EDUC 6714 Reflection

As I started my final course, Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology, at Walden University, I felt as though I had already learned what I really needed to know in order to improve literacy and technology use in my classroom. I felt sure that whatever I learned in this class would simply be an extension or reinforcement of earlier learning. Instead I gained valuable new strategies and practices that, once put into practice, will benefit students far beyond the areas of literacy and technology. It will require that I alter my teaching practices, however, these changes are necessary for ensuring that my students receive the best learning experience possible.

The profound changes I will be making are inspired by the philosophies of differentiation and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The first change will be to get to know what kind of learners my students are—a defining component of differentiating instruction (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a). Starting at the beginning of the year with interest and learning style surveys, such as those compiled by my Walden colleagues, I can build a profile of each student in my room that will help me shape learning experiences to their unique characteristics. I also plan to use the survey I created at http://www.polleverywhere.com/survey/BVOwW6kib. By starting this process at the beginning of the year I will have be able to immediately implement learning that is fitted to students instead of waiting until I have spent enough time with the students to know them.

Allowing for multiple pathways to common goals will be a second change I will make. The learning profiles will help me determine how to differentiate the content, process, and product so as to maximize learning for each student. As Rose states when describing UDL, providing each student with maximum opportunities to learn is the purpose of education (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). For this, technology can be a powerful tool, because it provides greater access and flexibility than traditional curriculum materials (Rose, Gravel, & Domings, 2009). An example of this can be seen in the first project I plan to do with my seventh grade history classes. In the past I required students to draw a map from the school to their house from memory. Now, however, I would like to utilize Google Earth or Mapquest as part of the creation process. I would also like to offer different options for showcasing their knowledge of the features of maps, including using Scribble Maps. These easy modifications will allow more students, such as those that are insecure in their artistic abilities or who do not have good memories, to participate more fully in the learning.

As I become more experienced in differentiating instruction I will alter more projects to allow for greater access and flexibility. The resources provided on my Walden social network give many options for digital tools that could help in that quest. For example, the site provided by New Hanover County Schools and recommended by Noreen of my social network lists many types of technology that can be used by each type of learner to improve their attainment of knowledge. Tomlinson, however, recommends proceeding slowing so as not to become overwhelmed (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009c). I plan to follow this advice since it will require a change in my teaching practice. In this way, I can allow differentiated instruction to become my teaching philosophy instead of just a trick I pull out of my teaching hat. These efforts will then have long-lasting, positive effects on the growth of my students.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009a). Introduction to differentiation. [Video file]. Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009b). Universal design for learning. [Video file]. Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009c). What is differentiated instruction? [Video file]. Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Rose, D., Gravel, J., and Domings, Y. (2009). UDL unplugged: The role of technology in UDL. Wakefield, MA: CAST. Retrieved May 21, 2011, from http://www.udlcenter.org/resource_library/articles/udlunplugged

Week 8 Reflection

Over the last eight weeks I have spent time learning how to integrate technology into my teaching and set professional goals to help me become a better educator with technology. The GAME plan for self-directed learning has been the strategy I used to set and follow through on my goals. As I went through the process of setting, acting, monitoring, and evaluating my goals for professional development with technology, I recorded each step on a blog. According to Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009), this type of reflection supported my learning and helped keep me on track with my plan. I found, even more than the actual goals I achieved, I gained a lot from the process of the GAME plan. By writing each week on the blog about what I had already done and planning what to do next, I was more conscious than I have ever been about the status of my goals. Additionally, the support and suggestions from colleagues kept me motivated to fulfill the goals I had set. Consequently, I was able to make progress on both of my goals. I was able to “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning” through the creation of a website evaluation checklist that my students and I now use (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). Over the long-term I hope this will result in students who are more critical of the information they consume. I also began the process of “participat[ing] in local and global learning communities” to explore the use of my new IWB (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). Although I still have a few steps left to complete this goal, I am confident I will complete it because of the practice I have had in monitoring and evaluating my goals over these last weeks. I am now a more self-directed learner, a necessary skill for technology which Cennamo reminds us constantly changes (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). Keeping up with educational technology will require that I continue to develop as a self-directed learner. This will make me a more relevant and effective teacher who can adequately prepare students for the skills required for the 21st century.

As a result of this course there are two specific areas in which I will be immediately applying my new knowledge about technology integration in the content areas. The first is the evaluation of information component from my GAME plan. The website evaluation checklist I created is going to be an ongoing requirement for both myself and students. Secondly, I will be delivering the content area unit plan that I wrote. This plan includes effective teaching techniques and tools like problem-based learning, digital stories, and online collaboration. Due to my work in this course I am ready to tackle lessons like that and hopefully make them an integral part of my instructional practice. Despite the fact that I came into this course without any knowledge of digital stories, I am now prepared to use them with my students, along with other unfamiliar digital tools. I know that I just need to keep working to find tools that will help my students learn. (I need another GAME plan!)

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society of Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for Teachers. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Promoting Self-Directed Learning with Technology. [Motion Picture]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Learning for the 21st century: A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved April 4, 2010, from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf

Week 7-Using the GAME Plan with Students

Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) recommend the GAME plan as a way to foster and structure self-directed learning. The steps in the GAME plan help students to set goals, take action, monitor, and then evaluate their learning. These skills are going to be essential to students as they enter the workforce of the 21st century (Partnership for 21st Century Skills). The GAME plan also can help students to reach the technology standards deemed necessary by the International Society for Technology in Education (2007). Most notably, the simple process of using the GAME plan ensures that students are meeting the standard of “demonstrat[ing] personal responsibility for lifelong learning” (International Society of Technology in Education, 2007).

In my classroom the GAME plan will be the process I use to help students structure their independent projects. In particular, I am imagining it as a method for students to communicate to me their plans for reaching the standards on projects where they get to choose the topic and method of showing their work. The GAME plan will get students to plan out the steps of their project and remind them of the essential steps of monitoring and evaluating their learning. Students often forget to check their own work, believing that is something the teacher is supposed to do. The GAME plan reminds them that it is just as important to check their own learning and work.

Additionally, the GAME plan could be used to further the NETS for students. To integrate it with the independent project I mentioned earlier, I could require that students include technology in the creation of the project. This would then ensure that students account for standards such as creativity, information fluency, critical thinking, and digital citizenship (International Society of Technology in Education, 2007). This, however, is only a small portion of my classroom instructional time. If anyone has suggestions on how to include the GAME plan and NETS-S into more everyday aspects of the classroom, I would welcome them.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society of Technology in Education. (2007). NETS for Students. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Learning for the 21st century: A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved April 4, 2010, from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf

Week 6-Revising My GAME Plan

I’m revisiting my GAME plan in order to share with you the progress I have made and plans for the future.

Goal #1:
Indicator 3d-teachers “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

This goal has resulted in the production of a checklist for students to use when evaluating websites. I have even shared it with the history department at my school and have asked for feedback from those teachers on how it works. I hope that the checklist will become a school-wide tool. From this experience, I have learned the value of taking time to ensure that students can successfully determine the validity of information. I still have to work on helping students locate information before I can consider this indicator met though. To do that I need to first expand my own search techniques. For example, I need to try using Google Scholar when looking for research in my Walden classes. I would also like to look through Google’s educator lessons on search techniques. I am sure they have many ideas that I can use to teach my students how to locate information.

Goal #2:
Indicator 5a-I will “participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

For this goal I have not made as much progress. I made a lesson using my Starboard to share with others on the IWB lesson community, however, I don’t feel like it is good enough to share yet. The assessment I gave students after the lesson presentation did not show improvement, so that indicates that there is room for me to make the lesson better. Then, my IWB stopped working this week and I had to spend an hour with tech support to fix it. So, I am going to continue to work on using all of the features of the board to create an interactive lesson that engages my students and would be useful to others. I will also search for more lessons I can use as examples. The Starboard lesson community grows everyday, so I just need to continue to communicate with them. They have already provided some helpful hints on engaging tools to use like the highlighter. As I continue to work on this indicator, I hope to take a more active role in the learning communities I have been exploring. This means that I will comment more, seek the advice of others there when I have a problem, and contribute my own expertise. I will definitely upload a lesson to my learning community before the end of the year!


The next time I try to improve my learning I will use the GAME plan strategy. I have found that it is a helpful way to remember the importance of not just making a goal, but also, planning the steps to take to achieve that goal. I often make goals but do not follow through because I don’t revisit and evaluate them. Without those critical steps I often fail. The GAME plan has been a successful learning approach for me.


References

International Society of Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for Teachers. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Week 5-Evaluating My GAME Plan

I have now been working on my GAME plan for three weeks. In this post, I will evaluate the progress I have made and readjust my plans as necessary.

Goal #1:
Indicator 3d-teachers “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

For this goal I have been focusing on helping my students learn how to evaluate web resources. I reread November’s (2008) book on the subject and created a checklist for use in my classroom based around his REAL strategy. (Email me if you want a copy.) The checklist was a great idea I received from commentors here, and I think it will really help students stay focused. I eagerly anticipate using it so that I can see how effective it is at helping students recognize the characteristics of a trustworthy source. I have also designed a lesson for whole group discussion around the Pacific Tree Octopus spoof website. I hope to do this lesson next week before the students start a project in their English class that requires them to research. (We have teaming at my school so this will be very helpful to my colleague.) At that point I will have some information I can use to evaluate the effectiveness of the checklist. The true test will be when students use the strategies on their own, however. So, I need another week to see what I can do to further refine my GAME plan for reaching this goal.


Goal #2:
Indicator 5a-I will “participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

Last week I adjusted this GAME plan to focus on joining the Starboard IWB community. I set myself a short-term goal of watching some of the webinars available on the site and a long-term goal of creating a lesson to upload to the lesson community. I did watch one of the webinars and learned about a few new tools such as the stopwatch and screen capture. I have already started using the stopwatch to time my entry tasks. It would have been more helpful however, if I had watched the webinar while next to the IWB. Then I could have practiced while watching the webinar. The more I practice and learn about the board, the more seamlessly I will be able to integrate it into my instructional practice. I still need to discover the requirements for adding a lesson to the Starboard community, though. I would like to see if I can create a lesson that fits with my first goal. So my new plan is to work on fusing the evaluation lesson into the IWB software. That way I can possibly use that as my lesson to upload.

International Society of Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for Teachers. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.

Week 4-Monitoring My GAME Plan

In my last post I provided an update of steps I took during the first week of my GAME plan. I also listed resources and information I will need to continue my plan. In this post I will share my progress now that I am two weeks into the implementation of my plan.

Goal #1:
Indicator 3d-teachers “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

To reach this goal I have been rereading November’s (2008) book and marking down ideas for instruction. Based on my reading, I have a lesson planned on the domain extensions of URLs for next week. I will use that to lead into a practice evaluation of one of the spoof websites recommended by November. On that list of spoof websites I will definitely include the Pacific Tree Octopus site that was recommended last week by cchiapet. The only problem I am running into is the availability of computers at my school. Right now they are being used for our district assessments and are scheduled to be in other classrooms through February. That means that I will not actually be able to have computers in my room until March. Since I do not want to delay these lessons until then, I plan to conduct most of these lessons on my IWB and turn them into a whole class discussion. This is not ideal, because I fear that some students will tune out the lesson.

As I have not done a lesson on website evaluation before, I would welcome any advice on common barriers for middle school students when tackling this type of project. Thanks ahead of time for your help.

Goal #2:
Indicator 5a-I will “participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

For this goal I have been working to connect with or create a community of Hitachi Starboard users. Since last week I have identified 5 people within my district who have a Starboard. I hope to contact them next week to see if we can share tips and lessons. I also went to the Starboard website and looked through the resources they have available. The webinar section looks very helpful and I would like to watch at least one of the archived webinars by the next time I report my progress on this blog. Unfortunately, there are not any pre-made lessons in the Starboard lesson sharing section that I can use. It seems that many of them are designed for Windows operating system which I do not have.

In my original GAME plan for this goal, I wanted to create a wiki to share lessons with other district Starboard users. After viewing the Starboard lesson resource center, though, I plan to concentrate less on a district level community and more on the wider community. I would like to work on a lesson that I can upload to the Starboard resource center. This will benefit many people and hopefully encourage others to add lessons that I can use. I do wonder what the requirements for adding a lesson are though. I will have to investigate that before I start creating a lesson. This modification to my GAME plan will still enable me to reach the NETS indicator, but will focus more on the global community aspect than previously.

International Society of Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for Teachers. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.

Week 3-GAME Plan Next Steps

This week I am furthering my GAME plan by identifying necessary resources and information. That way I can begin my action steps and start to monitor my progress toward the goals I set last week.

Goal #1:
Indicator 3d-teachers “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

Resources Needed: Computer time for students to practice effective use of digital research tools. Examples of websites that show different aspects of domain names, links, content, and other pieces needed for evaluation practice. If anyone has examples of good websites for evaluation, please let me know!

Information Needed: I plan to read November’s Web Literacy for Educators again (2008). As I read it I will pay attention to suggested teaching tips for implementing the REAL strategy with students. This includes websites for evaluation practice. I will also consult with my colleagues to see if any of them have taught evaluation strategies. If so, I will try to incorporate those strategies into my instruction.

Steps Taken: I have already begun to model evaluation of websites when we are using the internet on the IWB. In particular I have already shown how to look for the author and date in order to determine if the information on the website is trustworthy. I plan to continue this and add in more evaluation strategies, such how to read the URL, during whole class instruction. This is an easy step to take while I work on the two sections mentioned above.

Goal #2:
Indicator 5a-I will “participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

Resources Needed: Update of Easiteach software (should be arriving soon according to my tech director). List of others in my district who have Hitachi Starboard.

Information Needed: I need to read the manual and help guides available at the Starboard website. While at the site I will also check to see if there is a community of Starboard users there. I also need to connect with the people on the list who have the Starboard to see if they are interested in creating a community to share resources.

Steps Taken: I have printed out a Quickguide to the Starboard that I need to read and ordered the new software update. These steps will make it easier to begin sharing with my learning communities once I have started to join them.

Thanks for reading more about my GAME plan. I am open to any suggestions or questions you have for next steps. Hopefully, I can get the resources and information by this time next week so that I can start taking solid action toward reaching the NETS indicators I chose.

International Society of Technology in Education. (2008). NETS for Teachers. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.