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What have I learned in this class One of the greatest lessons that I have learned from this course is that technology can be integrated into traditional classroom teaching in many meaningful ways. Many classroom technologies can be used without making drastic shifts in lesson planning. There are so many technologies that have been developed with classroom instruction in mind. The addition of technology use in the classroom aids in teaching diverse students. Technology can make differentiated instruction easier to achieve. Ultimately, implementing technology in classroom instruction is imperative to educating the 21st century student. The following is a list of tools and technologies that were used in ITD 645. I will discuss what the tool is, how I personally like the tool, how helpful it is to instruction, and if I plan on using it in my own teaching. Tools Google Suite (Google Form, Google Slides, and Google Docs) Google Suite is a web based service that is similar to Microsoft Office. It has many integrated collaboration features like real-time simultaneous group editing. This feature is great for group projects since it allows multiple students to work on the same presentation or document at the same time on their own computer, tablet, or phone. I personally am a huge fan of the Google Suite. I use it for all of my own processing, quizzes and tests, and presentation creation. I really like that I can access all of my files from any computer with an internet connection. Podcast A podcast is a digital voice recording that students can access both in school or at home. Podcasts are a great way to deliver content and explanation of concepts. This is a great tool to use if a teacher is using a flipped classroom design. I personally listen to a lot of podcasts, however I do not use them very often in my own teaching. I do sometimes make recordings of myself reading text aloud and posting it in Google Classroom for students that have difficulty reading or students who would rather listen than read the information. As I make the shift to teaching a new subject matter, mathematics, I will have to do some research and see how practical it is to incorporate this technology into my teaching. I feel that this technology is very good for Social Studies, ELA, and Science classes. Movie Story A movie story is the use of images, still or motion, to draw the attention of the student while verbally delivering content through an audio recording. There are many great resources for creating Movie Stories. I personally use iMovie on my MacBook, but Windows Movie Maker also works well. This tool is a great way to teach students who learn through different modalities. Whether a movie story is used in whole group or individual instruction, it is a great tool for delivering content and engaging students. This is a tool that I plan on utilizing more in my own instruction. I think that it could be very useful in demonstrating word problems and breaking down different ways to conceptualize the information contained within word problems. EDpuzzle EDpuzzle is a video clip editor that allows educators to embed questions within the video. The online service also has data collection features that show if the videos are being viewed and how well students are performing on the embedded assessments. This was a new tool for more and one that I fell in love with. I really think that EDpuzzle will be a great addition to my teaching. Anytime that I am showing a video, I can create formative assessments to assist in my students’ understanding of the material being presented. Blog & Forum This is a great tool for students to post weekly reflections on classwork, readings, problems in the course, etc. By allowing students the venue to reflect and respond to reflections, it allows students to organize their own thoughts about the coursework and assist other students who demonstrate gaps in their understanding. While having weekly reflections can be burdensome simply by having the weekly time due date, I really enjoy doing reflections. The use of Weebly.com for creating a blog roll has worked well for this technology. I am not sure how I would implement this into a math class though. I feel this is very well suited for classes with readings. It is not impossible to use it in a math class, however, it may be difficult to justify having students to write reflections in a math class to administrators. I believe many would be adverse to the idea of grading students on a writing component. Rubistar Rubistar is an online rubric creator. It has one feature that makes it really useful for educators, it has self generating fields based on input categories. This makes creating a rubric for a project or assignment very easy and quick. When teaching Social Studies, I used rubrics often. They were time consuming to create, however, Rubistar makes this a breeze. This is a product that I will be using in the future. Quizizz Quizizz is an online content review tool. The instructor can make a set or series of questions that students will then work through. There are other similar online programs like Quizzlet and Kahoot, but Quizizz has a few distinguishing features. Its most notable feature is that it allows students to work through items at their own pace. This takes away the impulsive answers, of platforms like Kahoot, and requires the student to thoughtfully progress through the set. After seeing Quizizz is action I plan to use this in my own teaching. I think it will help students that have anxiety issues with only having 20 seconds to answer a complicated question. Quizizz focuses on correct responses, which is what should be measured rather than speed. Thinglink Thinglink is a simple concept map design that allows the teacher to embed website or video links over the concept map. Students then can hover over the map and select different links to fully explore the concept. The media that is embedded can be externally linked or integrated through Thinklin’s internal database of sources. This is a tool that I would have demo more before I used it in one of my math classes. I personally like the tool if I were teaching a Social Studies class. It would be a great way to introduce a new unit or lesson concept. Scoopit Scoopit is a web based scrolling news feed that is curated by the instructor. This tool allows the instructor to tag or scoop websites and display the linked information in an appealing visual demonstration. When planning a unit, it would be a very useful tool to use to organize all of the articles, videos, and websites that could be used to teach the unit. Then it could be refined to smaller topics. I really like the layout of Scoopit and its visual components. I will be looking to see how I can implement this into my class. Padlet Padlet is an online bulletin board that allows an instructor to curate a board and also allows for multiple editors so that students could also assist in the board creation. I think this is a very useful tool to map out a topic with students. Articles, videos, blogs, and websites can be linked to create a mind map that is visually appealing and very interactive. Students can then use the platform to view information at home or in class. I like that Padlet offers several different ways to view the information on its page. This would also be a great tool for planning a unit or a lesson. I feel that it is something that could be easily integrated into a class structure and will aid in student collaboration. My strong and weak points I really do not feel that learning a new technology is a very difficult thing for me to do. I really enjoy technology and showing others how to use the technology. I am constantly asked to show a colleague how to operate a feature of Google Apps or research a particular technology. My weak point would be that I am very much a creature of habit. Once I find something that works great, I have a tendency to only want to use that one program or feature. Future learning goals In the future I want to continue looking for tools that will encourage student learning and make teaching a streamlined process. To accomplish this I plan to continue researching technologies and be reflective and open to changing the technologies that I use in class. To do this I have subscribed to several education technology newsletters, blogs, and vlogs. This will keep new trends in my purview. I also want to do a better job of creating and leading professional developments to demonstrate how other teachers can use these tools in their own classrooms to increase student achievement.
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Question #3: Consider your level of educational technology literacy as you complete this course. How competent do you believe you are in order to teach in a technology-rich environment? What other opportunities would you search for to become even more proficient in the use of technology in the classroom? As I finish ITD 645 I feel confident in my level of technological literacy. I have always been somewhat of a techie. I have quickly begun integrating new technologies into my classrooms. Many of the technology pieces I use have been focused on making teaching easier for me. However, during the course of this class I have found many new technology pieces that will be beneficial for my students, aiding them in a richer depth of learning. I have fallen in love with Quizizz, GimKit, Edpuzzle, Padlet, and one new technology not from the class, Poll Everywhere. These new additions to my teaching will help students with brainstorming, having focused content delivery, and also help me with formative assessments during lessons. I feel that these additions with help me to be the most effective teacher I can, as well as drawing students into purposeful, relevant, instruction. To help keep up with changing technologies and also find new technologies that could be implemented in teaching, I would suggest following a few newsletters, blogs, and video blogs. First, EdSurge has a great news section for educational technologies for PK-12. This site has new content and technology reviews posted regularly. Also, Edutopia has great articles and newsletters that aid in proper tech use and new technologies. Second, find a good blogger that offers tech resources. A few that I like are EdTech RoundUp and Steve Hargadon. They both frequently write technology posts and with worthwhile content. Lastly, find a few vloggers that you can follow that will keep you up to date on emerging technologies. If you need help with Google Classroom, follow Alice Keeler. Keeler has created many great tutorials and helps for Google Classroom and always demos new features. Another great vlog to follow is friEd Technology by Amy Mayer. Question #2: There is a fine line between students’ right to express themselves (freedom of speech) and the requirement that educators must protect all students from inappropriate commentary and invasion of privacy. How will you handle balancing your student’s right to express and the requirement that they behave as good digital citizens when using technology in school? Give examples. Background I am a huge proponent of free speech. The freedom to speak one's mind and conviction is a cornerstone of Libertine Principles and a part of the founding ethos of American Society. I firmly believe that people should be allowed to speak boldly. The freedom of speech is a two edged sword though. It can be a great tool that allows one to know the true nature of the individual. It is a window into the very soul of people. I feel this is important for our public discourse as well as education in general. However, there is another side to free speech: an ugly side. Today, many struggle with the concept of free speech itself. If people are totally free to say anything they feel, what stops them from saying truly evil things? What stops people from being racist, intolerant, or bigoted? This is a very big issue today, especially with digital speech. The digital platform amplifies free speech to a colossal magnitude. People are less likely to filter themselves when they post. Sometimes they post statements out of ignorance or possibly even hate. Should this be allowed in an educational sphere? I personally believe that the educational atmosphere should give students the most freedom to express themselves as possible. This allows the educator to truly know the depth of knowledge of content matter and even learn the thought processes of their students. Inevitably though, students will say things on digital platforms that are intolerant or harmful to other students. If this happens here are a few suggestions: Show Grace My personal development as an educator, even more basely as a human, has taken a long time. I have held a variety of viewpoints in the past. Some viewpoints that were ignorant, viewpoints that were acceptable but wrong, and viewpoints that were harmful to myself and others. It has taken years of mentorship to develop me into the person I am today. Today, I am a very tolerant person. Not that I agree with views or lifestyles of everyone I talk to, however, I value them as a peer and a fellow citizen. I have had many times where I was personally pulled aside and shown grace by teachers, parents, friends, and coworkers. In these moments I learned to see my own views for what they were. Students need to be able to make mistakes. It is my role as an educator to show grace and help develop students into great citizens. Be Vigilant My first year of using Google Classroom was fraught with errors. No one at my school was using this LMS and I had no idea how to fine tune the settings to best suite my class. Google Classroom has a integrated social media component that lets students post to a news feed. I was made aware before class one day that several students were posting inappropriate things on the feed. It was at this point that I realized that I had to become more vigilant or more oppressive. I could easily turn off all communication through the site. Turning off the lines of communication though limits students' access to me. I had a two week long project with a Monday due date. There was one student that had some confusion about a part of the assignment. They could have asked on Friday, but they either forgot or had not even encountered their question yet. I got a notification at 10:30 pm and was able to answer my student's question, guiding them to success. This small freedom, gave them the ability to achieve. For this reason I made it a daily practice to peruse the news feed. Yes, some students posted inappropriate things. They had their posts deleted, their account voice muted, and some strong mentorship lol. This is a small change that helped so many of my students. Have a Plan It is a given that there will be inappropriate use of free speech each year. It is important to decide what steps you will take before the situation arises. One of the greatest tools that I use is an arm of the PBIS program called Social-Emotional Learning. I frequently have students write reflections or fill out a reflections form that I issue them for behavioral reasons. Having students write about their behavior makes them more thoughtful about how it impacts them and others. It also gives them time to process their actions and gives them an option on how to rectify their behavior. Here are links to the forms that I use: Behavior Reflection Sheet and Behavior Reflection Issued Form. These two forms are my go to. One is a student reflection and the other is a tracking form that I personally use. It lets me see who has been issued a form and also allows me check if they have turned it back in. Also, I read their reflection and rate the integrity of the writing. I have received reflections that missed their purpose. Week 7 Group Reflection
This week was another very easy week for our group dynamic. I really feel that we have found a great rhythm and system for getting our group work done. This week we had solid communication early on. We delegated assignments and made a plan for getting everything accomplished. It was another smooth week. I worked on the Rubistar assignment this week. I have made many rubrics for class assignments over the past two years. Generally, a good rubric takes a lot of time to create. The Rubistar program was great for quickly creating a rubric using a list of generic grading fields. The site was a little cumbersome and quirky to operate at first, but I managed and was able to create a detailed rubric using the system. Saving the file was awkward. The site renders the file into an antiquated Excel format that has issued opening in MS Excel. I uploaded the file to Google Drive and Google Sheets had no ability to open as it was intended. I believe that a PDF format is the way to go if you chose to use Rubistar. Quizizz vs. Kahoot One of the greatest differences I discovered with Quizizz is that students are not pressured for time. Allowing students to complete the assignment on their own timing allows the student to demonstrate competency of a standard on their own terms. A non-competitive student, who would normally give up in a Kahoot, is allowed to finish the Quizizz at their own pace. This helps to increase proficiency as well as the depth of knowledge. Project 10 Rubistar Rubric - Your Ideal Colony PowerPoint Project Quizizz Project 11 Thinglink Scoopit Question #3: Select the five distance-learning technologies that you would prefer to use if you were teaching a distance-education or blended course. Reflect on your teaching style and your students’ learning styles and how each of the selected technologies would be received, depending on the students’ learning styles. (Two students can answer this question) My Top Five As an educator there are a few criterion that are musts for a technology that I use in-class or for distance learning. The first is that the tech needs to be free. The second is that it needs to be easy. The final thing is that the technology needs to be easily applied to both in-class instruction and distance learning. The following list was created with these three criterion in mind.
I feel that these technologies integrate well within my teaching style. I have always used a lot of technology in my classroom. I currently use Google Classroom as my LMS. This allows students to know when assignments are due, as well as have access to all my course materials 24 hours a day. Note might get lost, but there is another set waiting to be printed on Classroom. I also have used Khan Academy a great deal for their articles as a supplement to the textbook and class lectures. Khan Academy fully integrates with Google Classroom and makes for easy assignment transfer between the platforms. I imagine that I will use Loom a lot more this year than I have in the past. I usually use Loom to teach make-up lessons that students request. I teach the lecture portion of the class using the picture-in-picture function on Loom, and then post the URL link for the student(s) in Google Classroom. New additions to my teaching tech repertoire for this year will be Poll Everywhere and Edpuzzle. During the coursework for ITD 645 I discovered Poll Everywhere and was able to use it to create a Slides presentation with integrated formative assessments. I plan on using this feature nearly every day this upcoming year. Currently I will be teaching some students on campus and some online simultaneously. Poll Everywhere will allow me to pull online students into the classroom experience by allowing them to interact in the class in real time. Additionally, Edpuzzle will allow me to create supplemental videos that contain that similar formative assessment piece. I feel the two technologies will improve both the in-class experience, as well as the distance learning experience. Group Reflection for Week 6 This week flowed really smoothly like last week. Early in the week, Melissa scheduled a Microsoft Teams meeting where we discussed the group projects for the week, as well as the weekly blog questions. We discussed our group member's strengths and weaknesses pertaining to the week's agenda, and then we split up the assignments based on our strengths. This week I worked on creating an Edpuzzle video for the group and also contributed to the resources page on our group's website. The week was very productive, stress free, and I learned a great new technology that I want to use in my class this next year. Week 6 Projects Project 6 Movie Story - Life in the New England Colonies Project 7 Edpuzzle Video - Life in Colonial America - Access Code: girehke Project 8 Course Site - The 13 Colonies Project 9 Padlet - 13 Colonies Question #2: Many are concerned about the use of social media in school. Describe your views of the pros and cons of using social media. How will you use this tool in your classroom and what are your greatest concerns in doing so? Social Media Use in School Statistics from Pew Research state that as much as 90% of children ages 13-17 use a social media platform and 71% use multiple platforms. A 2018 study found that 85% of students 13-17 use YouTube. 72% of students use Instagram and 69% use Snapchat. It is clear that a majority of the students we teach are daily using social media platforms. It has become a normal part of their lives. The real question, however, is should this platform be integrated into their educational experiences as well? The following is a 2013 list of Pros and Cons from teacherthought.com. The goal of this blog is to see if the pros and cons, which are now over seven years old, have become dated and need to be revised, or if they are still prescient for today's educators. The Pros 1. Engaged Students are More Successful 2. Social Media Teaches Important Life Lessons 3. It's 'Real World' Engagement is a top priority for teachers. If a student is engaged in the lesson they will retain what is taught at a deeper level. Social Media connects the classroom to the world around the school. Current events, trends, and ideas can easily be incorporated into the classroom. Also, many students perceive Social Media as the real world. It is what they are most familiar with, and honestly, the most stable and uniform part of life for students nationwide. One of my favorite class projects is to create a low-tech Social Media thread or profile. Students are much more engaged in creating a Facebook or Instagram profile of a historical figure than writing a biography. Both exercises are performing the same tasks, however, many students engage in the social media project while they abhor the biography. The Cons 1. The Internet Is a New Medium For Bullying 2. Social Media Can Be a Time Suck 3. The Internet Is a Dangerous Place The Cons for using social media are strangely prescient for adults as well as students. Social media is a haven for trolls and bullies. As an adult, I have a hard time managing my time and usage of social media. I know that students have more difficulty putting their phones down. Countless hours have been wasted scrolling through news feeds and camera rolls. Also, there seems to be a limitless amount of phishing scams that are pushed on social media. As I scroll through Facebook, I see numerous people everyday claiming to have been "hacked." The truth is that they are clicking unsecure links on social media that gives their information to a third party phishing organization. Adults and students fall prey to these information attacks on a daily basis. This does not even touch on the more criminal sectors of the internet like under-age pornography and sex trafficking that specifically targets teenagers across the United States. For classroom use it is important to use a neutral platform. I really like using the news stream in Google Classroom. Students can post questions, comments, photos, etc. At the beginning of the year students must be taught social media etiquette for the class use of social media. Also, the teacher should set rigid expectations regarding the class' social media page. The teacher must also constantly monitor the feed to ensure that the online class environment is being kept a safe and neutral space for learning. It is time consuming, but the benefits of having students connected to the teacher in a professional capacity throughout the evenings and weekends has been a big help for my own classroom. I am always happy to answer weekend questions about an assignment. That real, or quicktime, feedback is necessary for student success. Project 2-5 Reflection This week our group projects seemed to run very smoothly. We meet early in the week to discuss each project and our team members personal strengths, weaknesses, and choices on the week's assignments. We also set a time frame to have all of our rough drafts done so that our group members could view, make edits, and sign off on the assignments. We really hit our stride this week. I personally worked on two of the assignments this week. Amelia and I teamed up, mostly Amelia, on the project 2 assignment. We started with a general framework of the lesson and I inserted comments and suggested activities. I also worked on the project 4 assignment creating a Google Slides presentation and a reading assignment using Google Docs. Melissa assisted me with this assignment. One thing that I have yet to utilize in my own classes is the Poll Everywhere Add-on for Google Slides. This tool is an amazing formative assessment tool. It allows the instructor to add questions that can be answered in real time by the student within the Google Slide presentation. The answers can be submitted via and website or text messaging. The classes results are then displayed instantaneously. I used two of the features (Poll Everywhere has many more) within our group presentation. I started the presentation with asking students to type a one word response to what the word "Southern" brings to mind. Poll Everywhere then turns the results into a word wall that can be discussed as an attention grabber. I also had two other formative assessment multiple choice style questions in the presentation. I really like the functionality of this Google Slide add-on and plan on using it in this upcoming school year. My district has proposed that students will be able to choose to do traditional, staggered days, or fully online school this year. Teachers will have to accommodate whatever choice the student and their family makes. Using Poll Everywhere will allow me to foster classroom engagement as I have live stream and traditional settings being taught simultaneously. Students at home will be able to participate in the class just like as student in the room. Projects 2-5 Files Project 2 - Lesson Plan Project 3 - Technology Survey Project 4 - Google Doc Project 4 - Google Slide Project 5 - Podcast Week 5 Group Evaluation This week we were tasked with writing a grant that included $20,000 of tech and furniture purchases to make the ideal 21st century classroom. In addition to the purchases, we also had to develop a Dynamic Instruction Design model lesson plan that showed how the purchases would be utilized in the classroom. The project had a lot of moving parts but we were able to complete this using collaborate internet-based tools. The initial planning of our project was done through group text messaging. This worked for the initial stages, however, as the project complexities began to really kick in adjustments had to be made to our method of communication. We also utilized Microsoft Teams meet to talk directly and make use of a screen sharing feature for us to all see the same thing at the same time. In addition to MS Teams, we used Google Sheets to create a spreadsheet of our fixed assets and project purchases, and Google Docs to edit our final document in real time collaboratively. Working on projects this way is very exciting. It is fun to see how everyone dives in and begins brainstorming, editing, and fixing up the final project. Truly, the collaborative internet-based technologies made the project. Without this feature and functionality, there would have been no way to finish this first project in a timely manner. One thing that would help in our future projects is to have firm group roles assigned before the work begins. We did have a small amount of confusion in our group, however we quickly worked our way through it. Three of our group members had a lot of work to do this week in another summer class. This divided our time and caused us to delay the start of our project. I believe our next projects will operate more smoothly. We already have a plan in order for our next week to meet early and delegate responsibilities. I am looking forward to more collaborative group working with this bunch. Project 1: Grant Proposal Question #3: Gifted students have special needs just as other students with unique needs. Imagine yourself the teacher of a gifted class. Select a lesson you are familiar with teaching and reflect on how it would need to be changed to address the needs of gifted students. What technologies would you employ to support this change? One of my favorite topics that I have taught over the past two years has been how Native Americans came to the Americas. There is good evidence of peoples crossing a land bridge between modern day Siberia and Alaska, the is evidence of people traveling around glaciers by boats hugging the coastlines from Asia to North America, possible evidence of Australian aboriginals in Brazil (wild), and there has even emerged some evidence of Europeans traveling by boat hugging the coastlines similar to ancient Asians. It is a very fun topic to discuss and students are genuinely interested in the thoughts and theories. I usually bring in some arrowheads and spear points that have been found locally to bring in a physical connection to the subject to assist students that are tactile learners. Thinking about the question presented above I will offer a low tech solution to enriching this topic for gifted students as well as an internet enrichment. Low Tech: Can You Do a Science Experiment in History Class? Absolutely! One great way to enrich this topic is by having students perform an experiment in class. One of the theories of how Native Americans came to North American centers on crossing a land bridge called Beringia. How is it possible that there was a land bridge 10,000 years ago and not one today? Well it all has to do with stacking or trapping water on land. This is accomplished through thousands of years of snowpack that turns into glaciers. This can be demonstrated by using a large bowl, a cup, a sponge, and a pitcher of water. Take a solo cup and make incremental markings up the side. Then pour water into the large bowl. Fill the solo cup with water (this is so it will not float and stay submerged in the large bowl of water) and place it into the large bowl of water. Have students take note of where the water level falls on the lines on the outside of the cup. Then, take a sponge and soak up water from around the cup and place the sponge on top of the cup. In this demonstration, the water is of course the water level of the oceans, the cup represents the world's landforms, and the sponge represents glaciers. The amount of water in the experiment remains constant (just as in our world), however, the water level and the amount of land visible above the water can change by the amount of water trapped on land in the form of glaciers. This is a great tactile and visual adaptation to an abstract lecture topic. High Tech: Using GIS Mapping and Computer Modeling to Recreate Beringia Now that students have a concept of how sea levels can change, take them to the web and let them see how geologists are mapping exactly what Beringia would have looked like over 10,000 years ago. One great resource is from Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research of the University of Colorado (INSTAAR). INSTAAR has utilized Global Imaging Satellites to map the Bering Strait and created a model of what Beringia would have possible looked like. Click Here. This site have a few Quicktime videos that show the visible change in sea level as time passes. Students can click and drag the video cursor and watch this change take place. The website also has several other links available to other INSTAAR pages on paleoenvironment, Field Notes (primary source), the marine climate of Beringia, and INSTAAR's GIS laboratory. It is truly amazing at the amount of enrichment information contained in this one site link. Students are able to see a graphic and interactive demonstration of lecture material, as well as delve into other topics of self interest that were not covered in the class lecture. What Tech Is Needed? It is remarkable to me that the high tech option for this lesson enrichment is less work on the teacher and requires less material. The only items needed for the high tech option is an internet capable device. Just one item needed to add a lot of differentiation to a lesson on Native American migration. This is one reason why it is so important to increase the amount of available classroom technology here in Mississippi schools. Also, it is important that history classes also have access to these technologies. Many schools that have high rates of poverty have used Title 1 funds to purchase Chromebooks or tablets to assist teaching ELA, Math, and Science. There is currently a boom in available history resources that are web based, however, tested subject areas get priorities on new technology use. Question 3: With so many academic resources available to teachers, it can be difficult to decide how and where they fit into instruction. What process will you use to go about identifying and evaluating active learning software for your classroom? Choosing the Right Technology = Engagement + Content Transfer At first this is a difficult question, how does a teacher decide on the right technology. Ultimately, any classroom technology should be a corollary to sound pedagogy. Transferring content knowledge to the student is the goal, however, it is easy to fall into the trap of students using technology as a passive time waster. You have no doubt seen this following scenario. Today is Wednesday. That means it is my scheduled time to use one of the school's computer labs. Our school pays for a school wide subscription to IXL for math, science, ELA, and Social Studies. Today, my students will be working on proportional rates. We have had a few class activities on this topic already and my students know the material ok. When we get to the lab, my students mostly just play the games. They seldom read the lesson portion of the program and the practice questions they just guess. In this scenario, the students are passive learners. They are not engaged in the material. Some might be learning the content, but for many, Wednesdays are just the day they get to play games instead of having math class. So how does this change to using technology for engagement? TPACK is a good start. TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and it is a graphic way to think about your overall class structure, goals of content transfer, and the use of technology. As the instructor, I have some of all of these knowledge fields. My goal though, is to land in center domain. Most traditional schooling falls into the Pedagogical Content Knowledge region. That is where teaching and content collide without the assistance of technology. The goal for today's learner though is to use technology in a way that serves the knowledge transfer of the PCK domain with the addition of technology. In the educational realm, tech can be a tool for limitless engagement if the right piece is chosen.
To begin, I will use this framework to look at my current technology use in the classroom and determine if it is a healthy or unhealthy use of technology. Does it fit into the sweet spot, the TPACK domain. Then, I can redesign my current class structure to incorporate more tech use keeping in the TPACK framework in mind. For more on TPACK look at the following resources:
Question 4: You will no doubt have a variety of technologies to use in your school and in your classroom. Do you feel you are ready to make the most of these technologies to help you teach and help your students learn? What can you do to further prepare yourself? Where to Begin This is a true sticking point for every teacher. The planning phase of instruction is very difficult. Not only must the teacher be the classroom expert on the subject at hand, they also have to select the right strategies to deliver the content. My first year of teaching I really struggled with this portion of teaching. I taught 7th grade US History in a low socio-economic area of Mississippi. There were not even textbooks in my classroom, although I did find some about 4 weeks into the school year. My classroom technology was very limited. The only piece of technology that was in my room was a Smartboard, a school laptop, and my own MacBook. At first my class did not use much tech, however I began looking on ways to skirt around many of my classroom problems. In this post I will give a few practical pointers that are low to no tech, some high tech, and how I use them to promote interaction. No Tech or Low Tech In a classroom with no textbooks and limited technology I had to get creative. Much of my course content was delivered using Commonlit, NewsELA, and Readworks. These three sites all produce articles that are great for delivering content for History, English, and sometimes Science. In addition to printouts, the class really focused on vocabulary and lecture, both of which used Google Slide presentations. While my class was low tech, I still created a website through Google Sites. This is a free service provided through Google and can be found in its online apps. My site contained all of the class materials that we used. All the articles from class, the guided notes I handed out, and the Google Slides. I printed slips of paper that were sent home with the website information, and I posted a Quick Response (QR) code that linked to my website in several areas around the room so students could scan the link and save it to their phone. Higher Tech It was about halfway through the year that I learned about Donorschoose.org. This is an amazing tool to help teachers get classroom resources. I made a fundraiser to purchase 20 Amazon Fire tablets. It was about $1,700 to get tablets, cases, and a 24 port usb charging station (highly recommend). I pushed this fundraiser and raised about $500. I was sad that it seemed like it was going nowhere. Then one day I received an email that a New York branch of Google had seen my fundraiser on the Donorschoose site and paid off the remainder of my fundraising needs. Within a week of the email I received 20 tablets with cases and a charging station. I was the envy of my hallway. These tablets, though cheap and quirky, exploded the use of tech in my classroom. We quickly stopped using the website I had created and shifted to using Google Classroom as our Learning Management System. I also used the tablets in our classroom learning centers. I would post a QR that linked to the assignment for each center. Students would enter their center, scan the QR, and begin the assignment. I also had a clipboard with paper versions in case the internet was down or a student was more comfortable using a hard copy (you got to differentiate right). The students loved using the tablets. It made many of them more comfortable in class. I began seeing many follow along with the slide presentations on their tablets during lecture. Some students would zoom in so they could see the words more clearly. Some would go back to previous slides and get those last few words written down (without yelling, Mr. Routon, I wasn't done!). Planning for Interaction It was also during my first year of teaching that I was taken aback at the research being done in student growth. We had a Professional Development session that centered on John Hattie's research into Visible Learning. In this PD, it was shown that students that engage in collaborative learning could grow as much as 2-3 years worth of normal instruction in one year. Whether or not that claim by Hattie is true would have to be backed by research (which I'm sure it is but I have not looked at it), however, collaboration means interaction and engagement. That's what I wanted for my classroom and for my students. The need for interaction prompted me to shift my classroom learning style towards collaborative learning communities, (or groups). I did not just lump students together and hope for the best though. I had a meticulously planned center rotation and had students evaluate their group members every week for a grade. The class was fun, student centered, and I was able to see learning happen. Interaction must be planned for, but it does not have to be a one-size-fits-all answer. Interaction and collaboration can be done through project-based learning, small groups, tweets, live polling, etc. The goal is to have students be engaged with you and each other. If you want to venture into the realm of centers or stations planning I will post some of the resources that I have created. You are free to change or modify them to fit your needs. Also, I would be happy to talk more personally with anyone interested in using this strategy in their classroom. Resources for Centers:
Question #2: Think back on a classroom environment in which you were not as successful as you might have wanted to be. What were the factors that you encountered from the teacher and/or other students that may have hindered your learning? How will you mitigate such factors in your own classroom? Poor Classroom Environment Online classes can be amazing. They usually come in two varieties, live meetings and asynchronous. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, however, live meeting classes can be especially taxing if the online class environment is not carefully guarded. Just as in-person classes, online classes can have boisterous personalities, technology issues, and a plethora of other distractions. So the following is a list of dos and don'ts to stop poor online classroom environments. #1The Instructor Has To Be The Prevailing Voice This does not mean that the instructor is the center of the attention all the time, because best practices state that a student centered learning model is one of the most effective ways to build a meaningful educational experience. What this does mean though is that the instructor must keep control of the class. There is nothing quite as aggravating as paying for a class and the instructor not being able to teach because of individuals with boisterous and loud personalities. As this situation occurs in a virtual class session, students begin to become visibly agitated and even begin to tune out becoming absent minded. As an instructor, begin each session with a reminder of professional behaviors. It might even be necessary to have a professionalism rubric and a grade to aid in maintaining good class practices. Also, it may be incumbent to mute a student that continues to talk over instruction or bulldoze a group setting. #2 Its Murphy's Law: If It Can Go Wrong; It Will Every online class that I have participated in, as instructor or student, has had at least one technology issue each class session. There are numerous avenues for tech issues to spring up in a class. The online platform may have connectivity issues or a sharing feature that does not work. An external microphone may cause an echo loop as some students talk. If you are using Google Meet, a shared link will allow someone into the meeting, however, unless their email address is listed in the meeting invites, they will be able to hear the meeting audio only and their video and mic options are disabled. Most of these are minor issues, but they can become real headaches in the middle of a class session. It is important to test features before a class meeting. If you are unsure of how to operate a feature that will be used in a class session, set up a private meeting with a colleague that has more experience using the platform, or that will give you honest feedback. The key to online instruction and education is flexibility. You have to just roll with it sometimes. #3 Random Distractions Classes will inevitably have distractions. There will always be someone eating a gourmet meal, playing with background filters, playing on Facebook, taking their class at a football game, or have a party going on in the background. Distractions will be a part of any online education process that involves live sessions. As an instructor it is important to have a discussion about class etiquette and professionalism. As stated earlier, it may be necessary to have a rubric and a grade for professionalism added to the coursework. As a student, it is important to not be the distraction. If you are pressed for time and have to eat a meal during class, mute the video feed so class can continue with the distraction. If you are required to work at a football or basketball game during a class time, make sure to keep the audio muted and be mindful of the video feed. Have a stagnant background that removes as much of the distraction as possible for other students. Many of the random distractions can be avoided by being mindful of others. Basically, if it is not good to do it in a classroom, it is not good to do it in an online classroom. I am sure that many more items could be added to this list. What are your thoughts? |
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