Today is the first class for Teaching with Technology (ITEC712), and I came to the lab to check the condition of computers. I am pleasantly surprised that we have brand new computers, and they work. I miss teaching teacher training courses. I have been teaching ITEC core courses such as Advanced Multimedia (ITEC 830) and Learning Theory (ITEC 800) as well as serving the department as the chair. Now that I am stepping down as the chair, I can do more teaching.
Teaching with Techology (ITEC 712) is the first course I taught at SFSU when I came to SFSU in 1988. In fact, this is the very room that I taught. I taught this course almost 15 years, then I took on a extra duties for the department. The last time I taught this course was in 2003, at the time my students in that course learned Microsoft Office applications. Here is the old ITEC 711 course site, here is the course site for this summer. Quiet a change! Students in the past used to spend hours to learn the software, thus less time to learn about integration ideas. Now, tools are much easier to learn and better yet, most tools are free. Teachers can organize resource matrials and share with other teachers using online tools, and they can provide their students with an opportunity to be engaged in learning in a rich learning environement.
It is a truely an exciting time to be a teacher. I am so excited about my own teaching lately. I can now do so many interesting things in my course with Web 2.0 tools. My students are using blog, wiki, Youtube, Google apps, and many more Web 2.0 tools, and more importantly they get excited about their own learning, thus they become better teachers. When students learn to express what they learned, they become empowred learners. When students communicate their ideas to the world, they are empowered. When they collaborate with others, they learn to value others.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
First day of instruction
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The May 2009 issue of Educational Researcher [38(4)] has an interesting article on "Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship in a Digital Age". The lead article, "Web 2.0 and Classroom Research: What Path Should We Take Now?" might be of interest to your ITEC 711 class. It has lots of good background information on the impact of emerging technologies to the field of education.
Here's the abstract:
Since Windschitl first outlined a research agenda for the World Wide Web and classroom research, significant shifts have occurred in the nature of the Web and the conceptualization of classrooms. Such shifts have affected constructs of learning and instruction, and paths for future research. This article discusses the characteristics of Web 2.0 that differentiate it from the Web of the 1990s, describes the contextual conditions in which students use the Web today, and examines how Web 2.0’s unique capabilities and youth’s proclivities in using it influence learning and teaching. Two important themes, learner participation and creativity and online identity formation, emerged from this analysis and support a new wave of research questions. A stronger research focus on students’ everyday use of Web 2.0 technologies and their learning with Web 2.0 both in and outside of classrooms is needed. Finally, insights on how educational scholarship might be transformed with Web 2.0 in light of these themes are discussed.
Cheers,
Ethan
http://twitter.com/ethankuniyoshi
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