Michael Wagner's Chapter 3 Response

Chapter 3
This chapter goes above and beyond what a person needs to know about why to use technology in the classroom. It is interesting, though, to revisit why we are teaching the way we teach now and reaffirming that we have a tough job. What I liked about this chapter was that it indicated: students need to be able to use technology as a learning tool, students will learn new ideas and concepts by applying knowledge they already know to help in the problem solving process, and lastly, something I am in favor of, the constructivist view for technology in encouraging ownership of the student’s own learning.
Students need to be able to use technology as a learning tool - Students should not only be able to use different types of technology but also be able pick technologies that will do the best job as a tool. So as teachers, one thing we need to be sure to teach is how to pick the best technology or tool.
Students will learn new ideas and concepts by applying knowledge they already know to help in the problem solving process. This chapter was confusing to me until I finally figured out how this applies to my teaching. I took my previous knowledge and applied it to this new knowledge and I was able to figure out what the authors were talking about. I have come up with an example from my teaching to illustrate this concept. I have students that need to understand the difference between welding and brazing. I use their prior knowledge of common paper glue and ask how that works, then demonstrate that gluing is most like brazing. Brazing is the melting of brass into the “pores” of the metal and those little parts of brass are what hold them together, the base material is unaffected. Then if I demonstrate taking a piece of similar plastic pieces and melt the edges and force them together they are bonded together. The plastic bond does not take an outside material to bond them, this is welding. Much of my program relies on the process of problem-solving, if students use technology new or old they are going to run into problems they must solve.
Ownership - I really liked this part of the chapter and I think it can be overlooked easily, but students demonstrate that they excel (especially in project based learning) when they take ownership in their assignments. I have struggled for weeks on a unit when it was “my” project. The students did not like it so they did not strive to problem solve and I would just get frustrated. When I would give them the ability to take the lead role in their learning the project flourished.
The chapter helped me realize I could do better to give the students more ownership in their learning. For example, in my design classes I could let the students pick from the available technologies on how to best design their product. I have also thought about letting them discuss the various design aspects of a project in a blog type of setting. This would be a way for them to document their design process.
My only concern after reading this chapter is picking tools or technologies for students. Even in the examples, the text shows old versions of software. The rate at which technology is growing, trying to teach students how to pick technologies for learning that will not be outdated shortly after teaching them is getting more and more difficult.