Personal Technology plan

1. Personal Technology plan by: Cory Lammers | CEP810 | 4.23.2012

2. Personal Technology Plan It is my belief that technology in the classroom, or lack thereof, is not inherently the problem. The problem is poor user and implementation. To this end, there is nothing truly new I could say about the use of technology in the classroom. What I can do is evaluate the role technology plays in education, and set personal goals for learning how to best implement the various technologies available to me. • Goals: • Assess the use of technology in education, find out what works and what doesn’t (in specific learning scenarios), and why. • Work with the technologies available to create a blended learning environment for students. • To use technology in my own setting to socialize the learning experience and expose students to resources outside the classroom.

3. Goal #1 • Assess the use of technology in education, find out what works and what doesn’t (in specific learning scenarios), and why. • As history has shown, too often people are overzealous in their use of technology; the hand-axe scenario could be easily replicated today using buzz words like Web 2.0, HTML5, and ‘gamification’. I aim to examine these and other technologies, the teaching scenarios I most often encounter, and the audience I teach to produce the most effective training possible.

4. Goal #2 • Work with the technologies available to create a blended learning environment for students. • Continuing on the first point, I feel it’s important to ease learners (especially adult learners) into the idea of learning with technology. With the knowledge of what works and why, I seek to append current lesson plans with these technologies. I anticipate this will not work in some instances, and work very well in others. I hope to create lessons that incorporate these different approaches to education to: • allow users to choose their educational path, and • experience learning in a variety of ways based on their resources.

5. Goal #3 • To use technology in my own setting to socialize the learning experience and expose students to resources outside the classroom. • For years, adult educators have relied on networking for the spread of knowledge. Conferences, conventions, and the like have successfully served to propagate idea sharing. It has only been in recent years that many companies have embraced this opportunity in the digital landscape. Social media and social networking can, if used effectively, be a boon to the learning experience. My goal is to evaluate the tools available to me to promote continuing education outside the classroom.

6. Promises • Rise in social media in education • Edmodo • Edutopia • Room 21 • Growing popularity of blended learning • Rise of travel costs (gas, lodging, etc.) • Generic term • Personal experience with implementation of technology • Virtual meeting software in learning rooms

7. Pitfalls • Resistance to change • Hesitant of distance learning • Averse to technology • Financial costs • Student/teacher • Cost-effective? • Availability/Applicability • Rapidly changing technology • Novelty or long-lasting?

8. Technology in Use Today • Virtual meeting software • SMARTboards • Tablet computers • Webcasting/podcasting

9. Timeline 2012 Complete EdTech Certificate • Educational and social growth begets and promotes other goals. • Pliable goals; purposefully not quantitative Evaluate Lesson Plans Continue Mobile Ed Investigation Continue Social Ed Investigation Apply to MAET Program Develop Process Improvement Plan Test Implement Social Learning w/new Plan Test Implement mLearning Test Implement PIP w/new Tech Create New Lesson w/Social Ed Features Create mLearning Lesson Plan Implement PIP and Revise Implement mLearning Lesson Plan Complete MAET Program 2015 Continue to Grow PLN Online and at eLearning Conferences

10. Conclusion • Technology in education - what works/what doesn’t. Why? • Promise – past experience • Pitfall – cost/resistance to new technology • Blended learning • Promise – Shown to be beneficial • Pitfall – need for new technologies (cost) • Social learning • Promise – rise in social education & social media websites • Pitfall – hesitancy to learning new technologies