Visions of the Future

by Matthew Joachim 

            During this week’s readings, two major ideas in particular caught my attention in Chapter 4.  In describing technology-using educators, the text asserts that they are those teachers who “explore technology by using it in the classroom while analyzing its role in schools and society” and “promotes change at the classroom, school building and system levels (Maloy, Verock-O’Loughlin, Edwards & Woolf, 2011, p 89).”  I wholeheartedly agree with the necessity of critically evaluating technology in order to improve instruction and assist students in realizing their full potential.  By doing so, we ensure that curriculum standards are being met while also engaging the individual strengths and interests of all students.  This is imperative for ensuring that a thorough and complete differentiation is taking place in our classrooms, allowing our students to learn through a plethora of mediums, experiences and materials.

 



 

 

            As a result, simply choosing resources for use in class are not enough for the successful integration of technology with pedagogy and content area knowledge.  Just as in writing, we must ask ourselves what, when, where, how and why we utilize such resources in order to ensure a truly effective lesson.  For example, showing students full movies or video clips without providing background and purpose diminishes the educational value of such tools.  Additionally, lack of reflection or analysis before, during or after the viewing further erodes value until we are left with time killers whose only purpose is to run out the clock until the students can move on to their next class.  In the same vein, when completing research papers, it is not enough to simply direct students to look up certain information or visit particular websites.  Teachers must provide a format so that students know where and how to locate information, evaluate it for accuracy, bias, relevance, etc. and develop their own arguments without plagiarizing others' work.  In this way, students hone their critical thinking abilities as they become more familiar with exploring multiple sources and points of view, helping mold their own opinions,  instead of mindlessly copying someone else’s work from the first hit they found on Google.

 



Old Long Island  Blog Image: Land's End
 

            For my Webquest, I hope to highlight the importance of providing students with carefully-planned purpose and direction when utilizing new technological resources.  The main focus will revolve around Long Island’s “Gold Coast” era, a relatively brief period in which the north shore of the island attained a legendary status in US history as the home of the American elite during the first decades of the 20^th century.  My aim is to help students understand how the great wealth and prosperity of the “Roaring 20s” helped give rise to the great estates that came into being during this period.  Consequently, the webquest will seek to highlight how the economics and culture of this decade are represented through these grand homes and their owners. 
 

Old Long Island  Blog Image: Killenworth

            Currently, most of the information about the estates and their owners can be found in large reference books that would be more suited for living room coffee tables than students’ desks.  As a result, it had traditionally been difficult to teach this lesson due to a lack of appropriate, readily-available materials.  But with the advent of the Internet and other online sources, I believe this lesson's time has come for use in the classroom.  Assisting me in this educational enterprise is Old Long Island, a historical blog “dedicated to the preservation Long Island’s ‘Gold Coast’ estates and other things old.”  Created and maintained by Zach, an architecture major at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, the blog draws its material from primary and secondary source materials such as pictures, brochures, blueprints, articles and the aforementioned reference books.  As a result, it has become a comprehensive source for information on Long Island’s “Gold Coast” and even garnered recognition from Newsday, the official newspaper of Long Island.  I can verify its accuracy and authenticity since I own most of its source materials and keep in regular contact with its author, who is a passionate student of architecture seeking to preserve and raise awareness of this fantastic yet forgotten period of Long Island history.  He updates the blog with new entries on a daily basis and has catalogued it so users can search for information by house, owner and/or architect.  Additionally, he provides links to other blogs and sites with similar content.  As a result, students will find that most of the information they need to complete the webquest is located on this blog.  For additional assistance, I will also provide links to the Wikipedia entries on selected homes and owners.  These entries are sourced with the same references utilized by Zach and complement students’ research.  Because of this, and combined with the fact that the "Gold Coast" is not a controversial or divisive topic, I feel that Wikipedia is warranted for use in this case.  Additionally, since I own many of the print materials that Old Long Island and Wikipedia reference, it only enhances the plethora of sources available for students’ use. We shall see how it fares…

Three Questions:

1) What are some other websites that we can use?

2) Are their any standardized lists of educational sites and resources we can use?

3) Is there a limit to technology's potential?