Session 3 January 22 - January 28

Question: Can technology integration in American classrooms adequately or correctly be expressed as a hierarchy? Why or why not?

I think that technology that is integrated into American classrooms can be expressed as a hierarchy, however, it all depends on the subject area of the class. For K-12, I believe Dr. Newberry's "Technology Integration Hierarchy" is a very good example of structuring these levels. I also liked the analogy of the pyramid because I got a clear picture in my mind of how this structure was set up. In the K-12 grade levels, teachers will vary the amount and ways they integrate technology into their classes.
I agree that at the bottom of the hierarchy, there are probably many teachers that are at the adjunct or peripheral use stage. I know that when I was going through elementary and middle school, all of my teachers were at this stage. Our computer in the classroom was used as a "reward" incentive for those students who finished all of their work, or needed something to occupy their time, while the other students finished their work.
While I was going through high school, I noticed more of my teachers moving towards the second level in the hierarchy: Use as a Teacher Tool. More and more teachers were using the computers in our classrooms to manage the classroom, keep track of students' grades and even in our math classes to assist with the graphing of equations. It wasn't until I started attending college that I noticed the recognized the third level, Non Integrated Use as a Student Tool. I believe there are a majority of teachers that are at this level currently. Teachers will referred students to visit free websites to practice math facts, or spelling tutorials. Many of the textbooks have web sites listed for students who would like to practice their skills. At the college level, the students purchase textbooks with CD ROMs that have practice drills in which they can improve their level of proficiency in a subject.
I believe that I am at the fourth level in the hierarchy, "Integrated Use as a Student Tool." I teach the hybrid math classes which require the students to access, compute and submit their answers on a computer with Internet access. The students' homework scores are tracked by the website. The students in these classes do not purchase a textbook because their textbook is digitally scanned online in PDF format. Plus, their homework problems are online. Therefore, if the students does not have access to a computer with Internet access, they cannot complete their homework.
At the fifth and final level, "Transformational Use," I believe our online courses fall into this category. With the online courses at the college level, a student does not even visit the campus of the school they are attending to graduate with a degree or a completion certificate. I believe these types of classes along with the instructors of these classes fall into this transformational use category.
As for my own hierarchy, I thought about the levels as similar to the levels in martial arts. I believe that you can be at one level, but at that one particular level, there might be varying degrees, or sub levels if you might call it that. In martial arts, everyone starts off at a white belt level. Then you would earn one stripe, then two stripes, and then progress to the next level of belt color, green. Same thing happens here, one stripe, two stripe, and then progress to the next level of belt color, brown. The same process occurs until you get to the final level of mastery which is black belt level. I would like to address my own hierarchy of integration of technology in American classrooms.
In the white belt level, teachers would use the computers for email, Internet searches, or in community college to access students records like attendance rosters or grade submissions. Our college requires that all instructors print out their own attendance rosters and everyone's grades are now submitted online. Therefore, I would consider instructors who use the computer for these purposes to be at this white belt level.
In the green belt level, teachers would have to still retain all of their knowledge from the white belt level, but also include things like using PowerPoint slides for lectures, or directly students to visit hyperlinks or websites as part of their assignments. They might be at different levels of green belt just like in martial arts by the complexity of their PowerPoint presentations. Some teachers might just create slides of notes, others might has slides with animations, sounds clips or video clips to enhance their presentations.
In the brown belt level, the teacher would have their own web site they maintain and keep current. They would probably be teaching either hybrid or online classes, or possibly using testing programs found online to assess their students' progress. The teachers in this level would be well versed in blackboard, WebCT, or other course management software available to them.
In the black belt level, the teachers would be masters of technology. They would know and use all of the previously mentioned applications of technology in addition to requiring students to create video presentations, or using smart boards in their classrooms, or wireless responder units to gain instant feedback from every student in the class. Some instructors might require each student to have a PDA in which they can download notes, upload or download homework assignments, and submit their homework in class by "beaming" their PDA wireless to a receiver unit at the front of the classroom. There are very few instructors that I have found that use technology at this level.

My activity log for this week is as follows:
Monday, January 22, 2007: download the podcast for week 3 to my computer. Listened to the podcast and began transcribing notes.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007: began working on project proposals for project 2 and 3. Proposal 1 was already completed.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007: continue working on my project proposals
Thursday, January 25, 2007: listened to the podcast one more time. Began writing my blog entry for this week. Finished up both proposals. Uploaded all three proposals to my website.
Friday, January 26, 2007: finished this blog post. I will link my project proposals to my website so I can have just a hyperlink in my blog post. I will comment on classmates' blogs.
Saturday, January 27, 2007: continue commenting on classmates' blogs.
Sunday, January 28, 2007: finish commenting on classmates' blogs.

Project Proposals for this class are located on my website: http://faculty.rcc.edu/namekata/

Project One Proposal: Project One Proposal

Project Two Proposal: Project Two Proposal

Project Three Proposal: Project Three Proposal

If you have any trouble with the hyperlinks to my proposals, please visit my website and access from there.