Professional Philosophy E-Portfolio
What I've discovered about learning
I like to express this idea through the metaphor of a singing Parrot; Just because a Parrot has learned to sing “Old McDonald” doesn’t mean it has the slightest understanding of how music works - you certainly can’t expect the Parrot to write a song of it’s own. Accordingly, just because a chemistry student has learned to recite the periodic table doesn’t mean they have the slightest understanding of how molecules interact. Humans have an extraordinary ability to connect seemingly unrelated concepts, creating clarity out of abstraction (I personally believe this is the secret of human creativity and ingenuity). In order to truly understand a new concept, an individual must first connect it with a concept they already understand. Without that connection, the concept will remain abstract and unclear. It’s the teachers job to help students and colleagues make these connections.
What technology offers
Technology also offers a slew of conveniences in the realm of student/teacher collaboration. There are countless services which allow students to collaborate and share both in the classroom and at a distance. The majority of these services (google docs, glogster, wikis, etc) come at no expense. Personal devices such as tablets & smartphones provide easy access to educational applications, which can make the learning experience not only more interesting - but all the more interactive and fun.
How it applies to me
In my own instruction, I would like to use a combination of all of these technologies. TedEd would play an enormous role in my classroom - I would present the class with as many relevant Ted lectures as I could find. I believe they provide a very digestible overview, and they could act as the perfect segway into an engaging class conversation. YouTube also contains a seemingly infinite amount of fantastic learning materials; I would likely scan through YouTube while designing lesson plans to find interesting lectures and animated infographics. I would most likely use a service like Google Drive to create an easily accessible online catalogue of class material; daily notes, links, homeworks, updates, etc. I would use the same service to have students submit and store their homework.