Blog Post #12

Since I was suppose to come up with an assignment that Dr. Strange should have given us I was a little stumped.  How could I come up with one?  I didn't have a clue.  So after thinking about this for a few days and looking back over all the things that we had done, and how we had discussed what technology that teachers are using I thought "Do teachers think they are technologically literate and do they even care?"

So here is the assignment that I came up with:

You must interview an active teacher who is in the same discipline as you (a social science major would interview a history teacher and so forth).  This interview must be recorded and posted to your blog.  The form doesn't matter.  It can be a skype interview, audio or video recording.  You will need to ask the following questions:
1.  Do you know what a technologically literate teachers is?
2.  Do you consider yourself a technologically literate teacher?
3.  What types of technology do you use in the classroom?
4.  Does your class use blogs?
5.  Do you think that classroom blogs can be beneficial to your students?
6.  Do you have a PLN (Personal Learning Network)?
7.  Do you think that your students should be taught about PLN's and encouraged to create one?
8.  If you were allowed to use any type of technology in the classroom what would you use?
9.  This is a question that you make up on your own.
Record the whole conversation.  If they don't know what something is explain it and then get their answer.  Write a summary about what you learned from the teacher that you interviewed about technology that they use.



I interviewed a teacher in Alabama.  From the questions that I asked I got the impression that not only does the school system that she works for use technology in the schools, she seems to  be well versed in the usage of the tools.  Not only does the school allow the use of smart phones in the classroom they use blogs as well.  She uses the students blogs to start discussions for the class.  She asks a question and the students must comment an answer  and then must comment on each of the other students comments.  She thinks that PLN's are an important concept to be taught to students.  She believes that we should teach students how to find knowledge for themselves instead of just teaching them a a bunch of facts.
Overall I feel that the system she works for an open minded one.  She is a teacher who is sees the benefits from technology and is not afraid to learn how to use them to the benefit of her students.  I hope to be able to follow her example in the classroom and am willing to try new things that will be a benefit to my students as well.