John+Kelly

=**Introduction**= My name is John Kelly. At the University of Cincinnati, I am finishing up my licensure to teach secondary English-language arts while simultaneously earning my Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction. Above, I stand at an overlook at the Pass of Killecrankie, where a famous battle transpired, in the Scottish Highlands. I do love to travel. (I have a trip to France and Switzerland already lined up for this summer, and a trip to China billed for the summer of 2013.) I also love to travel the terrain of the mind, and fancy myself a lifelong student and learner. Everything from astrophysics to etymologies whets my intellectual appetite, and I strive to create as interdisciplinary a classroom as possible. Specialization, I think, can deter creativity and critical thinking. However, I believe the Internet, even in its seeming informational infinitude, is actually helping us reclaim breadth and diversity of study in the secondary classroom.

You should also observe that I am cradling a cup of coffee in the photograph. I imbibe lots of it.

I earned my Bachelors degree from Xavier University in 2007, where I studied English literature. I focused especially on twentieth-century American poetry. After graduating, I worked in a number of public schools in Cincinnati in various roles, from academic specialist to instructional assistant. This time and experience prior to licensure gave me the surety that I want to dedicate myself to the field, one that, presently, is not always the subject of generous praise or funding. My interests center on literacy, particularly New Literacy studies, if that term is still in currency. Technology, broadly, has created many exciting new kinds of literacies (e.g., the simple act of doing a Google search constitutes an act of literacy), ones that are often overlooked but which students brings as rich assets to their learning in the classroom.

I am from Cincinnati, but I may have the exciting opportunity to launch my educational career as a teacher in Minneapolis.

=**Hope**= In and through this class, I hope to discover meaningful ways to promote traditional and nontraditional literacy. How can I help my students develop the skills and abilities to read the diverse digital and online texts and images, to navigate all the information, effectively and efficiently? How can I harness the interactive and dynamic powers of technology to promote transferable critical thinking and critical reading proficiencies?

=Fear= I fear that, while I will learn invaluable technological resources and methods, I will struggle to integrate them organically and consistently into my real classroom. Thus, I want to ensure that my instructional planning regularly incorporates technology as a centerpiece, not as a superimposed afterthought.

=**Educational Technology**= //Retrieved from http://www.historicalworks.com/images/wooden2.jpg//

I chose a diagram of a Morris chair to convey the meaning of educational technology to me. The word "technology" derives from the Greek //tekhne//, which means "art," "skill," or "craft." This diagram signifies that technology 1) is a man-made enterprise; 2) can be both functional and beautiful; 3) should not be an end to itself; 4) is a cultural phenomenon, just as this chair symbolizes the historic Arts and Crafts movement in architecture; and 5) is as simple as a chair and complex as the Hubble Space Telescope. In today's educational climate, I worry that we apply technology in the classroom only for the sake of incorporating technology in the classroom. We forget that technology should be a means to learning, something which we need to adapt for our purposes, rather than adapt ourselves to its purposes, which Janet's image evokes for me. We also forget the "man behind the machine," i.e., we forget that we, as humans, are the creators of technologies, and it is our responsibility to remember the ultimate humanity that makes them possible. Technology should humanize our students, broadening their possibilities, deepening their abilities, expanding their opportunities, thickening their intelligences, and enriching their lives--not merely to digitize them.

=Educational Blogs= One educational blog I especially like is MindShift, curated by Tina Barseghian out of North Carolina's KQED. This blog brings together research, policy concerns, and hot-button issues in an always up-to-date fashion. It helps me keep my finger on the educational pulse and links me to universes of new information and information sources. I joined the conversation on a posted article re-considering the science of learning styles, feeling empowered by the addition of my voice to an ongoing debate that intersects culture, cognition, and schooling on the important topic of pedagogical methods.

I have launched my own blog, Technoblogistics, dealing with issues and ideas for the Classroom 2.0.