Glitch in the Matrix is an ongoing saga of one teachers adventures to become more technologically incorporated. This episode we look at the back story that brought us here.
Image via CrunchBase
For years I have wanted to become more of a technology teacher. For the most part I am considered the younger teacher by both my peers and students. I’m the teacher who loves Facebook, sees the potential for twitter and supports the idea of smartphones in the classroom. I also have seen how more and more jobs require a degree of technological understanding.
So with that I have been pushing my classroom more and more towards this endeavor. In my first year I made a class website through our district but it had great limits. It was held back in what creative control we were allowed and it had few tangible uses. In my next year I pushed the limits of that website, attempting to go a little more paperless, only to find failure but a learning experience.
Once I transferred to my new school, I came into a situation where I wouldn’t have a classroom to call my own so I needed to rely on a virtual classroom more and more. I went to Weebly to create that classroom and I found some success, especially for being a free site. I was able to upload files, create class discussions through a blog option and post resources and classroom announcements.
Unfortunately I was also hit with some security issues. I didn’t like that my student’s names were just published for the world. It was a great start and another great learning experience but it still lacked something. I had many questions and even more ideas than I was able to do. I was also limited in how much I wanted to spend for this, which was a whole $0. Back to the drawing board.
Over the summer I revisited some of the resources I used back in college to start a chapter of the Roosevelt Institute at UNLV. I am currently advising some students on creating the nation’s first high school version and while planning it out, came back across Google Docs and all the new apps they have been creating. Feeling this might be the answer I have been looking for, I dug deeper.
About a month ago I went to a conference on 21st Century Skills where I was able to talk to many teachers who had already gone through the same trials and tribulations and were able to answer my concerns, help with some hurdles and clear up some of the confusion I was having. I’ve also begun to work with a fellow teacher who is currently completing a master’s degree in Educational Technology.
This whirlwind of resources has caused me to drop my Weebly adventures and I am currently pushing through bringing in many Google apps into my classroom such as Sites, Docs, and Groups. As I venture into the unknown I will continue to keep you all updated on my progress, failures and successes. I will also be evaluating the different elements to see what works in all schools or just certain schools. My goal is to come up with a basic list that would work in all schools.
Until next time, if you like the blog, please subscribe on the right and share it with your friends and family. Please comment and share your thoughts, questions, ideas and feelings on this or any post. As always, this is Joshua Murphy and I am out.
Related articles
- Shantanu Sinha: The Right Way to Use Technology in the Classroom (huffingtonpost.com)
- John Davitt’s Freelearning Creativity Matrix (digiteacher.wordpress.com)
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