Chapman University

Education in the Digital Age

An Educated View on Technology in a Secondary School Classroom

Katie Pircher

Educating with Multiple Technologies EDUC 649

Keith Howard, Ph.D.

December 17, 2014

Just as I began my credential and Masters program at Chapman University,

Los Angeles Unified School District bought an iPad for every student. It was exciting

and felt like a big move in the technology direction. Myself and other prospective

teachers were left with several questions though. Does every student get one? Do

they take them home? What programs do you use? What if they don’t connect to the

internet/network? I grew up without a cell phone and didn’t have a computer in the

house until I was a tween. Internet was dial up and Facebook wasn’t a household

name until well into my college career. The students that I will be teaching never

knew a life without Wi-Fi and I think they shouldn’t be expected to separate their

world full of technology and the education they are receiving in the classroom.

During my student teaching experience, my master teacher was discouraging

of my use of technology in the classroom. She spent a lot of time explaining to me

how I should minimize the use of multimedia and always be prepared with a plan B.

Although I certainly understand why a plan B is necessary (devices always break or

aren’t charged, Internet always fails, etc.), I always felt like she was holding me back

from exploring the use of technology in an English Language Arts classroom.

Considering what I learned in my Educating with Multiple Technologies course, I

feel very prepared to enter the classroom as a full-time instructor with the

awareness of technology’s downfalls but an educated use of how to incorporate

technology in education.

In my opinion, the biggest and most important part of teaching with

technology is the connection between school and our students’ lives outside of

school. Most young adults operate frequently (my estimate is every hour or so) with

some sort of device. They could be texting or using social media either on their cell

phone or computer, streaming videos or shows on similar devices or listening to

music on their MP3 player. As educators, we would be missing an opportunity to

connect with our students, both on a personal and educational level, if we ignored

the digital age and all of its interwoven workings. Utilizing the technology that

grabs our students’ attention to encourage classroom engagement is a win-win, in

my opinion.

As taught in my Educating with Multiple Technologies course, as well as the

Educational Applications of Technology course, I learned about several applications

to use in the classroom. Some of those include: Weebly, Wix, SlideShare, GoogleDocs,

Prezi, Interactive Whiteboards, Edmodo, Turning Point, Voice Thread, Adobe

Connect, Portaportal, Nearpod, etc. All of these, among others, can be used in the

classroom (in my case, the secondary school classroom) to promote student

engagement both in the classroom and once they leave the walls of school.

The technology platform I found most useful from the Educating with

Multiple Technologies course is the Nearpod presentation tool. Nearpod uses mobile

devices (preferably an iPad but can also be used on smartphones) or computers to

stream instructor made presentations in real time. Nearpod encourages students to

be interactive audience members and not just information receivers. The teacher

makes an account and then “Creates” a presentation. Nearpod makes the creation

part very easy. No need to upload another document or make sure that the

compatibility matches. As you add “slides” to your presentation you can choose to

add “content” or an “activity”. The range of variation of each slide is fantastic and

shows when you complete your slide and present to your students. Students log into

the “session” on their iPads (through the Nearpod app) per the teachers assigned

“code” and the presentation begins. The teacher is in control of the entire

presentation from the device they’re using. The interactive part is the most

important and fantastic part of this tool. Power Points as a presentation tool can be

monotonous for students in the digital age and unless the teacher incorporates an

interactive section in the plan, a Power Point isn’t built for student interaction.

Students have a device streaming the Nearpod session in their hands, which is a

tangible interaction with the content and lesson. They will be asked to respond to

true/false, multiple choice, free response questions and to draw their answer. Even

when teachers give students note-taking graphic organizers, they have the ability to

be off task and often have to struggle through boring direct instruction. Nearpod

creates excitement when the iPad hits the desks; it promotes attentiveness because

of the spontaneous (at least to the students) response questions. The creativity in

responses is interesting for the students and helps them want to be involved in the

activity.

Another amazingly productive use of technology in the classroom is its use

with students with special needs. Teachers receive education on how to

differentiate instruction when they have students with IEP’s or 504’s in their

classrooms. In addition to the differentiation though, are programs and devices that

assist students with disabilities fully function in a general education classroom.

Part of what made the Educating with Multiple Technologies course so

accessible was the format of the blended class: classroom meeting supplemented

with online meetings. This made traffic, sickness, family obligations, etc. less

stressful while being a full time student. We, as graduate students, could meet all the

demands our life expected of us while learning about valuable tools to bring to our

classrooms. Adobe Connect was the program that enabled all this life-multitasking

possible. From our homes, or wherever the computer was available to us at the time,

we could sign into class and virtually see, hear and collaborate with class members

and our teacher. We could experience the same kind of teaching and learning as one

would gain in a classroom, except every individual involved was situated in a

different location (as long as the Internet connection was working properly and our

computer programs were up to date).

I easily transfer the education I received with Adobe Connect to one I can

give my students under circumstances when they are not in the classroom for an

extended period of time. In high school, students become more and more

responsible for their own educational experience and can be less dependent on

others’ making sure they are receiving the information they need to pass or

graduate. If a student is absent, due to sickness, a death in the family or another

extenuating circumstance, I can inform that student of the option to participate in

class on a platform like Adobe Connect. In this situation than, the student misses

zero direct instruction and information the rest of the class received, can stay up to

date with assignments and deadlines and feel a sense of relief when integrating back

into the classroom.

Using technology is unpredictable. In a classroom, teachers carefully plan out

every minute of every day so that unpredictable events don’t happen. Part of being a

good teacher is when the teacher is “with-it”; meaning, the teacher moves the class

along at a pace that keeps the students alert but doesn’t overwhelm them. The

teacher makes sure he/she leaves enough time for students to think about the

answer and then respond but not too much time where the students get frustrated

or bored. Even when technology works and provides the support desired from the

instructor, there are moments of pause; moments when videos need to load or wires

needs to be switched.

While we were using the Nearpod application in the Educating with Multiple

Technologies course, for example, several of the iPads froze as the application was

opening. In the Masters course classroom we were set up with several computers

and several extra iPads, so those without working iPads could quickly shift onto a

computer to access the same material. In any of the high school classrooms that I’ve

been in, this excess of devices hasn’t been available; so, if a teacher ends up with five

out of the twenty-five (if they’re lucky) iPads not connecting to the program, he/she

will have to quickly group students up or change the course of the lesson. This lag

time leaves several minutes where students can become distracted, float off task or

loose the respect of the lesson and or instructor.

Of course I have to mention that more times than desired, technology fails to

work properly. The Internet may be down or the Wi-Fi won’t connect fully, which

can drastically change the course of the lesson that was depending on multimedia.

Naturally, any qualified instructor would have a plan B in this case, however the

plan B may not be as great as the plan that included technology. This double-lesson-

plan (one with technology and one without just in-case the technology fails) day

isn’t attractive and is a lot of extra work for already overloaded teachers. This

instance alone can deter teachers from using technology in their curriculum or

lesson plans.

As mentioned previously, LAUSD purchased iPads for all of their students;

however, not many other districts have set aside the resources to do the same. In

fact, not many other schools even have working computers in every class or a

computer lab (or two) with camera and microphone connections. It is very difficult,

especially in Southern California, to incorporate technology into the teaching

curriculum if we do not provide the resources for students who may not have access

to them otherwise. Most of our school districts do not have the funds they need or

want in order to produce campuses that maintain upkeep and up-to-date systems,

let alone the capital to purchase computers or iPads for every student, working

computers in every classroom and the education teachers need in order to use

technology properly in their classrooms.

In my opinion, we have reached a point in the digital age when more

opportunities are missed in education by not utilizing technology than by ignoring it

in the classroom completely. Considering I am comfortable with multi-media tools

and regularly use technology in my daily life, as well as with both teaching and

learning, I plan on using technology as an educational aid in my classroom. As a

student, I enjoyed the access of education through various forms of technology; as a

teacher, I enjoy incorporating it into my lessons, activities and assessments. I will

carefully spend the time preparing and practicing the tools my students will need to

successfully participate in class with different devices or online applications and

believe my students will be better prepared for higher education, their future

careers or professional lives as well as personal and adult experiences by using

technology and learning the skills of how to be responsible digital citizens.

The biggest piece of advice I can give teachers who are unsure about the use

of technology in their classrooms is to educate them first! There are so many

fantastic enhancements that technology can add to classroom instruction but there

are even more “crash-and-burn” moments that can occur if the educator is

untrained on what technological program to use and when. Learning about what

programs are out there and how they work can be done by taking a course,

participating in professional development that highlights the use of technology or

researching and practicing on your own.

Once the unsure educator learns some valuable tools and programs to

enhance learning, my advice would be to use it before you loose it! Program and

their details change and update frequently, and if we are not staying up-to-date with

how to use them and what is available we will quickly fall behind. Although we will

probably never be as savvy as our students in figuring out how to use mobile

devices and fixing technology problems, the goal is to present content in ways that

both impresses them with our knowledge in the world of technology and

encourages them to explore other forms on their own.