Assignment
Four: Final Reflection Essay
Introduction:
My global perspective when I started the course
EDTC 645 “Integration
of Technology: Global Perspectives” was slightly different from the way I used
to understand it. By then, my global perspective understanding was limited to
my original country where I grew up. Now, this has changed the meaning
altogether to a different world/global perspective level. I will explain how my
views about global perspectives and K-12 education have changed giving the supporting
details. Also, to use the knowledge, I have acquired this semester in my
classroom.
Reflection on the first essay and descriptions
of my views on global perspectives and technology in K-12 education:
My first reflection essay looked at global
perspective limited to my society and what we learned from school. We read
about other countries from Geography, Science books, story books etc. Travelling
from one town to another and to neighboring countries was also a way of
learning different cultures of other countries and their way of life. The
class’s knowledge was only centered to books and technology did not exist in my
world. There was nothing like virtual schools but distance learning which
involved students to take up extra classes to catch up with rest of the class.
Now, this has changed after taking this course. My knowledge scope has opened
doors to this global network and virtual school. We learned a lot during the
course EDTC645 but the most important project we did, which contributed much
more to the global perspective was the Country Case Study (CCS). The project
was done in groups and my group’s country case study was China. It was a
challenging project and each one of us analyzed two scholarly articles about
China’s technology integration in their education system. The two educators we
interviewed helped us to understand more about the education in China. I found
out that Chinese schools had better technology use than American schools.
(Custer, January19, 2013) On the other finding, both countries had
concerns/issues to solve in order to move forward with their education reforms.
For example, according to (Casey, August 26,
2011) China’s rural education suffers from a shortage of funds, lack of qualified
teachers and some management issues. At the same time, education in the big
cities like Shanghai has made tremendous achievements; rich students have
access to first-rate schools, virtual schooling and private education. On the
other hand, U.S. standardized tests brought so many negative concerns in the
education system and so much huge financial expenditure towards the testing.
(PronCon, 6/14/2012) Having said that, the course EDTC645 opened many doors to
global scope and because of that I can communicate with people from anyway in
the world and be part of the global community. I also had an insight to other
countries such as Finland, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong whose
performance has shown some great strides towards students’ international assessment
results. (OECD, 2010)
Learning about global perspectives and
technology in K-12 education has made me realize the importance of education as
a fundamental human right. Every individual, irrespective of race, gender,
family or cultural backgrounds, nationality, religion etc. is entitled to the
right of education. (United Nations' Universal
Declaration of Human Rights UDHR, 1948) In developing
countries, there are so many problems and rich countries should step up as a
global community to ensure that all children have access to education and try
to bridge the digital gap between the rich and the poor. An example is
providing resources and opportunities to the neediest countries without
discrimination of any sort.
Addressing how I hope to use what I have learned
this semester in my own classroom:
I am looking forward to put all my global
knowledge into good use in my classroom. My students are only exposed to global
awareness through reading from books. We have not done much learning on global
issues. They have watched so many videos from other countries during Social
Studies, History, Science and Language arts. Now, that I have all the
strategies and global knowledge, I am ready to take our lessons to a different
level of global community. I learned about the global networks such as Global
school net, ePals, NGO Networks (Non-governmental organizations associated with
the United Nations), iEarn, etc. The first and foremost procedure is to
persuade the school administration to join one of the global networks and
select a project that fit well with my class content area. I am ready to
introduce my class and school to the best practices in global collaboration
such as Project-based learning (PBL) because best practices provide hands on
activities, critical thinking, and team work and communication skills. Students
will learn how to deal with real life situations, problems and study the
environment concerns in various cultures at global level. I would like to
instill values in my students such as respect of other people’s cultures
through making a difference in their communities. They can involve in projects
such as “recycle, reuse, and reduce” whereby they go in their community and
demonstrate ways of keeping their community safe and clean.
My knowledge on global education will help me to
share my expertise with other teachers at school, leading the way to global
connections. My students will become computer experts when searching for web
links, blogging, communicating using both print and electronic skills,
analyzing, synthesizing and collaborating on line. They will continue to
practice research of different problems they encounter.
Conclusion:
I enjoyed this course so much that would love to
share my wiki website with other teachers and my students. The most challenging
part of the course was when we had problems to get our interview responses
back. Otherwise, my global perspective has changed so much for the better and
would like to thank our instructor, Dr. Blesh for being there for us throughout
the course. I have described my views of global perspectives and technology in
K-12 education and addressed how I hope to use the knowledge I acquired in my
own classroom.
References:
Custer, C. (January19, 2013) Are Chinese Schools
Beating the US in Technology Integration? Tech. in Asia 35B Mosque Street:
Singapore 059513. http://www.techinasia.com/chinese-schools-beating-technology-integration/
Casey, T. (August 26, 2011) seeing China in
red the
state of rural schools in China and the broken educational system Global
times.
Edwards, O. (2008). Education as a Vital Global
Marketplace Represents the Future: Explore the many ways students are taught
around the world. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/global-education-2008
OECD (2010), PISA 2009 Volume I, What Students
Know and Can Do: Student Performance in Reading, Mathematics and Science, OECD
Publishing.
PronCon (6/14/2012) Is the Use of Standardized
Tests Improving Education in America? 233 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 200, Santa
Monica, CA 9040. ProCon.org http://standardizedtests.procon.org/
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