Technology in Education

A very slow progress week… 4 snow days in a row

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

I have learned that my district does not have a plan to improve the districts technology use that is made public.  After trying to track down a document or someone that has answers I have decided to work with my principal, the media specialist, and the ILT to make a technology integration plan for our school.  My principal is wonderful at helping teacher try to get what they need, and my media specialist is great at finding new technology for teachers to use as well.  If we can set a plan in motion to improve our school, then I am sure other schools will see the benefits and they can follow in our footsteps.

What goals are you still working toward?

I am still working on finding new technologies to use in my classroom.  This will always be ongoing since there is so much out there online.  Now after learning about online collaboration tools I would like to look into using one of these in my classroom.

Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?

After learning about online collaboration this week I would like to set the following NETS-T benchmark for myself

4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

a. advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.

The goals that I have set for myself earlier in my GAME plan I have found out that they are ongoing processes that I can keep improving upon from now until the time I retire.  Setting this goal will help make my students become better technology users and will help cut down on issues that could arise in the classroom when working with online tools.

What learning approaches will you try next time you improve your learning?

Next time I improve my learning I will not try to search for technology tools blindly by myself.  I will work with someone like my media specialist first to get some ideas and then go from there.  The Internet has so many resources, I should start with tools that others have used or learned about and begin there.

Continuing to implement and monitor my GAME plan…

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?

ü     This week my school district had 2 delay openings and 1 snow day.  I had a meeting set up to learn how to use a new resource website with my media specialist, but now that is postponed until next week when (hopefully) we do not have any more closings.  I have checked it out myself, but my media specialist went to a seminar about all of the websites resources so I am very excited to see exactly what it can offer.  My actions have been effective so far, regardless of the set backs from snow.

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

ü     I have found so many online resources to get my students involved and engaged in learning science.  We are learning about physics now and I have found fun interactive games that teach the students about physics concepts.  I have not been able to provide the students with computers to play the games themselves, but I have used the SmartBoard and made it a whole class activity so that we can discuss why certain things happen.  I have also found a website that shows the physics behind the winter Olympics.  I cant wait to use this in the classroom and see my students make the connections while they watch the Olympics on TV.

What do you still have to learn?  What new questions have arisen?

ü     I still need to actually find out what my school district is doing to improve the use of technology in the school system.  All the leads I have followed end up being very vague in the response.  It seems to be someone else’s fault or area when I talk to people to try to figure out the future plan.  At this point I am wondering if there is a future plan set in place to bring more technology into the classrooms.  I think the school board is nervous to make to bold of a more towards using new technology and web 2.0 tools and they are just beating around the bush.

How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

ü     I don’t think I have to adjust my plan.  I am finding very good resources, but just need to keep digging to find the answers about technology use in my district.  I think that by next week if I can not get the answers that I am looking for I will have to email a board member to see where the district is heading in the next few years for using technology in the classroom.  I brought this up to the teacher union because their bargaining hearing is coming up and I would like this to be considered in the discussion.

So far my GAME plan is running smoothly.

• Am I finding the information and resources I need?

The information and resources that I have been looking onto see to just come out of nowhere.  There are so may resources available online and through my school district that it has now become just trying to find time to fit in some seminars or practice time.  Luckily I am still taking these classes through Walden to keep me updated on the latest trends in instructional technology!  I have been working with my media specialist and she has showed me some great resources to use in my classroom.  My content partner and I are in the process of putting some future lessons together.

• Do I need to modify my action plan?

At this point I feel as though I do not need to modify my GAME plan.  My goals are attainable within this school year, and beyond if I want to.  There will always be updates for learning about new technology resources, so I can keep improving my plan for a while.

• What have I learned so far?

So far I have learned that, when used properly, technology is a great tool to use in the classroom for engaging students and assessing their knowledge.  There are a multitude of resources available that explain the benefits of using it in the classroom as well as how to actually use it in the classroom.  Unfortunately, I have also learned that it is going to be a struggle to convince my school board to lighten up on the technology blocks and bans and also to spend more money towards technology use and education.  Although they offer the classes, most of the schools do not have the resources to put the knowledge and skills to use.  I am not at a title 1 school, so therefore technology is not up there with priorities.

• What new questions have arisen?

I am striving to be a technology resource in my school, but how can I become the person for others to come to with questions if I am not provided the adequate resources to help them?  How can I say that I know a lot about using technology in the classroom if I don’t have the tools to use it myself?  Right now I sound good on paper, but I can’t perform what I can say.  I need to at least push for the use of the technology that we do have in the school and make slow strides towards getting more.

In order to carry out my GAME Plan I will need the following resources and information:

Resources:

To reach my goal of continually taking more classes in technology education to connect the information to my content I need to look at the school district website for upcoming seminars and classes.  The district offers many opportunities to learn about new technology and how to integrate it into the classroom, and a lot of them are free.  I will also need to keep in contact with my principal and instructional leadership team so that I can share my knowledge with the school and help other teachers incorporate the technology as well.

To reach my second goal in becoming more proficient in using newer technology tools to create a more enriched learning environment I will need to do the same as stated above.  By taking classes and practicing how to use the tools I will become more skilled at using them.  I will need to keep in contact with our schools computer tech so that my classroom can be hooked up with the tools/software I need.

Information:

Additional information needed to carry out these goals is first and foremost the approval of the school board to use new technology in my classroom.  Many of the technologies, like web 2.0, are blocked at the schools.  I will need to get information about which technologies I can use and which I can not.  Sometimes if the teacher can plead her case and show that the lesson connects to the state curriculum the board will allow the use of certain things.  Other times they are very strong in their decision of not allowing it.

Steps I have taken so far:

It has only been 1 week since I have implemented my Game plan, but I have been spending time after school exploring the SmartBoard I received this year and thinking of lessons I can make with it to engage my students more.  I am still taking graduate classes that are teaching me many new skills to use in my classroom as well.  I plan on trying out as many new technologies that the courses teach me as possible to see if I can incorporate them into my lessons.

Using newer technologies like Web 2.0, podcasts, and even the SmartBoard is a new experience for me.  The district that I work in is pretty far behind when it comes to implementing these into the schools.  Just this year I received a SmartBoard in my room, so I have only been using it for a semester now.  However, I am still very curious and eager to learn about the latest and greatest tools for teaching students using technology integration.  For this reason I have chosen the following ISTE national standards (ISTE, 2008) for my GAME plan (Cennamo, K, Ross, J, & Ertmer, P, 2009):

5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. Teachers:

a.  participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.

I have chosen this standard because the trends in education is constantly changing and so are technology tools to use.  By continuously communicating with colleagues, participating in classes and professional development, and teaching others about how technology can enrich students’ learning I can become a leader in the trends and help the community strengthen their skills.

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:

c.  customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.

This standard is important for me to integrate into the GAME plan because I have students that have a range of ability levels and I must accommodate each one.  Using technology can allow me to have students working on similar activities, but are catered to their specific reading or math level, comfort level with using technology, and differences in learning style.

The GAME Plan

Set Goals

• I would like to continue taking courses in technology education whenever available so that I can connect the information to my content.
• I would like to become more proficient in using newer technology tools so that I create a more enriched learning environment.

Take Action

To stay up-to-date with the current trends in technology I will become a part of an online community devoted to utilizing technology in education, such as classroom 2.0.  I will collaborate with colleagues and search for professional development classes to take that will build upon my knowledge.  To become more of a leader in my school with technology I will speak up more to administration to start the ball rolling on getting more technology into the school.  I will also start up the technology committee that has disbanded with fresh faces and ideas from the faculty.

In the classroom I will begin searching online, talking to colleagues, and discussing how to differentiate with other educators in the community.  I need to find ways to teach the same lesson but allow the students to use their creativity and critical thinking skills to learn the content with the technology.

Monitor

I will monitor my progress by attending monthly meetings with administration and discussing how to use different technologies in the classroom.  I will also monitor my progress by keeping a journal of the classes I have attended or articles I have read that discuss technology integration.  I will keep track of how many times I used technology in a lesson and what type of technology was used.

Evaluate and Extend

To evaluate my progress I will use self reflection as well as outside references such as my students or principal.  After a lesson I can reflect on how I thought the lesson went and ask my students the same thing; did they enjoy the lesson, what did they learn, what would they want to do next time?  My principal could provide constructive criticism for me and we could discuss how to use the lesson throughout the school in other classrooms.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Since completing this course, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom, I realized that I have been taking Internet literacy skills for granted.  When I was in middle school and the Internet was just becoming popular, I learned how to navigate through the Internet using literacy skills that I had prior knowledge using and also just by searching websites on my own.  No one really taught us how to read the web.

The most striking revelation I had about the teaching of new literacy skills to my students as a result of this course is that even though my students look as though they are navigation through the web with ease, they are actually not using literacy skills to accurately evaluate websites and sift through all the information.  It is very important to teach our students how to use the information found on the Internet just like we do with novels and text books.  The Internet needs other literacy skills in order to know and understand what you are looking for and at.  Our students need to know how to follow links, check authenticity, deal with pop-ups/advertisements, and different fonts just to name a few.

The knowledge and experience I have gained in this course will influence my teaching practices and how I incorporate technology and the use of the Internet into my lessons.  I will make sure to continuously model new literacy skills for my students and allow them to practice these skills independently in the classroom with my guidance.  Connecting these new skills to traditional literacy skills that the students are comfortable using will help them become more fluent and add on to their prior knowledge (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007).

A professional development goal that I would like to pursue that builds upon my learning in this course and develops my own information literacy skills would be to create an online classroom community with other schools in my district.  I want my students to create a blog where they can collaborate with other students on a project that they will compare data and information with each other.  I would first need to talk with other teachers in the district and see if they would like to participate in the project.  I would then need to continually teach my students how to use the blog, post information, and communicate with other students online.  This would be a large project to take on and timing it with other teachers could become an issue.  For this issue planning would be the number one priority so that the other classes can correlate with mine.  This project will help the students make connections to their science content as well as learn new literacy skills and how to communicate with others.

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

Reflecting back on my personal theory of learning that I developed in the first week of this class, I focused on the constructivist theory, which explains that learning is unique to the individual and everyone learns in a different way.  Their own way of learning is effected by the classroom environment, their specific learning styles, and their motivation. Now that the class has come to an end and I have looked into each theory more in-depth I feel that I would modify my personal learning theory to include constructionism and social learning theories.  My style of teaching and the lessons that I write connect to the belief that people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others.  When students are actively engaged in constructing artifacts and conversing with others it helps them understand what they are learning (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008). 

Teaching in a science classroom allows for group interactions and performing labs where students work as a team to create a final artifact.  When my students do labs they are actively engaged in the learning process and forming interpersonal skills, positive interdependence, promotive interactions, and groups processing skills (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2008).  Creating an artifact demonstrates a higher level of understanding and thinking for the student because he or she must translate their knowledge to someone else.

This class has demonstrated the importance of learning strategies and the effect they have on student learning.  My teaching style closely relates to strategies ‘using cooperative learning’, ‘summarizing and note taking’, and ‘nonlinguistic representations’.  Integrating technology into my instructional practice can play a vital role when using these strategies.  Technology can allow the students to work together cooperatively, even when they are not face-to-face (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2008).  It can also guide the students by enhancing their ability to synthesize information into mental images.

I would like to continue to increase the amount of time my students are exposed to technology in my classroom.  Moving from a more teacher-centered use of instructional tools to using more student-centered learning tools is an immediate adjustment I would like to achieve.  The whole purpose is for the students to be engaged in the lesson.  So by allowing the students to interact with the technology they will increase their learning ability.  I would like to use WebQuests with my students to enhance their learning.  They will be able to work together and learn about a specific topic while solving a particular problem.  WebQuests use scientific inquiry and are designed to raise the students’ level of thinking, analyzing, and evaluating (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2008).  I would also like to integrate the use of multimedia, such as Power Point, into my lessons.  Currently I use movies and Power Point presentations as instructional tools.  In order to keep my students engaged and enhance their learning I will encourage my students to make Power Point presentations and multimedia presentations as their artifact to explain to the class.  This allows the students to utilize their specific learning style and deepen their understanding by communicating their knowledge to their classmates. 

One long-term goal I would like to make regarding my instructional strategies would be to make my classroom as interactive as possible.  My students should be actively involved in every lesson by communicating with their classmates and learning from their inferences.  Having a classroom blog where the students can ask questions and share ideas will allow them to continue their learning outside of class and make the homework more meaningful when ideas are discussed with another person.  Another goal would be to use more nonlinguistic representation models that the students can form for themselves.  Currently I will show the students a picture with a definition to go along with it.  This is not allowing the students to connect their own prior knowledge and deepen their understanding by retaining the information.  Using graphic organizers with Webspiration allows the students to connect their knowledge in a way that makes sense to them and insert pictures to go along with the information. 

As this course comes to an end I feel that I have gained a deeper understanding of my personal teaching style and the benefits that technology and learning strategies has on my students.  I will use my knowledge to engage my students in the learning process through cooperative interactions with each other and different technology.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Bridging Learning Theory, Instruction, and Technology [Educational video]. Baltimore: Orey

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

http://voicethread.com/?#u424473.b570176

Please visit my link to listen and comment on the problems my school is facing in Southern Maryland.  I teach in a fairly affluent area of the county, but money for the schools seems to go towards areas like state testing instead of updating our technology tools.  Leave a comment on my VoiceThread and let me know what you think about the situation.

Social Learning is all about students actively engaging in constructing artifacts and conversing with others (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008, Orey).  The idea is that by allowing students to collaborate ideas with each other they will understand what they are learning better.  A great instructional strategy that correlates with the social learning theory is Cooperative Learning.  This strategy “focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2008 p. 139). 

As educators we are preparing our students to be part of a global work place where they will be cooperatively communicating with other people.  Using technology in the classroom can help the students learn how to work together and communicate with each other- even if they are not together in the same room.

Students can use multimedia, such as making movies, to create archives together.  They work together with assigned ‘jobs’ to accomplish the project.  Web resources like WebQuests also provide students with inquiry-based activities where students work together to solve a problem. 

Using cooperative learning with technology lets students gain independence, work both as an individual and in a group, learn how to take responsibility, and work on communication skills.  When students work together they are actually teaching and learning from each other.  Social learning theory and cooperative learning strategy connect with each other because they both reflect the idea that when students work with each other they gain knowledge and understanding of content and the real world.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Social learning theories [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology . Baltimore : Orey.

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

This week in class we focused on the constructionist learning theory.  This is a theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008 Dr. Orey).  Generating and Testing Hypotheses is an instructional strategy that relates to the constructionist theory because when students generate and test their hypotheses, they become engaged in a complex thinking process where they apply their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of the content (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2008).  In other words, students can examine their thinking considering the information being learned. 

Incorporating technology into this strategy allows students to spend more time “interpreting the data rather than gathering the data” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2008).  This is very important because it allows the students to be engaged in the learning process and not wasting time with redundant calculations.  The students use critical thinking skills to generate their hypotheses, test their hypotheses, and draw conclusions.

Some technology discussed in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works included using spreadsheets like Excel, data collection tools like probes and the Internet, and web resources including gaming software.  These all allow the students to analyze, solve problems, investigate, inquire, and make decisions- all skills that connect to constructionist learning. 

Using spreadsheets allows students to see changes in data without wasting time performing calculations.  I sometimes use this software for my students when they are performing a lab.  They are able to perform the scientific process to reach a conclusion without the trouble of calculating math equations.  I also use laboratory tools to aid in my students inquiry.  They maneuver lab equipment to help solve their hypothesis and collect data. 

The most important aspect when using these technologies is that they allow the students to be active and engaged in the learning process.  Using technology can increase student motivation, which can lead to a greater learning retention. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Constructionist and Constructivist Learning Theories [Motion picture]. Bridging learning theory, instruction, and technology . Baltimore : Orey.

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