My Aha's

I think the biggest impact that this class has had on me is the my change in philosphy of technology for education. I tended to think of it mainly as a functional tool for education, but not as something that could be used to enhance education. I think my earlier concept mainly came from completing assignments for classes and conducting general work in my job as a librarian. However, I never thought of it as a mechanism which could be used to assist students in learning concepts better. As a result, I think I will start looking for more ways to use technology to assist students in the learning process. I have in the past had a tendency to look at technology as a threat because I was afraid it was have negative consequences on my job as a librarian. I believed that if students relied too much on technology it would make my position as obsolete. As a result of taking this class, I am starting to begin not fearing technology in the field of librarianship.

I enjoyed this class because it exposed me to other technologies. I was a judge for a history fair and wondered how the students were creating these movies on their computers. After the Window Movie Maker demo, I realized their methods. As a result I did not feel to far behind the younger students.

As far as the blog is concerned. I have generally not liked writing a journal. However, when I realized that my ideas were being read by other individuals who were not affiliated with the class, I began to get more interested. I started to believe that individuals were listening to my voice and taking it seriously. As a result, I want to continue blogging in the future.

Technology and K-12 education

After reading Chapters 7, 8, and 9 in Romano’s textbook, I think some of the proposed changes could be implemented. One of his proposals was to enhance those schools that already have high SAT scores. In my opinion this would be very controversial because these institutions will generally have students who are already from a higher socio-economic background. As a result, these students will not have suffered as a result of the digital divide. These students would also have a higher potential to plateau in their results. Therefore, we would not see as much improvement overall because they have been exposed to a better education experience.

In my opinion, I think it would be a lot more interesting to test these technological improvements on schools which have low performing students. As a result, we would get a chance to see how technology enhanced classrooms would impact these students. If there is a definite improvement with these students then we could pursue it in other schools.

I really get frustrated with the continued reliance on the federal government to improve schools. The government has provides schools with a lot of money and mandates for improvement of students. The K-12 system generally becomes a bottomless pit when it comes to money. The money goes in but there is not much improvement in the student’s education. Students are still not able to write or solve math equations when they enter higher education. As a result, I would really like to see some tests done in low performing schools first before these programs are expanded to other schools and requests for more funds for higher education. If this does not work, then we need to rethink what are goals and objectives for K-12 education.

My basic opinion of technology and K-12 education is that technology can only be part of the answer, it also requires student who want to learn and the support of their parents.

Higher Education and Virtual Worlds

I definitely believe that the virtual world will eventually become incorporated into higher education. After playing with the secondlife virtual world, I can better visualize how higher education could use that format. However, I had problem with navigating and working with the program because the speed of my computer was way too slow. As a result, there was a constant jerking when I was moving around. In time technology will improve this so that any processor can handle this type of software.

In my own position at Texas A&M University-Commerce, I have started to push for the university to acquire Eluminate. I believe that this will allow students to interact with instructors from home from any computer regardless of their connection and machine speed. This would also allow lecture style format for classes in an online environment. This environment would allow students to clarify concepts in real time as the course is conducted. One problem with asynchronous education is that students often do not want to ask questions because they are afraid that they will look stupid in front of their peers. As a result, whole concepts are not learned.

One of the problems that I see with online courses today is that they do not address my learning style. I recognize that I am a left brain learner. As a result, I prefer a more traditional education in learning. The asynchronous postings and discussions do not fully allow me to learn course concepts. These exercises seems more like busy work to me and not real learning. I prefer to listen to lectures and take notes. In my opinion, I learn the best that way. As a result, I have not gotten much out of online courses. If faculty incorporated pod casts in their online courses, I feel like I would get more out of the online courses.

Primary sources and the Internet

After reading through chapter 4 of Romano’s Empowering Students with Technology, I was both enthused and annoyed at the same time. I was enthused that people are recognizing that many primary resources which are available are government documents. Another concept that I was excited to see was teaching the value and difference of primary documents. From my experience as a librarian in higher education and serving as judge of the UIL history fair, many students are not familiar with primary resources. I think using resources from the national archives website would be an outstanding resource to work with. However, I was frustrated to see that people are only starting to recognize the value of government documents now that some of them are available on the web. The government documents section of the James G. Gee Library has tons of primary documents in government documents. First of all there is the Congressional Record which provides the speeches which were held on the United States Senate and House of Representatives. There is also the serial set which provides the United States House and Senate reports. This is considered to be on the best resources to find primary resources on our government. The serial set is slowing being scanned in by several companies and it is painstakingly slow. We have a database at the library called U.S. Congressional Serial Set which provides some of the scanned serial set. Resource that we also have in print is the public papers of various presidents. These contain the actual speeches of the Presidents of the United States. I have a handout that contains some of the primary resources available in print and electronic for genealogists at my website. There is a digitization project that is being put forward to scan and catalog the entire government documents collection. This is going to take quite a while to complete. If you are interested about it you can find out what has been scanned and more information about the initiative at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/registry/. Some other resources that we have which are primary resources and not government documents are the New York Times and other newspapers in microfilm. We also have several databases which contain newspapers accounts from the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

I guess another aspect that frustrated me about the chapter is the lack of knowledge about what is contained within a library. We have tons of these resources available that are not being utilized by students and faculty. This is where I’m going to reiterate again that a partnership needs to be established between faculty and librarians. It is becoming more and more apparent that students and faculty do not know what is available. I understand November’s premise that the concepts of primary resources can be taught by using the national archives website. However, these concepts could be also taught through the use of other resources which are already available in the library. It is simply a lack of communication between faculty and librarians. Universities also need a teacher learning center in which this communication can be fostered.

Educational technology - success or failure

In my opinion, it is sometimes difficult to say that the technological innovations have been a failure in education. The main reasons that technology has tended to not be utilized in education is due to the knowledge utilizing and the cost in acquiring the hardware and software. My first experiences of using a computer in a classroom occurred when I was in the 4th grade using a TRS-80. Only one teacher in the entire school knew how to operate the machines. As a result, you were only able to use the computer once a week for about an 30 minutes. We learned very easy BASIC programming. I remember messing up the programming of the computer program and I classroom teacher who was not acquainted with the computer panicked. As a result of her reaction, I became nervous around computers for many years. The costs also have a real impact on education. In order to provide plenty of technological components for students in higher education, a sizable amount of money needs to be spent. Another factor that has to be considered is not all parents and students are able to afford their own personal computer. I remember a vendor who sold a library database came to a university that I worked for and was surprised that the students did not have access to their own laptop. The vendor had been to several other universities and that was the norm. As a result, they were not sure if their product would be suitable for the university in which I was working.

A proposal that could be put forward to provide technological training on university campuses. I realize that many institutions of higher education provide training in Microsoft Office products. However, this is only minimal training. These institutions could provide training through a continuing education program which would allow faculty and support staff the opportunities in learning how to use software. As far as funding goes, I really do not see any other alternative than raising fees in order to increase the amount of technologies available to the institutions. Since state universities are becoming more and more privatized as a result of lack of funding from the state. The only alternative is to increase fees or seek additional funding through grants from corporations.

After reading chapter 6 of Michael Romano’s Empowering Teachers with Technology, I strongly agreed with the following perceptions:

As the third millennium begins, it is evident that the development of digital technology has had, and will continue to have, a profound, pervasive impact on the course of global civilization.

In my opinion, nothing has transformed education and society the way computers and the Internet have. Higher education used to be dependent on classes taken in a brick and mortar building. Since the expansion of computers and the Internet, many individuals are taking classes online. People who live in remote locations are now able to take courses which were at one time not too long ago impossible. I believe in the future technology will improve enough to where a class of 30 students can meet at the same time interact with each other. This will greatly improve the online educational experience.

The pervasive societal developments fostered by the computer and the Internet evoke a wide disparity of reactions, since they are perceived from disparate vantage points. Regardless, all can agree on one reality: humans will become more and more dependent on the mighty minuscule microchip. We can be optimistic that in the end the human capacity to adapt will prevail – as it always has.

People are already dependent on computers when they do their research. As a librarian, when we give a student the opportunity to use a print index as opposed to an online database, they will use the computer. We have also experienced when the computers go down, the library becomes a ghost town. The library staff has also noticed that the number of reference questions have significantly reduced. Students tell the librarians that they do not need to use the library because everything is on the Internet. However, in my opinion, the process of conducting research is still difficult on students. Students are only using the Internet to conduct what they believe is sound research. They are not validating their source. In my opinion, higher education should strive to work with libraries to instruct students on which resources are the best to use. Students need to be provided guidance in their assignments and not allowed to only rely on the Internet to find answers to their research.

The computer is a multimedia information-management system that can be programmed to function on an alternative basis. They replicate and markedly amplify certain basic cognitive functions of the human mind, specifically storage, computation and retrieval. Thus computers have enormous potential to profoundly impact the teaching-learning process.

There is no way that I can remember everything that I come across. As a result, I rely on my computer to store lots of information that I use from time to time. Whether it is preparing presentations or papers, the computer serves a useful purpose for me. I also use the computer as a mechanism of communication through instant messenger, e-mail, and blogging.

Because computers store multimedia information interactively retrievable utilizing software that is course specific, they allow teachers to provide each member of the class an increased number of individualized learning experiences based on the learner’s needs rather than the teacher’s availability.

Tutorials are an outstanding mechanism that can be created and used for educating students. I have created several online tutorials for finding legal information during my tenure at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Several students have expressed their gratitude that these tutorials are accessible to them whenever they need it. This is one method in which the Internet can serve as a useful tool in educating students.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century it is apparent that society is driven by information managed in three literacy modes: print literacy, video literacy, and computer literacy. To maximally empower teachers all three should be integrated into the implementation of the curriculum. What is not apparent is how this is best accomplished.

I agree strongly with this perception. There is no better way that this can be accomplished than through a partnership of faculty with librarians. The library staff are usually more familiar with the resources than anyone else on a higher education campus. The only way that students and faculty can become knowledgeable in what is available is through a partnership. I have created a rubric which outlines the expectations of what a lower-level undergraduate, upper-level graduate, and graduate level student should know based on information literacy concepts. However, I have not decided which would be the best mechanism to get this adopted university-wide. The only format that I know of is through the faculty senate. However, if other mechanisms should and could be used I would be interested.

Interactive multimedia, stored and retrieved by computer, represents a linkage or convergence of print literacy, video literacy, and computer literacy. Its full potential in the classroom is significant and still to be realized.

As educators we all want students to provide higher quality writing, critical thinking, and research. It is only through partnerships between faculty and librarians can information literacy standards and expectations be realized.

Evaluation of Romano's Chapter 4

After reading through Chapter 4 of Romano’s book Empowering Teachers with Technology, the following six perceptions concerning teaching and education:

• Human progress from the Stone Age to the Information Age resulted primarily from amplifying individuals capacity to function first by empowering them with crude implements, the tools, then machines and now technology. This is basic to understanding how teachers can do what they do – better
• All human activity is driven by information; the more demanding the activity – the greater the need for information. Thus, information can be termed the fuel that powers the teaching-learning process.
• The master teachers of the Information Age are those who develop the capacity to navigate the worldwide oceans of information and selectively retrieve that which can provide an enriched experience for their learners
• How teachers manage information has a major impact on the outcome of the teaching-learning process. Technology facilitates and amplifies the teacher’s capacity to provide learners of higher fidelity in an individualized, interactive mode.
• Teachers plan, communicate, guide, and evaluate. Information technology can be adapted to allow the teacher to do these better, and thus impact positively the efficiency of the teaching-learning process.
• There is compelling evidence that learning is heightened when teachers create visually rich experiences, thus engaging the learner’s entire brain – rather than only half.
  
  In my opinion these six perceptions are very important because technology is going to change education in the future. Higher education is only beginning to fully utilize Internet technology through distance education. Colleges and universities are also starting to use teleconferences as a method of educating students also. I also believe that our society is becoming more and more dependent on information. However, in the future, the indicator of an educated person will be whether they can discern credible and erroneous information. In higher education, it is going to essential that faculty and librarians form partnerships in which we train students how to find, evaluate, and utilize information properly. I also think faculty are going to have to be innovative in how they utilize technology in order to facilitate education. Partnerships will have to be developed with educational technology departments in order for faculty to keep current with the technology that is currently being offered at the institution of higher education. In my opinion, faculty will always have to continue to develop objectives and evaluate whether the students are learning the materials. As they develop their objectives they will also have to develop curriculum which will address all of the various types of learners. Typically instructors teach in methods which are similar to their learning styles. As a result, departments should be created on university campuses which allow faculty to learn how to instruct to the various learning styles of individuals.
  
  After taking this course and continue my doctoral classes, I will have to look at technology as a tool which can be utilized to facilitate education in the future. I have also begun to realize that I’m going to have to adapt to using more technology in the future also. Traditionally, I have preferred print resources to find information. However, I have begun to notice since taking this class that I am going to rely more on electronic resources to find the information that is needed. This really has been apparent as I have been creating my educational technology time line. More and more of the books are becoming available online. I am not a huge fan of online books, because I cannot find information as quickly. However, I’m going to have to learn to adapt in order to survive in the workplace. I believe these tendencies is what has kept education from utilizing technology in the classrooms. As educators, we don’t feel as comfortable utilizing it. In my opinion, educators are still learning how to manage instruction in an online course environment. As we use this technology, we are going to have to work together to learn how to best educate student with the medium. As a librarian, I’m going to have to learn how to operate within the online course environment in order to meet the needs of these online students through recorded instructions and other mechanism. Partnerships will have to be developed with faculty in order for librarians to be given an opportunity to conduct instructions for the students using these online course environments.

More learning

I've been learning some more about creating websites. I really prefer to not have advertisements or popups on my website. As a result, I went looking to see who would have the best deal as far as acquiring space for a website. I learned that my Internet Service Provider (ISP) Earthlink provided 10 MB of space for individuals who subscribed with them. As a result, I have started to create my website.

As a part of the learning experience, I have started to work with new environments that I'm not familiar in the creation of webpages. First, I have learned how to create and operate webpages in a frames environment. In the past I have not particularly cared for frames. However, I like the way this environment is working in the creation of an electronic portfolio. I've also been learning how to use the computer software Fireworks to make rollover buttons. This is the first time that I've ever worked with Fireworks and rollovers. In my opinion, it makes the webpage a little more antimated and gives it some personality.