Session 3

I found the technology hierarchy theory to be very interesting and it organized the information in a way I wouldn't have thought to put it in. At my particular school site- even though we consider ourselves to be pretty tech-savvy, we still have all of these levels that Dr. Newberry was discussing in his podcast. I would say that we probably have less teachers on the adjunct/peripheral level because our school operates completely on the computer. We are a paperless school, so I know that every teacher is on the computers and using them on a daily basis. However, I can contest that more than half of our teachers are most likely between the levels of the teacher who uses it as a tool, and the teacher that doesn't incorporate it out to students. Most of our teachers do their grades on the computer, parent contact through email, newsletters, flyers, homework packets, and any other basic management function. I don't see as many teachers as I would hope, having the students use the computer as a learning tool. I am an upper grade teacher, and I am not sure if it is because we (teachers) are all tech savvy people ourselves or if it is the age of the students, but we all teach computers to our students. We teach them everything from the basic functions of the computer to how to research, and then how to create their own learning tool. I get the comment a lot from other teachers that their students are too immature to learn the computer, or they are too young. It doesn't matter how many teacher trainings we conduct each year to show the teachers that they and their students of any age can use technology as a learning tool, they still use it mostly as a management tool. However, I have to say I am happy to see that I am not at a school that is surrounded with teachers that won't even turn the computer on.
If I were to create a technology hierarchy to level off each teacher at my school site, this is how I would categorize it:
Level 1- They have old computers in their room that don't work, but they don't bother to inform anyone.
Level 2- They have perfectly working computers, but it takes too much time to learn any of the programs besides how to do attendance and email.
Level 3- They use the computer until one day they get an error message and then from that day forward they are too scared to use it- in fear that they may break it again.
Level 4- Teachers use it primarily for their use... Make their class newsletters, homework packets, email, parent communication- management level. They have attended teacher training, but still they use it for their own use.
Level 5- They use it for management purposes and allow the students to use it as a reward.
Level 6- (Level 5) plus, they begin to show the students how to use the computer to type up a paper, or research the internet. Teaches them the basic functions.
Level 7- (Levels 5 &6) -Final level- they also have the students use the computer as a learning tool to better assist them with a concept that they are learning.

Activity Log:
This week I spoke with Dr. Newberry regarding the projects for this class, to make sure that I was on the right track with them. He sent me back a very detailed email to help me see exactly what I had to do.
I spoke with James to see what he was doing for his projects and I bounced some ideas off him. He gave me some good insight as to what he thought would be good.
I went to three teachers at my school, asking them the questions for the projects to see how they would approach each project. The teachers were able to provide me with some help and ideas that are available at my school site.
I listened to the podcast in between my parent conferences this week. I read and commented on several classmates blogs.
I posted my blog and my focus projects.