Spotlight on Emerging Technology
Chekck out this power point on Moodle:
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/217403/Spotlight-on-Emerging-Technology
Katherine
As I reflect over the course that I have been a part of for that past eight weeks I find myself realizing the valuable information that I have learned as a result of this class. The Differentiation Station social network that myself and my group members created has given me access to a lot of information on Universal Design for Learn and Differentiation Instruction that I would not have otherwise know existed. There are many intrest surveys and leaning style surveys posted on our social network that will allow me to discover my students academic abilities, intrests, and readiness. One particular student survey that I want to implement can be found at this website provided by one of my group members is http://www.union.k12.sc.us/ems/Teachers-Forms–Student%20Interest%20Survey.htm. This website will help me discover my student’s interests right away and will be done during the first week of school. This social network helps me to find strategies for differentiation instruction as well as outlines and information about universal design for learning that I can utilize in my classroom this upcoming school year. Our Differentiation Station as also given us many links and information to websites that show us how we can integrate technology to customize our instruction.
There are some immediate adjustments I hope to make to my instructional practice regarding the use of technology. I would first like to use technology to reach my students with language barriers. Through many computer systems and the internet, some of my assignments and research articles that I want my students to read can be done in their native languages. Students with special needs as well as learning disabilities will be able to use computer software and hardware to help complete assignments with more ease. There are many assisting/adaptive and learning supports that I want to implement into my classroom as soon as possible. Closed captioning for my students with hearing disabilities as well as well as voice-recognition for my students with physical impairments is something that I want to focus on for my classroom environment right away. “Computers are increasingly significant as assisting technology devices because they can be modified to support a wide variety of diverse learners” (Bray, Brown, & Green, 2004, p. 34). I think computers and technology software and hardware for my students is one way to differentiate instruction, but can have access to an equal education.
Katherine Ewing
References:
http://www.union.k12.sc.us/ems/Teachers-Forms–Student%20Interest%20Survey.htm
Bray, M., Brown, A., & Green, T. (2004). Technology and the Diverse Learner: A Guide to Classroom Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
As I reflect back on this course I have realized that there are many skills that I have learned that I can pass on to my students. I have discovered many ideas to enhance my lesson plans which will allow my students to be more engaged and interested in the topics we have covered in Social Studies. I am now capable of teaching my students how to create a digital story for a project as well as do this in a fashion that makes sense and that is organized.
The GAME plan has taught me to organize my lessons as well as give my students a goal to achieve during an assignment. The GAME plan is one that I would like to share with my students and keep in mind when creating rubrics. The GAME plan has taught me to start off with a goal in mind for my students and then take action, followed my monitoring the lesson and then evaluating how it went. This is a great plan for any teacher to use. This will impact my instructional practice by have my students follow a similar format as well as allow me to create my lesson from now on through this technique.
I believe I will be able to add more technology into my Social Studies classes as a result of this course. It has shown me not to shy away from technology but to embrace it. I can now have my students direct more of their learning through blogs, research online, wiki spaces, digital stories, and power points. This course educated me on how to turn a simple essay report into a wiki space or a blog for students. I can now have my students create a public service announcement or digital story instead of answering the same old boring questions out of the textbook. Students can now take virtual field trips instead of listening to a long lecture from me. The creativity that I will take from this course is very beneficial for me and my students.
I have a lot of respect for the GAME plan process and I think it is one of the techniques that I will use quite often with my students throughout the rest of my teaching career.
There are many things as a teacher that I can do to help my students master the technology standards and indicators. By simply allowing students to be more creative and independent learners my students will become more and more familiar with the technology standards. When my students can be exposed to more technology this will allow them to become more proficient. The first thing I need to do is to get my students out of the classroom and into the computer lab. Previous reports that I have had my students do in US History Class can be done through a digital story or on a blog. Students can also create a wiki site instead of a poster.
The GAME plan process allows me to give students a goal to achieve and then step by step I can assist students in achieving those goals or technology standards that I want them to learn. I can do this through allowing them to take action, while I monitor and then evaluate what my students have created. I love the idea of allowing my students to post thier work for larger audiances to see. Through the action peace of the GAME plan I can also allow my students to communicate and collaborate with other people in the world. This is very exciting!
Students can research and become very fluent on finding information online. Students will also have the opportunity to use critical thinking skills and use technology operations and concpets just by me following the GAME plan process with the assignments that I give to my students. I look forward to implementing the GAME plan process more and more.
Katherine
There are many things that I have learned so far that I can put into my instructional practice. One thing I can implement is how to set up the whole lesson to get students to pick a topic that they truly enjoy. For example I can have students brainstorm a list of real world problems and then vote on which problem they would like to solve. I can also have my students begin searching online for resources to help solve a problem. I can now also show students how to put together their wiki site and teach a lesson on how to do it. A few goals that I am still working on is how to get my students engaged to the point where all of them will put effort into this. I also still need to create some kind of grading rubric for this as well.
Some learning goals I set for my self would be to follow and implement digital citizenship as well as communicating and collaborating with other teachers that maybe doing a similar lesson at their schools.
A few learning approaches I would like to try to improve my learning for next time would be to ask more opinions of other teachers in my building. I would like to have more constructive feedback. I would also like to spend more time researching information to improve my fluency. I would also like to have someone other than myself help me create critical thinking questions. Sometimes I am concerned that my critical thinking questions are not necessarily up to grade level. I would also like to do more class preparation to make things run smoothly.
Katherine
Throught out this process I feel my actions are helping me meet my goals. My students have now figured out which real-world issue they want to problem solve. We decided to condense down into our community. They decided to look at teenage pregency and how to reduce it.
I have leaned many skills that I can apply in my instructional practice. I am currenlty working on a wiki site with my group members which will help refresh my memory on how to create one. This will be benifical for my students when I show them how to create their own. This will help had to my goal of creativity and learning. I also recently went to a professional development class on using technology in the classroom. It mainly focused on the use of discussion forums and teacher websites. This will help my students when it comes time for them to help evaluate my progess through discussion.
There are many things I still need to learn. I want to familarize myself more with information on teen pregnancy as well as finding some websites that might be bennifical for my students. There are a few questions that have risen such as the fact that they may need to be delayed due to summer vacation. I am not really sure how to implement it all until next summer.
To fit my current needs I am going to adjust my plan by attending some more professional development over the summer. I am going to take some classes on engaging students, and self-directed learning for students. It is also important that I focus and implement this project and plan to content standards for my students in my civics course. I will also begin to research websites that might help my students with their own research.
So far I feel that I am on the right track. I am beginning to feel confident about my GAME plan.
Katherine
As I have begun working on my game plan I have been able to find most of the information that I need as well as the resources. I decided to survey my students to find out what real world issues that they would like to learn about. Most students were interested in poverty, reducing drugs, and crime rate, as well as teen pregnancy. So far my students and myself are finding the information we need. I have been able to get computer lab time and have encouraged students to talk to real people involved in these real world problems. I have also been able to locate some useful information online (various websites) to help with the research.
I might have to change my plan of action because school is almost done for the summer. I may need to have a group of students volunteer to work on this or put it on hold and begin again possibly with a new group of students in Septemeber. This is somewhat of a down fall. I could alway communicate why my student using e-mail though.
So far through this experience I have learned a lot. I have been able to familarize myself more with wiki sites and some awareness about real world issues. I have also become more intersted in my own Civics class to the point where the class is even more engaging. Students really like this idea about problem solving a real world issue. I have also learned to be more creative in finding the tools I will need for my students to use.
Some questions that have risen throughout this process is how to make sure all of my students are involved as well as to continue to evaluate my own process. I am wondering if I have my students track my progress, if mistakes will be made. It might be better to have some of my own colleauges evaluate my progress in meeting these goals.
Katherine
There are many resources that I will need to carry out my game plan. It is important that I have access to the computer lab for my students to help evaluate my progress on a discussion board that I will need to design and set up. I will need to have access to the internet for research. I would also like to find some people that are experts in the field of teh real world issue that we choose to problem solve. I will need to also have my class pick a real world problem to solve.
I will need to find some information on real world problems that truly affect my students and their lives. This might be tricky. I will need to go out into the community and find out what hurts my students in order to help problem solve so that my students can be successful and helpful. I also want to be able to encourage my students to be creative.
The steps I have been able to take so far is to encourage creativity in my students. I also have access to the internet and computer labs at school when I sign out the dates I need to conduct research and begin working on the wiki sites. I have also found examples to show my students what a wiki site looks like and how to construct one.
Katherine
After visiting the website for the International Society for Technology in Education and examining the National Education Standards for Teachers I realized that the indicators I feel most comfortable with are:
I would like to develop a GAME plan for the indicators that I do not feel so confident and proficient in. The indicators that I would like to improve on are:
My goals would be to strengthen and my confidence and proficiency in the above two indicators by the end of the first trimester next school year.
The actions I will take to achieve these goals would be to first give my students a Civics Project to work on. Along with my students as a group I would like to pick an authentic problem and solve it using digital tools. I would like my students to create a website or wiki site describing the problem and how we are going to fix it. I believe we could use the internet research the problem and to help us find solutions. I believe this could enhance my students learning and creativity through designing a website or wiki site to get the information across to others.
To monitor my progress I would like to have my students rate how well I am teaching and instructing this lesson. I will have my students relay my progress on a discussion board with the class to determine if I am improving and meeting my goals. This would be done once a week.
In order to evaluate and extend my learning I would like to try the same project with my next Civics class in the second trimester. I think I would also like to try something similar in my World History class but relate a historical event to a current event and describe the similarities and differences.
In order for me to be truly successful I think I will need to remember to follow the four valuables for integrating technology that Dr. Peggy Ertmer discussed. It is important that I have knowledge of wiki sites and discussion boards, as well as how to create a website. I also need to be confident and understand that it is okay to say I don’t know. I also need to believe in what I am doing and be in a supportive culture. My school needs to all me to have access to the tools I will need in order to meet my goals.
Kathy
The most strking revelation that I had for teaching students new literacies skills is the fact that so many students are unware of know which websites have useful valid information and which websites do not. I think it was great to teach the difference to students so that they do not fill their research papers or projects with useless information. This course has also made more aware of plagerism and the importance of having filters on the internet sites that we let students visit. I am still surprised that Dr. Armstrong believes that filters limit children and that students need to learn about how to deal with these websites in a mature fashion. This course has really taught me to look at things from a different point of views. I still like the idea of filters and stronger plagerism rules.
I think the knowledge that I have gained from this course has allowed me to become a better teacher. I will be able to help my students and show them examples of useful information when gathering research off of the internet. I will also be able to teach students more about plagerism and how to cite material correctly.
One professional development goal that I have is to take a session on plagerism. I would like to know more about plagerism and how to prevent it as well as recogonize it when I see it. To accomplish this goal I want to start researching on some of the professional development that is offered this summer and be able to suggest to my district to offer this in one of our professional development days next school year. I would like to do some research and find out how many people teach professional development sessions on plagerism.
