EDLD+5364+-+ET8001+-+Teaching+with+Technology




 * Reflections on Week Five...**

This week's reading assignments focused primarily on students seeing the value of the effort they place into their education and authentic assessment via Web 2.0. My personal thought about students seeing the value of the effort they put into their education is that you can show them all of the data and have them track their personal effort and progress and that may help some students. However, for most students until a teacher has personally helped the student make the real-life connection about the content being learned, all of the data will be meaningless. Students need to individually make that connection and see the value in placing their efforts there.

The electronic portfolio, or e-folio, has great potential for students. If a student were able to begin creating an e-folio in kindergarten on their artwork, for example, and be able to maintain that e-folio through 12th grade, that could be powerful in attempting to help that student potentially earn a scholarship. Technology can help the students along the way, but can also be part of the mechanism to thrust them into their awaiting future.


 * Reflections on Week Four...**

In reflecting on these week's reading assignments, I am again struck by the need for teachers to receive adequate professional development. Teachers' skill levels are at such varying degrees with regard to technology and if they are on the lower end and appropriate training is not provided, they could be lost for good. Just as //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works// identifies the generalizations with regard to cooperative learning, trainers must also be cognizant of these facts, too. In our district, I could easily see the campus Technology Integration Specialist using cooperative learning groups to help ease teachers into new technologies or to speed along those who are travelling at warp speed. Shared bookmarking is an excellent way to provide a variety of resources to teachers where they can privately choose the level of technology appropriate for their skill set.

An important part of professional development that is often overlooked is following up with participants to see if they were able to use their new knowledge and if it changed their classroom practices. One of the trainings that we offered last summer had this component included. We offered training on Adobe Digital School Collection. At the end of the training, they earned a license for use at school. The teachers had to return to an additional training a month into school to discuss and share how they had used their new skills in a pre-existing lesson. This was extremely effective as it allowed them to demonstrate their new skills and learn from one another. We also created an online discussion area for the participants that they continue to use.


 * Reflections on Week Three...**

In reading the articles assigned for Week Three, I was intrigued with Chapter 2 in the //Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works// discussion regarding feedback. "The simplest prescription for improving education must be 'dollops' of feedback" (Hattie, 1992, p.9). In all matters, be it a student's performance in a class or on a specific project, incremental and timely feedback allow for the most growth for the student. In my current position, I have used the tracking features within Microsoft Word to track individual's changes/additions to documents. I could see this being a particularly useful tool in the classroom when students are collaboratively working on a document. Students can provide some of their own feedback through the use of the Student Response Systems. If a teacher uses the SRS to review for a test, for example, the student will have the feedback anonymously and be able to know what they need to further review.

Our district uses the Blackboard learning management system. When a teacher places a quiz that is graded through Blackboard, the student can have immediate feedback upon completion of the quiz. Additionally, using BrainPop, the student has multiple means through which they can learn about a topic and then take an assessment in a variety of forms. The quiz can be taken in graded form or review form, thereby allowing the teacher the option of it being a graded assignment or a tool with which to review. Our district recently updated to Version 9 of Blackboard that now includes Blogs. We have not been successful in its use yet, but this will enable a teacher to provide feedback to students in a secure setting and with a format in which the students are familiar.


 * Reflections on Week Two...**

The articles this week clearly focused on the value of technology integration into curriculum and the need to properly address diverse learners' needs. I found it very interesting that while studies on the value of technology integration have been done, this is still largely an area that is in need of further research to conclusively support a stand. The research completed to date seems to consistently show that, in most cases, students' achievement improves with the integration of technology. I particularly found Idit Harel's research regarding the introduction of Logo programming interesting. I felt it supported something I have always felt. When there is a real-world purpose to students' learning it becomes extremely more valuable to them and increases the likelihood of their actual being able to apply what they have learned. When I was teaching myself Photoshop, I learned much more when I was assigned a project and had to dig in and learn the software.

I found the idea of Universal Design for Learning to be something that a good teacher instinctively does in their classroom. In any given classroom, a teacher will encounter learners of a wide variety of needs. These needs will reach from one extreme to another and require the teacher to develop and apply a UDL, whether or not they even realize it has a name, and thereby "minimize barriers and realize the promise each student brings to school." (Rose & Meyer, 2002) When I taught in our district's gifted and talented magnet, I always felt that the strategies we applied would make a positive impact on every learners' ability to grasp and apply material.


 * Reflections on Week One...**

This week's readings were very thought-provoking. In reading the articles, I found myself finding a piece of truth or application in all of them. Constructivist instruction is one of the best forms of instruction, but is also one of the most risky for many teachers. When I toured the gifted and talented magnet as a parent, I wondered what the problem was with the instruction because everyone seemed to be in motion and talking and there was very little "drilling" going on. Later, after my sons attended the magnet and I later taught there I understood what the principal in one of the articles came to understand. While good classroom management skills are important, they are not indicative that learning has occurred.

Another way that we can best serve our students is through providing real-world problem-based instruction. Learning must be relevant to the 21st century learner more than ever before. If the instructor does not allow the students to assimilate the content into real-world situations, they don't see the value and quickly tune out. Today's learners have so much information available to them and they need the skill that connectivism professes, taking the learning and being able to apply it in other fields. So that the students can best be prepared for their future, today's teachers need to take that scary step forward and become their advocate and guide.