Where you are coming from:
The first interactivity asked you to self-reflect on your own relationship to communications technologies—and how that relationship might be similar to and/or different from those of the young people that you will teach. At this point, you should be more aware of those technologies that have most influenced your own life and also aware of their negative as well as positive influences.
Where you are headed:
This second interactivity asks you to look back into history to more deeply reflect on how communications technologies have influenced (for better and worse) the formalized education process through schooling. The purpose for doing this (twentieth-century) historical tour is to more deeply understand the political and economic imperatives that have traditionally surrounded the (non)use of technology in schools, so that we can move forward in rethinking and renewing our educational technology efforts to better meet the current (twentieth-century) needs of students.
Step One: View this 9-minute video that presents a visual history of technology in schools from the period 1900-1990. Ask yourself: Which technology influenced education in my particular content area the most during this historical time period?
Step Two: Read Chapter 2 in Rethinking Technology in Schools and the supplementary article, A Social History of Media and Technology in Schools. Based on your reading of these 2 texts, choose one technology that you think has had the greatest impact (for better or worse) upon formalized schooling in your content area between the years 1820 and 1990. Your chosen technology must be grounded in historical evidence from the assigned readings. If you are unsure about when your educational technology was invented, The New York Times has an interactive timeline that you can use.
Step Three: Choose or create an image that visually illustrates the impact of this technology upon schooling in your content area. You may find an image on the internet, take your own picture, or create one using a software program. There is no limit to your creativity with this image, as long as it represents how this chosen technology has realistically impacted schooling in your chosen subject area between the years 1820 and 1990. Pay particular attention to historical accuracy. Using cartoons with captions is prohibited for this assignment.
Step Four: Create a new blogpost and title it "History of Technology in [add your content area here]"
Step Five: Upload your image to your blog and embed it within your blogpost. Then create a single line caption, tagline, motto or catchphrase to create an overall message about your image. You may use only one sentence or phrase to describe your image. If you use more than that, points will be deducted from your final score. The only content that should appear in your blogpost is your image and the caption.
Step Six: If you obtained your image from another source (meaning, it is not your original creation), then you should hyperlink your image to the original source. Do this from within your blogpost: Highlight the image and click on the "link" menu and enter the URL source code that should link to where you obtained your image.
This interactivity is worth 10 points and assessment will be as follows:
Step Four: Create a new blogpost and title it "History of Technology in [add your content area here]"
Step Five: Upload your image to your blog and embed it within your blogpost. Then create a single line caption, tagline, motto or catchphrase to create an overall message about your image. You may use only one sentence or phrase to describe your image. If you use more than that, points will be deducted from your final score. The only content that should appear in your blogpost is your image and the caption.
Step Six: If you obtained your image from another source (meaning, it is not your original creation), then you should hyperlink your image to the original source. Do this from within your blogpost: Highlight the image and click on the "link" menu and enter the URL source code that should link to where you obtained your image.
This interactivity is worth 10 points and assessment will be as follows:
- Choice of technology (grounded in historical data contained in the assigned readings) (3 points)
- Graphic representation of technological impact on schooling in your subject area (3 points)
- Contribution of text/caption to the overall meaning of your message (3 points)
- Successful upload of image and caption as a blog post (1 point)
Recommendation: As a reminder, to earn your online participation for this week, you can create an additional blogpost about about any course-related topic of your choice and also comment on at least 3 other blogs. Think about your audience and how your post can enhance how others perceive you as a professional teacher.
