Reflection on Integrated Unit Plan

I believe that the unit plan on Frida Kahlo that we designed integrated technology in a meaningful way. As a teacher, I found the TPCK model useful in reminding me that technology must be purposeful in the lesson, rather than using technology for technology's sake. Its integration into the lesson ended up incorporating important visuals that a student needed in order to understand the artist's work and life experiences.

The unit was successful in inspiring students to engage individually with the content and reflect creatively without worrying about what others might think of his or her answers. For that reason, I really liked the influence technology had on the learner's experience. It was also successful to assign various credible internet sources for students to explore. The student was able to see varying perspectives that way. The TPCK model requires that the teacher come up with new ways to integrate technology within what they are already teaching in the classroom. I enjoyed the creativity that we put into figuring out how to convey the content knowledge. With all of the new ideas that have been presented in class, we had a good repertoire to choose from.

Something that we need to work on is the way that we present the lesson to our "students". I did not totally understand what was expected of us when we got up to present this lesson, so it seems that we should have stayed in character as the teachers more and covered only one lesson. We were attempting to walk our colleagues through the highlights of the unit and were critiqued for not having completed the presentation assignment properly. In the future, I will be sure that I know exactly what is expected of me before I prepare a project like this.

Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds

Sadly, the findings in the "Generation M2" article did not surprise me. I think that most teachers are aware of how much time our students spend doing things other than study. What I found most interesting about the article was that the data reflects media consumption in 2009. In the past two years, the technology used among teenagers has grown. The article does not mention the iPad or Facebook, both of which are wildly popular and have likely increased teenagers' online time wastage. I know that some of my own students do partner and group projects for school all on Facebook now. The rarely talk on their cell phones anymore; they text entire conversations. They have Twitter accounts, iPhones and other devices that can do everything just short of make you a sandwich. It's amazing to me that they can still hold conversations with each other.

The television statistic saddens me. 4 1/2 hours of t.v. per day? What is there worth watching? At the risk of sounding like someone's grandpa, I have to say that the quality of television programming has plummeted in the last ten years. Among my students, the popular t.v. shows are Jersey Shore, Keeping up with the Kardashians and Skins. Yuck.

I was amused at the report that the percentage of those who claim to be bored is generally the same for light, moderate and heavy users of media. It seems to me that feeling bored is just part of being a teenager.

This report may affect my teaching by influencing some of the more creative activities I have my students do. For instance, last year, during the "Personality" unit, I had my juniors and seniors create a poster depicting what would be their dating website profiles. Not having any experience with dating sites, most of them applied what they know about Facebook to create it. They seemed to enjoy the assignment because it was something that they were already interested in and they got to do it in another language. Now knowing what other media interests our students hold (video games, television, etc), I may try to come up with lessons that incorporate Spanish vocabulary and readings on those topics.

Oppenheimer, NETS-S and Tech Tonic

Oppenheimer's view of the use of technology in schools, and the "e-lusion" of the doors it opens for our students, is that "computers can, in select cases, be wonderfully useful in school. But over and over, as we've seen, high technology is steering youngsters away from the messy, fundamental challenges of the real world- and toward the hurried buzz and neat convenience of an unreal virtual world." (pg. 411) He fears that if our students stare at screens all day in school, as they do all evening with Facebook, text messaging and the television, they will not develop as imaginative, articulate people. They miss out on the human connection necessary to think critically, relate to others in a human way or, ultimately, be individuals.

As Oppenheimer warns of the threat of standardized testing, standardized thinking and standardized values, the educators, lawmakers and businesses involved with NETS-S are evaluating the framework for technology competency standards for schools. These standards are used by schools in most states to insure provision of age-appropriate technology fluency and its incorporation into the curriculum at all grade levels. Oppenheimer believes that, with our nation's schools having such varied qualities of funding, instruction and teacher salary, assuming that they should all aspire to teach to the same standards is absurd. He argues that we need to overcome the challenges of school culture before we try to tackle creating technological powerhouses. (pg. 357)

The Tech Tonic publication of the Alliance for Childhood seems to healthily balance the views of Oppenheimer and NETS-S. This group of educators designed a document to explain the dangers of an over emphasis on technology in the classroom and the tenet that real-world relationships come first. They state, "We remain convinced that, at the elementary school level and below, there is little evidence of lasting gains and much evidence of harm from the hours spent in front of screens. For us, the decision is an easy one: de-emphasize high-tech products and let children thrive and grow." (pg. 2) We should be teaching students to solve problems using technology instead of merely training them on machines. It is also important to prepare students to make healthy choices about tomorrow's technological moral and ethical issues. As technology is born of human choices, our students must learn to choose wisely how it will evolve. 


I believe that the Tech Tonic view finds a reasonable and thoughtful way to teach with technology without losing the human element. I doubt that Oppenheimer and those at NETS-S will find it a suitable middle ground, as both sides are strongly pro and con. Perhaps it is necessary to have such differing views so that our nation's students can have varied school choices for their own educational needs and preferences.

How does technology fit into my personal philosophy of teaching?

As a language teacher, I am hesitant to incorporate student-use of technology, for fear that it might interrupt their acquisition of personal interaction and self-expression skills. With the myriad online translators and dictionaries that exits today, a student doesn't really need to memorize verb conjugations in order to figure out how to say something in Spanish. My goal as that student's teacher, however, is to teach him or her how language works and how to use it to communicate with people of other cultures. As teenagers interact more and more through Facebook and text messages, I worry that they are losing their ability to relate to each other. While they are in my class, I want them to engage one another in the communicative process and practice respectful collaboration. Looking at screens may only hinder this.

I suppose this makes my teaching style sound old-school. I understand that today's youth must be prepared for the world that they will face once they're ready to enter the work-force. Our technology is advancing so rapidly that I cannot even predict how different it will be when that happens a few years from now. However, they'll also need to be communicatively competent and most will need Spanish in the professions they choose.

I'm not saying that I don't use technology in the classroom to keep students engaged. We have a language lab that provides all students an opportunity to record their speaking practice and listen to themselves, assessing their own grammar and pronunciation. I often use Powerpoint to give students visuals for the vocabulary that we study. I post articles, songs and videos for students so that they can engage with Latin American culture outside of the classroom. I have used discussion boards on our course webpage for students to post their reflections on readings and comment on one another's posts. I am very cautious, however, to not make technology too much of a focus so that my students understand the importance of face-to-face communication.