Personal Tech Plan

Over the past year technology has grown in my life.  Going into last school year, I was unaware of how much software and tech tools were available.  My school is a rural school in Northeast Ohio.  We our predominately a farming community with little money, so our school wrote a grant proposal for 250,000 dollars.  The proposal was accepted and our journey began.  ARRA Grant Ohio

During the initial grant accepted months everything seemed to be so cool because we were getting new gadgets to play with.  After getting use to them though, we began working with web 2.0 tools and reflecting on what we learned.  Our team had no idea how much work this grant actually was going to be.  We had to keep journals, begin a wiki and even be observed. The best thing that came out of this was that I learned how a wiki was beneficial in the classroom. My wiki nows gives students a chance to collaborate with others and understand material taught in class.

During our journey, our schools has purchased smartboards, smart slates, elmos, video cameras, flip cameras, digital cameras and laptop carts for grades 6-8.  One of the pitfalls with technology in our district has been the internet.  Our students have had a lot of this technology wasted so far this year because of the bogged down internet connection. Our school district is fighting to purchase more bandwidth, but our grant money can't go towards this purchase.  This makes it a constant battle to get staff to integrate this new technology. Who wants to waste precious time to learn how to use the technology if it takes 20 minutes to gain a strong connection on the laptops?

With all the pitfalls that has happened our district is hopeful that we will have stronger bandwidth by December.  I took it upon myself to teach the students to create a diigo this week in class. This is a great tool for our students to learn.  I simply love this website and the idea of the "networked student".  This class has shown me so many great concepts and tools that I will use with my students, but I decided to start with this one.  I figured while I wait on the internet to gain a stronger bandwidth, I might as well begin having students find great resources for my class and others to use when the internet gets faster.  This way they will create a categorized network for this year and their future. I'm trying to get rural kids from small town Ohio to connect their ideas globally.  I felt like the teacher from rural Georgia. She stated that she is more of a facilitator or coach in the classroom then a know it all teacher.  I want the students to find the great resources and have a place to store them.  I think this video explains the purpose for the diigo assignment: 

Once students begin sharing their diigo and joining groups for other project assignments they will open doors to more web 2.0 tools.  I simply love GOOGLE DOCS! Once students build their database and network. They will be able to use google docs to begin working with students in other classes and maybe for another district on an assignment.  The best thing about google docs for me is the ability to collaborate on one assignment with multiple people while instant messaging them on the changes or additions.  Could you imagine the possibilities?

Before 2009, I wanted to be an administrator and already started my journey toward that goal.  After being in this class and working with the grant, I have found my calling in technology.  I'm excited to continue with this journey in technology and can't wait to see what the next best thing is for my students.  I'm not sure if I will become a tech coordinator or tech administrator, but I know that I will never stop preparing the 21st Century Learner.