Educational Technology Philosophy

Writing my educational technology philosophy was helpful because it helped me re-focus on why I am in education and why I make the choices and decisions that I do when it comes to my instructional practices. It helped me re-focus on where I want to go and where I want my students to go. In the future, I believe returning to this philosophy will help me make decisions about what technologies to include and emphasize and what technology capabilities I personally want to develop more fully, in both myself and my students. There are so many possibilities out there that one could be easily overwhelmed. Having a written philosophy such as this can serve as a "lens" to help us filter what will is most meaningful for our personal beliefs, objectives, and goals.

My philosophy is as follows:

As educators, we all subscribe to a system of beliefs about teaching and learning that then drives our approach to everything we do in our classrooms and schools. We may not all know the official school of thought that defines those beliefs and we may not even realize that we are making decisions daily based on these ideas, but we all still are shaped by them. By taking time to examine our own practices and beliefs and connect them to an educational philosophy helps us clarify our methods and idea and allows us to proceed with our teaching in a more focused and purposeful way.

The purpose of education is to give our children and students the tools to think, problem-solve, learn, create, and produce in meaningful ways throughout their lifetime. Education gives students the ability to make decisions and choices and pursue opportunities to make meaningful contributions to the world around them.

In education, in many ways, we are all learners, teachers and students included. Students are assumed to be the targeted “learners” but teachers must also be learners. Teachers must constantly be learning about their students, about things that matter to their students, about relevant changes and events in the world, about new ideas and developments to improve their role as teachers, about changes and advances in technology, about changes in the culture that shape the way their students think and act. Teachers have to be learners in order to show their students how to be learners. However, students still have a role in education. Their role is to question, to experiment, to test, and to try what is being presented to them and then internalize it.

The role of a teacher in education is not so much a lecturer or a disseminator of knowledge and facts, as much a facilitator for learning and experience. They are connectors. They help students make connections between what is being learned and real life, real world experiences. They “set the stage” for learning through the structure they design. They help students learn how to think and problem solve by modeling thinking and problem solving for them and providing scaffolding for students to then do it on their own. Because technology is such an integral part of how our world functions today, teachers must reflect that in their classrooms. Technology must be seamlessly integrated into the teaching and learning process in a way that models how it is used for problem-solving and creativity in the real world.

My objectives as a teacher and educator are to expose children to as many ideas, people, places, and possibilities as possible. My goal is to help students become lifelong learners, thinkers, and contributors to the world around them. My goal is to help them think outside the community and neighborhood around them and give them the tools to be able to adapt and thrive and contribute in many diverse environments. My goal is to make sure every student at least has the knowledge, skills, and tools to make choices and take hold of opportunities for their own future, despite their socioeconomic background, neighborhood, or school. My goal is to equip students with the technological skills they will need to function, research, produce, and create in their future careers and professions, despite what they may or may not have access to at home.

My approach to education is to make teaching and learning interactive, integrated with technology, and connected to real life situations and settings. My approach is to constantly expose students to new things and ideas, both in traditional methods like field trips, and new methods like videoconferencing and other technologically-based applications. I am constantly looking for new ways, new projects, and new ideas to make my instruction more relevant and more engaging for students.

My expectations for my students are simple. I only ask that they be respectful and work hard. Students who do these two things open themselves up for the kind of learning that can impact the rest of their lives. My expectations for myself are that I also be respectful and work hard, especially the latter. I expect myself to give my very best to these students through my time, the quality of my work and research, through creating meaningful and rigorous activities for learning. I expect myself to work hard at keeping up with our world and what is happening so I can better connect students to those trends and changes. I expect myself to never grow content and complacent in the “way I’ve always done it” but be constantly growing, changing, and becoming better. My expectations for my colleagues are that they be committed, dedicated, and focused on our mission to these students. I expect them to act in a professional manner and with integrity. I expect them to welcome collaboration and maintain a team player attitude.

Education is not something that happens for the first 18-22 years of life and then ends. It is something that is ongoing, constantly growing and evolving through our whole lives. It is our job to make sure students have the skills, tools, and resources to be fully invested in this process well beyond the years they are in school classrooms.

Transitioning to the class readings for the week, I though November's article was very interesting. The thing that stood out to me the most was his prediction that before long all classrooms will have live videocameras recording what is taking place in the classroom. Now this is true accountability! I think that would motivate me to always be on point with my teaching far more than high-stakes testing. If I knew that parents or other educators were tuning in to see what was going on in our classroom, I would be very motivated to make sure that every minute in my classroom was filled with only the most quality learning experiences. So while it is a little intimidating (can teachers still be human sometimes?? Can we still make mistakes, have an off day??) I think this is something that could really be beneficial. We as teachers could watch and learn from other master teachers at work. Students could interact with other students beyond school walls. Parents could be more actively involved without having to actually leave work or home to come to the school. The possibilities are endless! I'm looking forward to seeing if this prediction comes true and how it impacts education.