Technology+Leadership+Book+Summary

The book I have chosen is published by the International Society for Technology in Education and meets the National Educational Technology Standards for Students as part of the NETS for students series. Specifically, it relates to Science Units for Grades 9 – 12. I chose this book with my site mentor as she is currently the Academic Dean for our campus after teaching Freshman Biology for years. I currently teach Freshman Biology and found this book to be a valuable resource for learning how to incorporate technology into the science classroom. Though that sounds like it would happen naturally, it really does not.

The book is divided into sections; Getting Started, and Resource Units for Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Physics. I will be implementing one of the resource lessons from this book next week having the students use power point to animate the process of cellular division. This book demonstrates how students will make their slides then use the animation and timing features of power point to create a movie to show a fluid cell division.

The Getting Started section does a very good job delineating projects and learning activities that are accessible from your current campus status for technology; not a perfect world. There is strong information on project based learning, search engines, and constructing rubrics for technology based curriculum.

While reading the Getting Started section I read a phrase I found to be profound. “Using technology to teach science topics in fundamentally the same ways that they could be taught without it does nothing to improve instruction and belies technology’s potential.” (Aufdenspring, et al., 2005) This stuck with me as a key component to being successful in the implementation process. If technology is being introduced to better engage the student, then it needs to be presented in a different structure.

I also appreciated that the material presented is already aligned with national standards for technology. As I structure my resource materials and try to keep in mind my campus STAR Chart, TEKS, and scope and sequence I need to pull resources that are congruent with my efforts to not only make my time and presentations more efficient but to engage the student to seek a better understanding of the material because they are engaged.

Reference: Aufdenspring, D., Binns, I.C., Gauthier, A., Irving, K.E., Koonce, S., Krissek, L., McKenzie, W., McNall, R.L., Menchaca, M. ( 2005). //National Educational Technology Standards for Students: Science units for grades 9 - 12.// Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

