovation of digital technology (Web 2.0) and its integration in education, I admit that the ship of technology hasn't reached its destination yet, and I can clearly see the difference among where I was (Web 1.0), where I am (Web 2.0), and where the experience, being a passenger aboard in the journey, will persist to take me (Web 3.0 on the go).

            Starting with a teacher’s saying quoted in Levin and Shanken-Kaye’s book of The Self-Control Classroom (1996), “If you continue to do what you’re doing, you’ll continue to get what you got” I believed that to change the drilled ineffective pattern of the teaching and learning fragile reality, I had to follow some strategies for managing the technology in the classroom and thus hook, motivate, and involve these restless digital natives. After having the clear goal of why to break the routine, change, and use technology, I thought of some curricular adjustments that called for a more technological and digital involvement not just for me, as the teacher, but also for the students to experience, incorporate, and implement as well. After that, I looked forwards calling for administrational help and approval. I have to confess that the administrator was a supportive shoulder, he permitted language classes to occur in computer labs equipped with internet access, bought some laptops, printers and scanners, USBs, digital cameras, LCDs, and registered the school in some online programs that have access to libraries, online books, tutorial videos, and other online educational resources. Furthermore, whenever I needed any kind of help, I worked with colleagues, especially the teacher of Informatics and other English teachers, who rescued me whenever I got stuck between the walls of technology; for example, many were the times that I called the Informatics teacher to help me to navigate through the net to get whatever information, activity, song, or even, game I needed; to assist me to download some presentations, videos, and movies, to connect the LCD or any new device to the laptop, and many other situations. To continue, seminars, conferences, workshops, and tutorials were key factors that helped, trained, and encouraged me, the technology immigrant, to accommodate and feel much more confident with the integration of technology in my classroom. It is throughout that period that I started to put the theory of technology or digital tools and services into practice. As a teacher, my lesson plans, pen and paper activities, quizzes, exams, evaluation notes, and parent’s notes were documented by means of Microsoft Office Word, I also used Microsoft Office PowerPoint to display and explain lessons, and Microsoft Office Excel was meaningful to come up with calculations and accompany them with visual representations, which in their turn were essential for making decisions, as which questions were not fully understood or even mastered by the students, for me to go back to, explain, revise, or even give some extra practice. Many were the times were I used the laptop and LCD to display some Power Point presentations and online videos essential for listening activities and for explaining lessons that taught English in content with scientific topics like: “The Life Cycle of a Butterfly”.  I used printers and scanners to maximize important ideas and concepts to post them on the wall. I grabbed my personal I-pad to show my students some previously downloaded pictures and videos. I even used technology for extracurricular activities; to illustrate, digital cameras were significant whenever I wanted to record a sketch performed by the students, to use comic and act out like their teachers as a symbol of appreciation, displayed in front of the teachers on Teacher’s Day.  Not only was the use of technology fascinating to me, but also my students were delighted and enjoyed the use of technology. They were asked to surf for information and compose projects and Power Point presentations. They were instructed to online curricular activities, quizzes and games. They were asked to record personal sketches in which they interviewed people for different purposes and acted out speaking presentations, like they had to record themselves following a sequence of steps to bake a cake at home, for the “Sequence” lesson application.

It is true that technology sometimes deceived my expectations; like in times when the device got locked and I forgot the password, or when I was so proud to display my Power Point presentation and the electricity went off, or in other moments when I stood the whole recess time busy, preparing the computer lab, and then, when my actual class started the internet connection just powered down and we couldn't finish our work. However, technology integration insisted to give me stronger reasons for why to assimilate it that outraged those small pitfalls. It facilitated my job because it offered helpful, interesting, and effective ways to meet the needs of the different types of learners in my classroom. Also, it proved to be effective on my students’ learning. It made the lesson more organized and more engaging for my students; who became active productive learners, they were more engaged and motivated, and there was a unique flavor for learning; whose ingredients were ‘significance’ and ‘fun’. The digital natives proved to be more confident since they were working in groups cooperatively; these Gen Zers liked to work together and get involved, and their self-esteem developed especially after they brought latest essential information that was crucial for the class and after they worked with the language of technology; a language that they were born with and were confident to use. Furthermore, experiencing learning by seeing, hearing, sensing, touching, and even doing (i.e. reflective learning) lead to an increase in my students’ production and this was also seen and reflected in their performances, this which agrees with Evelyn M. Boyd and Ann W. Fales (1983) definition of reflective learning stating, “Reflective learning is the process of internally examining and exploring an issue of concern, triggered by an experience (through senses), which creates and clarifies meaning in terms of self, and which results in a changed conceptual perspective.”

Alice, speaking to Cheshire Cat:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.

“Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Finally, as the short conversation states, “If you don’t know exactly where you are headed, then any road will get you there”, and since our major role as teachers is to guide students so that they become active independent learners that can transfer and use knowledge in authentic life (society), we must be aware that integrating updated technology into our curriculum is the shortest, most authentic, and most meaningful road to success, and thus, we should meaningfully implement this awareness in our classrooms.

References:

1.      Carroll, L. (1865). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Macmillan.

2.      Evelyn M. Boyd and Ann W. Fales. (1983). Reflective Learning Key to Learning from Experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology vol. 23 no. 2 99-117. http://jhp.sagepub.com/content/23/2/99.short

3.      Levin, J. & Shanken-Kaye, J. M. (1996). The Self-Control Classroom. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company.

4.      Stephen R.Covey, (1989).The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p.98. Free Press.

 Don't hesitate to provide me with your comments and opinions.