Technology Education
TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
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Technology Education
Noe Granado
University of Texas at Brownsville – Texas Southmost College
Dan Carlson, M.Ed.
Technology Education
Abstract
As teachers make the transition to technology, their curriculum must allow the student to become
lifelong learners. With new hypermedia learning, students will construct and discover in a learnercentered education environment, were they will navigate on how to learn. Teachers will customize
learning, as fun. Curriculum will become more student-centered, and the teacher will be the facilitator.
Teachers and Students will engage in learning objectives together. The results of the observations
indicated a strong preference for the change in curriculum from linear to hypermedia learning.
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Technology Education
Technology, just in the past four years has increased in the classroom and support has been provided for
the educator, but there is a big discrepancy between the level of technology use expected of educators
and the actual use and integration of technology in the classroom. This research will examine the
barriers that hinder the effective use of technology in education.
In a Technology Conference at South Padre Island, Texas 2009, hosted by Region One (Center, 2009), it
was stated that interactive technology was going to be the core to engaging students and enabling them
to stay in school. Texas Education Agency and the Texas Legislation have decided that online courses will
be the center of attention. The reality of public schools offering online course was going to be
implemented in the year 2014.
With the United States budget deficit, which has affected school districts budget, this implementation
will start immediately on August 2011 school year. What this means to school districts, is that teacher’s
lesson plans will have to demonstrate that instruction is been deployed interactively and engaging
students. Moreover, research has found that teachers are teaching in the level of, applying, according to
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has already updated The Texas Essential
Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) to National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-S) and Performance
Indicators for Students (ISTE, 2011).
Using smart technologies to engage the students will adapt curriculum to address students’
suppositions. Educators must adhere to the fourth guiding principle of constructivist teaching: the need
for teachers to adapt curriculum tasks to address students’ suppositions (Brooks, 1993). If suppositions
are not explicitly addressed, most students will find lessons bereft of meaning, regardless of how
charismatic the teacher or attractive the material might be (Brooks, 1993). Districts have integrated
distance learning opportunities to the schools around the world. Two Way Interactive Connections in
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Technology Education
Education (TWICE), provides learning opportunities that expand the boundaries of the classroom
beyond the local community (Letter, 2001). This type of collaboration allows teaching and learning to
occur during the connection, and participation and interaction are required (Letter, 2001). The Center
for Interactive Learning and Collaborating (CILC) is another source of video conferencing for live
interactive content and professional development (Dalton, 1994). As educators add IPAD integration, to
make our students natives to technology, we introduce Web 2.0 tools, into the teachers’
curriculum/lesson plan. As a Google representative stated, “we are immigrates teaching natives”.
As a member of the District Education Improvement Council (DEIC), we make decisions on the District
Improvement Plan (Springstion, 2011). It is clear that Brownsville Independent School District is signing
up with eSchool Solutions. What this means to the District, is that high school students will take courses
online. A chosen high school will be closed down (Springstion, 2011). The district will select students to
take courses online, and eventually every high school student will be taking online courses. According to
Brownsville Independent School District board members, by the beginning of the next school year, every
teacher will have access to their own online portal, just like UTB-TSC blackboard. Teachers will create
their lesson plans online, and students will have access to their grades, assignments, projects, quizzes,
and discussion forums.
Campus Student Action Improvement Plan (CSAIP), are put together by individual campuses for the
campus budget. This documentation demonstrates, in detail, how the funds are spent. With this
information in place, E-Rate supports technology funds for the school districts. These funds, is what
allows the integration of technology in the classrooms.
As lesson plans are modified, teachers are going to be held accountable for integrating effective use of
technology and at the same time, making the lesson engaging to the student. Teachers will allow the
students to be creative, which will allow them to navigate and make the personal connection to what is
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Technology Education
being taught. Understanding by Design, describes curriculum, as backward design. To begin with the end
in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination (Brooks, 1993).
Now we look into the results from observing middle school teachers. The research involved asking
teachers to demonstrate their lesson plans to the investigator. Their daily concepts were analyzed,
following a series of questions about the teacher’s teaching methods. During a 6th grade history lesson
on memorizing important dates, students were asked to talk about history events, and then state the
date of occurrence. The teacher realized that this could become a better learning environment, by
implementing interactive games. Mrs. Catherine Valdez, then lines up the students and exercise their
brain, by quickly naming the ten most important dates in history. As they are correct, she awards the
student with a jolly rancher candy, as they take their seat. If the student is incorrect, they rush to the
end of the line and try again. Once this activity was accomplished, the students then moved to the next
learning center. The activity consisted, of the students shooting darts at balloons. When the balloon was
popped it had a slip which raised a question about a history event. Once the students read the event,
they had to provide the class with the date or dates. The learning center that mostly caught my
attention was the use of the smartboard (SMART, 1989) and response systems (SMART, 1989). The
learning center allowed the students to excel the use of their creativity. Students interacted with a live
video and answered questions, using the response systems, between scenes. The following was posted
on the chalk board:
“The Civil Rights Movement” TLW: learn how using Discovery Education and a Smartboard can
help students explore Civil Rights Movement. Learn about a lesson in which students view Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s speech “I Have A Dream” then complete their own dream speech handout. This
handout will be projected on the Smartboard where students will volunteer to share some of
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Technology Education
their responses. Students will then view key events of the Civil Rights Movement and then work
in groups to complete various research based projects on this movement (Center, 2009).
When students are ask to engage in such activities is a dynamic decision made by the teacher. Each
answer a student offers to a teacher’s questions reveals a theory the student is making about the
subject. Knowing the students enables the teacher to adopt the curriculum and address the objectives.
The teacher then asks the students to line up outside the classroom. While the students are in the hall,
Mrs. Valdez pulls out a long strong rope. Catherine Valdez places a tape across the floor and counts to
three. The students pull and they determine the winner. Mrs. Valdez asks the students to analyze and
relate their struggle to the struggles history has encountered. Mrs. Valdez understands that in order for
learning to take place, students must be engaged in the process of teaching. Authentic learning
experiences, like this one, will allow such experience which demonstrates real-life connections by
associating the concept being taught with a real-life experience or events. When students discover and
explore meaningful concepts on their own, they are more likely to understand and retain information
(Valdez, 2011).
The pertinent message here for educators is that we don’t know what ideas are within students’ reach
unless we do something specific to find out (Brooks, 1993). Mrs. Valdez’s curriculum met and exceeded
the standard district curriculum. Valdez’s pedagogy and professional responsibilities standards (PDAS)
evaluation, proved that she exceeded standard III: The teacher promotes student learning by providing
responsive instruction that make use of effective communication techniques, instructional strategies
that actively engage students in the learning process, and timely, high quality feedback (TEA, 2011).
The next observation was on a 7th Math classroom, with Jessica Garcia (Garcia, 2011), were students
were asked to walk to the smartboard and select and X and Y axis point, which if imputed correctly
would bomb the ship. The students were very engaged and willing to participate, without knowing that
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Technology Education
they were actually learning about plotting points on a graph chart. Students will continue to gain
interest as long as the technology being used is interactive and relevant. Students are learning to use
technology through learning other primary lessons. “Educational technologies offer new pathways to
learning, encourage the emergence of higher-order thinking skills, and enable teachers and students to
interact with real world resources in unprecedented ways” (NMSA, 1973). Mrs. Garcia has prepared a
lesson in which it contains the following: Interactive content, group involvement, collaboration feedback
and has a pedagogically approach.
The observation demonstrated that Mrs. Garcia is definitely created a 21st Century classroom.
Integration of technology is visible in the classroom. Integrating distance learning activities and web 2.0
tools to the lesson plans leads to meaningful student learning. We continue to hear that digital
immigrants are teaching natives (Center, 2009). Every educator must have an open mind, as they are
being transitioned into the technology world (Center, 2009). Allowing the students to use technology in
the classroom identifies individual learning gaps (Center, 2009). State-of-the-art technology is greatly
enhancing teacher’s ability to reach out to students.
The educator is challenged on an everyday basis. They must provide sympathy, be a counselor, parent,
role model, and at the same token provide a perfect teaching environment that adopts to every
individual student’s needs. Now technology integration is added. The teacher must be trained with
continued professional developments, in order to create a technology based learning environment.
Make no mistake, dynamic learning environment platforms are the future of tomorrow’s educators.
What this means to the educator, is that they will be able to develop and create online courses. The
focus will be interactive collaborative construction content.
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Technology Education
Works Cited
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