My end of semester Ed tech philosophy review

Kathrine interviews herself again on her Educational Technology Philosophy

Okay, here we go again:

I believe the purpose of education is to bring an individual to an enlightenment of the application of various venues of society selected training and an understanding of the individual’s role within that society which is going to include a firm grasp on negotiating at least minimal technological functions.

I believe that the role of the learner is to question, investigate,  acquire/acknowledge, practice and finally apply the mastered tenets of a given topic.

I believe that an educator has the charge to direct a student’s line of learning through the discovery of, and acquisition of a giving topic.

My classroom objective as a teacher is to take a ‘cold turkey’ subject, introduce it using as many differing avenues as possible to deliver the information to a learning diverse class and the student to each other, then engage the student into its depths and challenge them to broaden their world with the subject matter and exit the class a more enlightened individual from having encountered the subject and a better understanding of the components of technological delivery methods. My campus wide objectives are to help the student gain confidence and skill in being a more successful student by using the subject matter to address a couple of areas that many students struggle in, test taking and public speaking, both manually and online or presenting with the support of a selected program. My professional objective is to give the teachers to be in my classes, and other professionals who may have to be trainers, an example of a portion of their careers in action by often explaining my methods and reason quickly before beginning a select activity the first time. I can expand this by modeling technological proficiency as well.

I use many different methods depending on the course of activities and area of subject focus selected from that day. One method you could call the “Frog in the pot of water on the stove” or dependence weaning and facing/reducing your fear of public speaking.  I bring the students through a select pattern of fear reductions in order to bring out the true best of the student in two high stress areas of education.  1) Test taking, 2) Public speaking. I can do the same thing with progressing students who are backwards in their technological applications via outside assignments.

Because I teach college, I expect my students to be pre-read for class, to challenge themselves to do better with each attempt, to explore, to genuinely try, do their assigned work, do college level research and presentations, show respect for their classmates and me, and be on-time, and show proper classroom comportment. However,  because I teach an open level class in a small regional college I fully expect to have students that are un-disciplined in how to succeed as college students and are unprepared for the rigors of a college classroom subject or technological use base requirements.

It was interesting to see how this philosophy become melded with my focus and usage of technology within and on behalf of the class as it becomes anchored to the purpose of class as well as melded within the subject matter.