Time Management

I feel that balancing the teacher-student-tutor roles in my life is a losing battle to time management. I know being a full time teacher next year will be tiring and time consuming, but I feel that having one role will be easier to manage. Right now it's not simply teaching one thing, taking one class, tutoring one student, I have multiple streams of thought and action in each of my roles. Maybe when I'm a teacher I can focus on just one domain of my professional life.

Because of this crunch, I don't feel that I am learning a lot from my courses. There's nothing particularly new or stimulating in any of the new courses this semester, much of what the new courses are covering were detailed in my methods course (so I see no need for distinction other than a line on my transcript).

Current teachers, veterans and new, what is your schedule like when you teach? Do you have 12 hour days all throughout the week? Are you able to do things more at your discretion? I would like some advice here if I can ask for it.

I wanted to take some time to write, basically, that I'm busy. Now back to my multiple lives. I will try to write a better post about what I am learning in my assessment course over the weekend.

Technology in the University Classrom

Keeping on the topic of technology in the university classroom for the week, I want to revisit my 3-hour lecture. This is the course that initially fueled the fire to write my first 21st Century Learner post. I love the material in the course, I love the lecturer (she is clear, speaks well, and is interesting to listen to), but the TAs are less lovable. From what I understand, the TAs jobs are to grade any assignments we have (daily write ups, quizzes, homework, exams), but also to circle around the lecture hall like vultures waking students up, telling them to put their phones away, or telling them to get off facebook or any other website that doesn't look like notes. The rationale provided by the TAs for this behavior is:

1. It is distracting to other students.
2. You are paying for this course, why would you spend time on things like facebook.
3. It is against department policy to use technology during the lecture (this is actually what the TA said in an announcement to the class).
4. You should act the way you want your future students to act.
5. If you have other things to do in this class, then leave. You should be focused on this course.

I know I am not entitled to use my cellphone or laptop in class, but I am having a hard time understanding this rationale from the TAs' perspective. It must be a generational/technological divide between us, because many of those reasons the TAs have given for not using laptops or cellphones in class are the reasons I would use in support of using laptops or cellphones in class. 

1. It is distracting to other students. Let me tackle the distraction argument. In a lecture hall of 100+ students, I will not notice someone on the other side of the room, or even really the person in front of me, surfing facebook. This is because I am paying attention to the lecturer, and I will only be distracted by others surfing the web if I want to be distracted. The only real distractions that occur in a lecture hall are movements (shuffling through papers, getting out of a seat, people walking around) or talking. Other things like checking a cellphone are not your business, you should be focused at the front of the hall anyway and not at the person next to you or even down the row pulling out their phone to check the time. I am highly distracted by the TAs walking around the room, telling students in regular voice to shut their laptops, or when the TAs are trying to wake a student that is sitting in the middle of a row surrounded by other students who has fallen asleep. Last week, the TA actually climbed over chairs into the center of the lecture hall to wake up a student. Suffice it to say, I do not know what happened in lecture that day because I was more focused on the TAs talking, walking around, and their attempts to wake up sleeping students. Honestly, a sleeping student is the least of my distractions.

2. You are paying for this course, why would you spend time on things like facebook. I am paying for this course, so why wouldn't I spend time on facebook during class? I think this is another technological divide, but when I use facebook in class it is not for general surfing. Facebook has a feature called "groups" where you can have a discussion board and share documents, events, photos, etc. with the other members of the group. This course provides incomplete lecture slides prior to class, so as 21st century students we create a collaborative document with the lecture slides that the members of the group can open and edit in order to make it complete. The link to this document is posted on the group facebook for easy retrieval. Many of my classmates were reprimanded for having facebook open simply to get the link to this document. Facebook also has a built-in chat which allows me to ask questions to my peers without distracting others by talking aloud. Since everyone in the lecture hall can see it (everyone in the lecture knows each other, and is a member of the group by design), if they had that question too they can see it answered if they choose. You can minimize or not participate in the chat, it is at the full discretion of the student.

3. It is against department policy to use technology during the lecture. This statement infuriated me. For  one, I was not informed of any department policy (I am very well familiar with the Student Code, which does not have anything in it about technology), nor does this policy actually exist. I am unsure of the intent of this statement. I also would think that many people in the department would disagree with this because of the increasing use of technology in the education process.

4. You should act the way you want your future students to act. I agree with this, but I am in a different situation that my future students will be. My future students may not have access to technology, or my school may have a policy regarding technology use (such as cellphones or laptops) in the classroom. Even if my students were able to use their cellphones in class, I would encourage the usage of their cellphone for classroom related activities in order to model proper behavior and usage in the classroom. Although I do admit getting distracted every once in a while and checking my email on my smartphone (it is a 3 hour straight lecture), I do use my phone in a way I want my future students to. Today I was unable to bring my laptop to class, so I took notes on my smartphone. I was promptly told to put my cellphone away because it is a distraction. Why is there discrimination against my smartphone in the classroom?

5. If you have other things to do in this class, then leave. You should be focused on this course. I do agree with this, but please practice what you preach. You tell us that if we're grading for another class or doing homework we need to put it away or leave. TAs, please don't grade or look at other material during our lecture either. It supposedly is your job to be there for the full 3 hours, that is not the time for grading if we cannot do grading either. You should be modeling proper behavior too, like I am trying to do for my future students.

I think this will be my last post regarding the lack of technological support in this course. It is the one bad seed of the semester, and I will just need to deal with it.

Revisiting 21st Century Learner

I have been thinking a lot about my previous post about my current experiences with the lack of technological support in my classes this semester at the University of Illinois. Granted the professors and TAs are of an older generation which views facebook, twitter, cellphones, etc. as distractions in the classroom, there are other professors on campus which are trying to keep up with the times.

Here are a few examples I have seen:

• Calculus professor trying to use facebook as a discussion space for students (through trial and error, has decided to use a different form of social media).
• My Professional Issues for Teachers course (EOL 440) professor initiated a Moodle chatroom during a class discussion so that those on laptops could communicate with each other.
• The use of wikis for classroom websites, posting information relevant to the course online so the students can access it from anywhere.
• A class twitter account to tweet questions to the professor without needing to be formal, allowing for quick interactions between students and professors.

I wanted to explore deeper what it would mean to be a 21st century learner as well as a 21st century teacher in college, at the University of Illinois. I am currently a section leader for Calculus II at the university of I have a class of 20+ freshman new to the university. On my first day of class I did an informal poll on the use of technology, social media, etc. Most students used facebook, about half of the students used twitter on a regular basis, and most students had a laptop. To qualify that last statement, each student in my class had a laptop but one, this student only brought a tablet (the iPad) to college to use.

Being in the same classroom as these students, only separated by 3 years, has shown me how much change has occurred in the use of technology. I am already outdated, the methods that I use in my own learning come second nature to these students. So how does this compare to my professors and the other professors here at the university?

What if I was the student who only brought an iPad to college? I want to explore this question in detail later.

So what do I think 21st century learning would look like at the University level?

• Classroom management software like Compass or Moodle would be more prevalent, and actually use the majority of capabilities (such as the chat feature in Moodle, online quizzes, a place to make resources available to students in which they can also contribute, forums, blogs, and many more)
• Flip classrooms - This is a topic showing up a lot in middle and high schools where the lecture is what is assigned for homework and the students watch the lecture at home, class time is reserved for group work and questions because that is the time crucial to forming understanding.
• I am already seeing this at the university level in our general Physics classes, previewing lecture material is part of the online coursework portion of the class.
• If you are in a course that has a separate discussion section then this wouldn't be necessary.
• Posting lecture slides beforehand is the first step to this, allowing students to think about class material before it is presented can help further classroom discussion.
• Students would have better access to electricity and the internet throughout campus. In most of my lecture halls there are very, very few outlets for me to actually bring my laptop to class to use.
• The dorms are starting to allow wifi access, but not all dorms have this. For those students with technologies which require wifi (like the tablets), this renders them useless.
• The introduction of IllinoisNet versus UIUCnet has allowed many smartphone users to stay connected without having to go through QuickConnect. This encourages smartphone use in classrooms.

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy

Throughout the courses I have taken prior to starting the education program at my college and during, a common idea has been prevalent in all of them. It is Bloom's Taxonomy. 


We have learned about the original taxonomy first proposed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956, and have studied Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (proposed by Anderson) more in depth in my methods and assessment courses. 


I am also learning that there have been many proposals for a revision to Bloom's original taxonomy, and I was asked to consider the one proposed by Marzano. This taxonomy deals more with the different systems (self-system, metacognitive system, and the cognitive system) and three different domains of knowledge (information, mental procedures, psychomotor procedures) whereas the original taxonomy dealt mainly with the cognitive system. 


Using Marzano's taxonomy would be useful in planning instruction and assessment because it deals more with varying types of activities, whereas Bloom's taxonomy can be primarily assessed through pen-and-paper methods only. The use of Marzano's taxonomy in a mathematics classroom I feel won't differ much from the use of Bloom's revised taxonomy because the types of objectives in a math class do not deal with the psychomotor domain. Many of the levels of Bloom's taxonomy weave through both information and mental procedures in the cognitive system by challenging students to ultimately create their own material. Using either Bloom's or Marzano's taxonomy in a classroom requires prior assessment of the students in order to apply the taxonomy to the fullest potential. Planning for one class does not carry over to another, even if they are the same content. 


In my assessment course we are asked to describe whether or not we favor one taxonomy over the other. In the realm of mathematics, I feel like the two taxonomies are comparable, but I do not prefer either. I instead want to use Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. Below is a Prezi on the digital revision to Bloom's Taxonomy. I am excited to have found it since I want to encourage my students to be 21st century learners. In order to encourage learning and growth in the computer generation, I must be comfortable with my own computer fluency. I encourage you to watch the prezi and share your ideas!

Bloom's on Prezi

I am a 21st Century Learner

As I go through my pre-service teaching program, I am constantly reminded about improving technologies and its use in the classroom. My future students will be 21st century learners, and I must be a 21st century teacher. I need to be a teacher that encourages exploration of information through tools such as the internet or other programs on computers, phones, tablets, etc. It's a buzzword on twitter, and you can find many sites dedicated to helping current teachers embrace the change in students (one great resource: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/).

But I too am also a 21st century learner. I embrace the use of my smartphone in class to google search a term I don't know, I use my TI-Nspire to quickly generate a dynamic geometric image to explore a theorem, I use my laptop to collaboratively work on assignments with fellow students, I collaborate with other students around the globe to come to a greater understanding of information.

• So why are my teachers discouraging the use of technology in my classrooms?
• Aren't I supposed to be modeling proper technology usage for my future students?
• Why am I told to put my phone away when I use it as a crucial tool in my education?
• Why are my fellow students being told to close their laptops when we are collaborating on a presentation and discussing relevant issues to the course without disrupting others by chatting aloud?
• Why am I being told to close out of facebook when the entire lecture is connected through a common social media tool so we can share articles, communicate ideas, and collaborate? Have you not read any studies about using facebook in the classroom?

I am deeply appalled by the classroom culture in my courses these past few weeks. Going around a lecture full of pre-service secondary education teachers and telling us to put our technology away is not the solution to attention issues. Climbing over desks in a full lecture is not the way to wake up a student who has fallen asleep. I have not been able to pay attention to a word the lecturer has been saying these past two weeks because of this, and the only reason I know what is going on is because I can follow along with the presentation slides on my laptop.

If I have learned one lesson in this course so far, it is if you want to or not to pay attention, you must be awake and do it the old pen-and-paper way. All technologies are considered distractions.