Creating a positive message about students using technology for educational success can be difficult. Showing off students typing away at a row of computers is a nice way to say “look at all this productivity,” but it doesn’t convey something as emotional as a student-led presentation or a teacher’s own voice. I tried to blend both in a recent video that I made for my district, showcasing the thoughts behind the use of technology in education. It’s not perfect, and I had all sorts of headaches with the audio (lots of noisy classrooms), but this is my first attempt to show some of the thought behind our teachers’ instructional methodology when using technology. You can view below or on Vimeo.
http://vimeo.com/80386449
In all fairness, this video was born out of Gary Abud’s Teacher Leadership Challenge from October 25 of this year. In the post, Gary challenged us to answer the question:
How is your personal philosophy of education demonstrated in your teaching style?
At the same time Gary asked this question, I also received a request from my school district’s Superintendent to craft a short video to present the use of technology in our schools. Blending the two seemed like a good idea, and while my execution is certainly still a bit off (I should have shot a lot more footage of students using mobile technology), I feel as though I at least presented these educators in a positive light. And I began to touch upon what Gary is asking of us…to re-examine those questions we most likely haven’t been asked since our pre-service days; “what is your personal philosophy of education? What impacts your instructional environment? How do you see the influence of the world around you changing the way you teach?”
I’m planning two more installments to this question, with a heavy shift to student voices for the next one. In the meantime, I wanted to get this one out there for the world, solicit some advice for polishing it up, and maybe spark some more conversation and sharing about how we think about technology in the classroom, and how we share that with others.
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Technology can play a vital role in education, specially in places where conventional forms of education, namely schools and colleges cannot reach. It becomes easier to transport knowledge through a medium that is compact yet vast.