Spotlight on Emerging Technology: Online Learning in K-12 Schools

Here is the link to my presentation. http://voicethread.com/?#u733601

Reflection for Reaching and Engaging All Learners through Technology

As I look back at the past eight weeks of this course, I am amazed at the plethora of information for how many ways a teacher can differentiate instruction. Over the years, I have differentiated when I saw the need to do so, but not to the extent of what I have read about and researched during this course. For the past eight weeks, I have been learning about Universal Design for Learning, Differentiated Instruction, and how these two concepts affect learning for all students. I now know of new ways to incorporate technology into my instruction to assist, engage, and motivate my students to learn. I have also learned of ways to use technology to assist students with learning and physical disabilities.

Our groups were required to establish a Differentiation Station social network to collaborate on UDL/ DI and the use of technology. We shared various web sites that we found to implement into our lessons. This has not only allowed me a multitude of new tools to use, it has also made me realize the importance of establishing a social network of this type for support and sharing of information. By using the various tools we have found, I can differentiate my instruction in a myriad of ways to engage learners at all levels of readiness and skills. I am also grateful for the assistance, understanding, and encouragement of my group members when I was struggling with one of my projects. I truly believe that it is just as important for students to have this social network as it is for teachers. When I am teaching again, I will establish this type of network for my students.

Until I am teaching again, I will not be able to apply any new adjustments to my lessons. I can, however, start going over lesson plans that I use and make revisions to incorporate the use of technology. At the start of each school year, I would like to get the students comfortable digitally recording themselves signing stories. I would also like to have students create a class web site and class blog to use for displaying work and collaborating with peers. Finally, I am contemplating having my students use an e-portfolio for storing their final products. All three of the presenters in our course, Drs. Carol Ann Tomlinson, Grace Smith, and Stephanie Throne, were in agreement that teachers need to start with one or two things that they want to change. Once they feel comfortable or confident with the changes they are making, they can move forward to the next change. The important thing is to keep moving forward, and this is what I plan to do.

Towards Self-Directed Learning and Creative Problem Solving

My GAME plan consisted of getting my students comfortable recording themselves using digital technology to promote enhanced learning and performances in American Sign Language (ASL). These recording would also serve as a reflective tool for self-evaluation. To accomplish this goal, I had decided to address the first standard of the National Education Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) and two of its indicators.

For my goal, I wanted my students to work together in groups to define Deaf culture. I also wanted them to have a chance to collaborate with deaf students from a residential school enabling them to experience Deaf culture firsthand. As a final project, I wanted my students to create a visual story of what they had learned from this research and experience.

For my actions, I created a unit lesson plan for Deaf Culture. I began with a lesson plan for Problem Based Learning, continued with a lesson plan involving social networking, and finished with a lesson plan using digital storytelling.

Monitoring consists of using class blogs and wikis, along with checklists or rubrics for students to keep themselves on track. Evaluations will be made using rubrics.

As I proceeded with my GAME plan, I noticed that I even though I started with only one standard of the NETS-T, with the addition of each lesson, more standards were being addressed. The GAME plan is not only a valuable tool for the teacher, but for the students as well. By teaching students to use the GAME plan, they will become better organized in their working habits and develop 21st century working skills.

As a result of this course, I will be teaching my students how to use the GAME plan. I will also adjust my lessons to incorporate more social networking and digital story telling!

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

It saddens me to know that I will not be going back to work this September. As the start of the school year approaches, I sit here and contemplate my GAME plan and how beneficial it would be to teach the GAME plan to students to help them develop proficiency in the NETS-S.

As students learn to set goals for themselves, they will be using skills in critical thinking, decision making, communication, and collaboration.

As they decide on what actions to take to meet these goals, they will be using skills in creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration, digital citizenship, and technology operations and concepts.

When students are monitoring their progress, they will be using skills in all of the above areas as well as problem solving, research and information fluency.
And as students evaluate and reflect on their work, they will again be using skills in critical thinking and communication.

Therefore, teaching students to use the GAME plan ensures that they will be meeting all the standards of the NETS-S.

GAME Plan Week 6

My original goals for my GAME plan were 1.) to promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes, and 2.) to model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

This week we have learned about social networking sites and how they can be used to enhance student learning as well as to motivate and engage students in learning content. These sites are wonderful online collaboration tools for students to utilize for communicating with their peers, experts, teachers, and a variety of other people. These sites will certainly help me with my goals.
I have not started setting new goals, nor have I extended the goals that I already have. I have been busy searching for teaching positions in my content area. This is my first time on unemployment and it is a humbling experience. It is also a lot of work!!!!!!

GAME PLAN Week Five

This is week five of our GAME PLAN. As we continue to work on our plans, I am struggling to make sense of problem-based learning and how I can apply it to my content. If I am understanding it correctly, PBL is addressing complex problems and working in small groups to negotiate solutions in a collaborative manner. It also seems to me that PBL is geared mainly to math, science, or community issues. My problem is coming up with a complex problem for the students to solve. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Monitoring My GAME Plan

I have recently found a web site that has a lot of information on using technology in the classroom. The site is called Classroom 2.0 and is located at http://www.classroom20.com/. I had been looking for information on wix and weebly when I came across this web page for teachers. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Also, weebly is free software that you can use to create a classroom website & blog, accept homework assignments online, keep parents up to date, and manage your students’ accounts. I am interested in using this for my students as part of my GAME plan. If any of you have used this, please let me know if you like it.

Continuing My GAME Plan

In order to carry out my GAME plan, I will need to have digital recording equipment, computers, and possibly a projector. I will also need to create a wiki and a blog for our class with the collaboration of the class itself. Down the road, I hope to be able to extend our recordings to iPods and cell phones, but, let’s not get carried away!! I need to focus on the immediate use of the recordings!

I will also need to promote support from parents, administrators, and colleagues. I need to search the internet to find new and exciting ideas for students to use in their video activities. I would also like to find a teacher who uses blogs and wikis in my area so I could observe the ways in which they have been used.

As of yet, I have not taken any steps towards my plan. I have been searching for a job, doing homework, and packing to go to Miami to see my youngest daughter, whom I have not seen in a year.

Developing a Personal Game Plan

Enriching content area learning experiences was the topic of this week’s class. We talked about how we would revise an old lesson to incorporate technology and “turn on the lights” for our students. Now we are looking at the National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) and determining which two indicators we would like to strengthen our confidence in.

The first standard of the NETS-T is Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. The two indicators that I have chosen to work on are:
c. teachers promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.
d. teachers model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

I would accomplish this by using the GAME plan.

GOAL: My goal is to get my students comfortable using video recordings of themselves to promote enhanced learning and performances, as well as a reflective tool for them to use for self-evaluation.

ACTION: I will introduce students to video recording at the beginning of the year. At first, they can “play” with the camera to record themselves practicing new vocabulary. As they progress and become more comfortable using this tool, we will record storytelling, dialogues, and role-playing activities.

MONITOR: to monitor this, I will use a class wiki or blog for students to post comments about their progress. We will also create rubrics to evaluate how well they are doing.

EVALUATE: As we complete each assignment, students will be given an evaluation rubric to assess the effectiveness of using digital tools to enable them to plan, monitor, and improve their work. They can also post reflective comments on their blogs as to improvements that could be made for the next assignment. I would also like to collaborate with other teachers to get feedback on how to improve this technique.

Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry

Reflection

Before taking this course, I thought that I knew how to research information. Now, I realize that I knew very little about researching a topic and absolutely nothing about validating Websites. I researched topics pretty much the same way my students do. I would type in an assortment of words until I found what I was looking for, and I would usually look at every link that popped up in sequence. It was time consuming and exhausting. I knew that not everything on the Internet was fact, but if it looked right, I believed it. The knowledge and skills I have acquired from this course will enable me, as well as my students, to validate sites and gather much more reliable information. The following are my new tools:

REAL:
1. R = Read the URL
2. E = Examine the content
3. A = Ask about the author and owner of the site
4. L = Look at the links.

QUEST :
Questioning = what do I want to know?
Understanding resources = how will I find out?
Evaluating = is this what I need?
Synthesizing = what does this mean?
Transforming = what will I do with it?

I would like to learn more about using Wikis and blogs with students to collaborate with students from other schools. Dr. David Warlick stated that technology enables students to connect to each other, experts, other classes, and content. More importantly, it allows students to learn to work with information, which is a vital skill to have in the 21st century. By having my students create projects and interacting with students outside of their classroom, they will be honing these skills.

References

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore, MD.

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

Reflection: Effective bridging of Technology and Instruction

Dr. Michael Orey suggests that the Social Learning Theory focuses on conversation, collaboration, and the learning process (Laureate Education, Inc. 2009). “Social constructivism extends constructivism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this one, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels” (Philosophy-MoodleDocs). I teach American Sign Language (ASL) and my ultimate goal for my students is to enable them to use the target language to collaborate and converse with each other and their intended audience.

To achieve this goal, I assign cooperative groups for my students to actively engage and apply what has been introduced and demonstrated for them in the classroom. During this course, we have learned how using different mediums with our students will help them to store information in their long-term memories (Laureate, 2009). Therefore, I have made modifications to these groups by adding stations. While I work with one group reviewing and reinforcing lessons, the second group works on an interactive computer activity while the third group watches a DVD and collectively answers questions about the conversations they are watching.
Another adjustment I have made in my classes is the use of blogs and wikis. I have been using these with my upper level classes, but I would like to incorporate them into my lower level classes in the form of journals.

One of my long-term goals for incorporating technology into my classrooms is to have my students use voice threads and concept maps when doing a research project. My lower level classes could use these for their demonstrations for research on famous Deaf people or Deaf history. My upper levels can present information by using videos on voice thread. They can use the doodle tool to stop the video and point out relevant information.

Another long-term goal is to have students create Jeopardy games using power points. Students can work in groups, with each group creating a game using information from the previous units. I would also like to explore activities using podcasting. By using the internet, creating voice threads and podcasts, using blogs and wikis, students will be working in a social network, where they will learn collaborating and problem solving skills, as well as applying what they are learning by creating artifacts. I look forward to the possibilities and opportunities these tools provide.


Resources
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory,
instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Philosophy. MoodlesDoc. Retrieved from http://docs.moodle.org/en/Philosophy. October 29, 2009.

voicethread

http://voicethread.com/share/897685/

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is an important aspect of the social learning theory. It is defined as students working together to attain group goals that cannot be obtained by working alone or competitively (Palmer, Peters, & Streetman, 2003, p. 2). Cooperative learning enables students to discuss and validate their work, and to see their peers as valuable resources. Dr. Michael Orey stated that in traditional classrooms, students can articulate what has been taught, but have no idea how to apply that information. There are a variety of strategies teachers can apply when using cooperative learning to enable students to make those connections between the lesson itself and real world applications. My students consistently work in groups to strengthen their expressive and receptive skills with American Sign Language.

One strategy that really caught my interest was to have the students create a website. The example in the book was about a class that researched a city and created a website to present the information they learned about that city. I plan on taking that idea and using it to have my students create a city for Deaf people. It will be interesting to see what they come up with, making sure to use all the knowledge they have about Deaf culture.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author

Palmer, G., Peters, R., & Streetman, R. (2003). Cooperative learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/eppltt/index.php?title=Cooperative_Learning

Constructionist Theory

In our text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, we read that when students generate and test hypotheses, they are engaged in complex mental processes, applying content knowledge like facts and vocabulary, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content (Pitler, Hebbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 202). Students can brainstorm ideas and formulate questions to research. By using technology such as spreadsheets, data collection tools, and Web resources, students can spend more time interpreting the data, developing higher level learning skills, rather than collecting data (Pitler, p. 203).

Project-based learning is another way for students to become engaged in complex activities. According to authors Hans and Bhattacharya, “Learners become more accountable for their learning through designing, sharing, piloting, evaluating, modifying their work, and reflecting on the process” (Hans & Bhattacharya, 2001, p 9). Dr. Michael Orey said that the Constructionist Learning Theory is about students becoming fully engaged in learning and the process of creating an artifact (Laureate, 2009). Technology is a great tool for students to use for projects. They can create their projects using power point presentations, write creative book reports using Word, create their own books on researched topics, make charts or graphic organizers, and create interactive games on the computer. When students participate in hands-on activities, they not only become active learners, they also retain more of what they are learning. They are learning 21st century skills and how to collaborate with others. The Constructionist Theory encourages students to reflect on their ideas, gives them choices, and allows them to make decisions about their learning.

References
Han, S. and Bhattacharya, K. (2001). Constructionism, Learnning by Design, and Project Based learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/eppltt/index.php?title=Constructionism%2C_Learning_by_Design%2C_and_Project_Based_Learning

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology. Baltimore: Author
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Constructionist Theory

Cognitivism in Practice

Cognitive learning theories revolve around information processing (Laureate, 2009). This week, in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, we explored two instructional strategies that embed technology: “Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers” and “Summarizing and Note Taking.” The first instructional strategy focuses on enhancing students’ ability to retrieve, use, and organize information about a topic (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007 p.73). Cues are hints as to what the students will be learning while questions help to stimulate the students’ memories for information they have previously learned. The technologies that can be used for information processing with this strategy are word processing applications, spreadsheet applications, organizing and brain-storming software, and multimedia applications (Pitler, p. 74). Advanced organizers help to organize information that is being learned. Dr. Michael Orey illustrates how images are powerful tools to use in the classroom by showing an example of a teacher using a virtual field trip to Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. while teaching about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The students were active participants and completely immersed in the presentation (Laureate, 2009). Integrating multiple senses in our lessons cam improve learning and build numerous connections to stored information.

The second instructional strategy of summarizing and note taking enhances the students’ ability to synthesize information and distill it into a concise new form (Pitler, p. 119). Students take notes by taking the information they deem important and putting it in their own words. The same technologies as above can be used for this strategy, as well as, communications tools such as Wikis and blogs. Wikis provide students with opportunities to collaborate on their work together and provide immediate feedback for their projects. According to our readings, blogs can be used for reciprocal teachings, where students use summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. Another tool that can be used is Concept Mapping, in which students can make connections between the various ideas or information.

References
References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Bridging learning theory, instruction,and technology. Baltimore: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Behavioral Learning Theory

It seems as though many of today’s students require more education in appropriate behavioral and social skills. Behaviorists believe that when a behavior becomes unacceptable, it can be replaced with an acceptable behavior. Melissa Standridge has written that the key element to this theory of learning is the rewarded response. Many teachers use a reward system in their classrooms for behavior management. Yet, a number of behavioral problems seen in the classroom occur when students do not know the answers or understand what it is the teacher is talking about. These students think they are not as smart as some of the other students, and instead of “looking stupid”, they act out. These students do not realize that there is a correlation between the effort they put forth in their studies and their success in school. One instructional strategy that can benefit these students is Reinforcing Effort. According to authors Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, this instructional strategy enhances students’ understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning (p. 155). These authors state that technology makes it easier for students to track the effects of effort and facilitates immediate feedback (p. 156). They suggest creating a rubric that clearly presents what effort looks like. For example, on my rubric for my American Sign Language classes, I might include participation, voice off, watching all conversations, homework, etc. Using a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel, the students would then take the categories of our rubric and put them on the spreadsheet so they could track how much effort they were putting into each category. At the end of three weeks, they would be able to tally the results, and compare them to their grades. The students would be able to clearly see the relationship between their effort and grades. This strategy could benefit students in two ways. First, it could help to replace undesired behaviors with desired behaviors. Second, it could demonstrate to students that when they apply themselves, they are rewarded with good grades and hopefully, self-confidence and self-esteem.

Another instructional strategy that behaviorist believe to be of importance is Homework and Practice. “Homework and practice give students a chance to review and apply what they have learned” (Pitler, p. 187). “Typically, students need about 24 practice sessions with a skill in order to achieve 80-percent competency” (p. 188). Students can use technology, such as computers, to read on-line tutorials concerning the subject matter they had in class. There are also interactive games that students can play that give immediate feedback, to reinforce what the students are learning.

References

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Standridge, M. (2002).Behaviorism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives o learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved January I2, 2010, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Behaviorism.