Course Reflection
The course has provided me with weekly opportunities to stretch my technology muscles and envision some creative ways to support my students' learning using technology. The ISTE Standards for Educators is one way to measure how the knowledge from the course can translate into the classroom. I've taken each standard and detailed how activities and tools from the course connect. ISTE Standard for Educators 1.Leaner. 1b. Pursue professional interests by creating and actively participating in local and global learning networks. – Our group work within class was the creation of a national learning network. Each week with a group project allowed us to engage, plan, and execute activities that can support student learning and growth within a subject area. 2.Leader. 2a. Shape, advance and accelerate a shared vision for empowered learning with technology by engaging with education stakeholders. – As a national learning network, we are the education stakeholders bringing to the network a variety of skills and perspectives. In working through group assignments, we rotated leadership in creating activities for student engagement. 3.Citizen. 3b. Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of online resources and fosters digital literacy and media fluency. The use of applications like Padlet, Thinglink and Quizizz are rooted in this standard with interactive aspects that engage students in discovery learning using a variety of online tools. 4. Collaborator 4a. Dedicate planning time to collaborate with colleagues to create authentic learning experiences that leverage technology. Many of the tools (Quizizz, Padlet, Thinglink, Edpuzzle, Zoom) require educators to know the material and plan accordingly for students to have authentic learning experiences using technology. Each of the tools gave us a variety of ways to make that happen. 5. Designer 5a. Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs. – The video assignment aligns with this standard by allowing the teacher easily accessible tools to adapt and personalize content that will support different learning styles and abilities. 5b. Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and use digital tools and resources to maximize active, deep learning. – The first activity in creating a lesson plan and survey was centered around using standards to drive the activities created for the lesson. 6. Facilitator 6b. Manage the use of technology and student learning strategies in digital platforms, virtual environments, hands-on makerspaces or in the field. – The course site is a great example of this standard. The site provides learning experiences, extension activities and resources to deepen the opportunity for learning on a digital platform. 7. Analyst 7a. Provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate competency and reflect on their learning using technology. The tool Rubistar, Kahoot, Edpuzzle and Quizizz are tools utilized in this course that provide alternative ways for students to demonstrate acquisition of knowledge. Blog Reflections This activity (blog reflections) was a good way to deepen the learning through virtual classmate engagement. I never saw this as a tool until this class. In grouping students, you are able to create a connection and build some sense of community. This activity required use to negotiate, collaborate, and commit to others. It was helpful to break up the assignment of responding to the questions while getting to see what others are thinking and have experienced. In my teaching, I would use it to help students reflect other’s work in a meaningful way. Comments on Blog Reflections The comments on the reflection questions were a chance to learn and expand perspective. It’s a virtual online writing dialogue. The comments are helpful if we were required to respond to them as the receiver or provide a new piece of information as the giver. That exchange actually provides the layer of engagement that goes beyond just checking off a box. In my teaching, the comments would have an outline for students to follow for some uniformity and require a response so that both students can extend the learning. Videos The course videos were pretty good. I appreciate the attention to different learning styles and providing a clear visual aid that aligns with the reading. Week three with chapters 4-6 had videos that were full of good foundational information. I learned more about technology and software that are necessary for fully cultivating a digital education space. Additionally, Week six with chapter 8 gave me some new pieces of information to extend my learning around using videos. Individual/Group Hands-On Projects The projects for the course do a good job of connecting the reading with interactive activities. The course site was by far my favorite because I learned the most. We selected Google Sites for our website which forced me to do more with the program. Since we had an assignment, it made the trial-and-error to get the site done more educational than just taking a class on how to set-up a site. Additionally, it was nice having others to learn from and hear about how they were able to successfully post and/or integrate outside technology. The group learning for this project gave each of us true ownership of a great final project. Some challenges with the applications and programs is having adequate time to master them prior to using with students. My learning curve comes with applicable experience with the tools. Many of the technologies from this course are now in my tool kit of resources to support the work I do with my students. Rubistar really changed my game on providing students with a guide on how assignments and activities will be graded. Edpuzzle combined with Kahoot and Quizizz will allow for more interactive opportunities for students between classes and with me. My future learning goal is to extend my knowledge with multimedia tools including Adobe Suite, Audacity, and Garage Band. I want to increase my technology skills around the creation of educational media.
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Reflection
Chapter 9 #1 Assume that one of your students tells you that an enrichment class at your school has developed a website and that every student’s name and picture will be available on the website as a talent directory. What concerns do you have about this discovery and how would you approach your colleague and your school to address these concerns? My initial concern is that the enrichment class teacher was unaware of policies that protect the rights of students including publicly displaying their name and likeness online. I would further probe the student to see if certain precautions were taken to gain permission from school administration and student parents. My approach would cover five steps: -Relationships: If the colleague in question and I have limited interactions, I would locate (quickly) someone within the department that I know well or is directly engaging with them on a regular basis. -Facts: I would take the information from the student including getting access to the communications related to said website. This allows me to have some additional information besides what the student claims. -Communicate: I would attempt to make the initial communication in person by just inquiring about the talent directory and getting information from them on how students are being included/listed. -Educate: I would share with them the school and district policy about student information and see if there is another way to have a directory that works within the confines of the policy. -Document: I would send an email my colleague recapping our conversation and include school administration or my direct supervisor to ensure that everyone is aware of what took place The biggest piece for me is that the default is lack of knowledge so providing my colleague with information is key. Chapter 10 #1 Project ten years into the future. You have now been a classroom teacher for the past 7-8 years. Technology has probably changed significantly between the time you completed your student teaching and now. What options have you considered – and perhaps taken – to stay current in technology? The interesting thing about this question is that it is my current lived experience. I began teaching in 1998 with a single computer in my classroom. We were just starting to use a program to input grades while still using a physical gradebook. I’ve been fortunate that my jobs have encouraged professional development around technology and learning new applications to support classrooms. I take full advantage of all opportunities that allow me to learn a new skill and expose me to new and innovative tech tools for educators. My current option that I am taking is the Graduate Certificate in Instructional Technology. As an educator during and prior to the pandemic, it’s critical to know what technology is being used and what kinds of tools are projected for the future. Schools from K-12 to graduate schools are using technology to deliver innovative and progressive curriculum in an effort to reach more students. Learning Experience: The final group project was to create a course site based on the topic we selected for our lesson during Week 5. Our subject was English and the lesson was MLA formatting. In creating the site, we decided to use Google Sites which proved to be a great idea! We've been using Google docs since the beginning of class to sign up for the reflection questions and share information throughout the class. My jobs over the past decade have used Google Suites in a variety of ways. I've taken some courses to assist in navigating the products including Google sites. I was interested in creating sites and even attempted for two years. The learning curve was too steep and the time for full understanding was even more limited. Fast forward to this class, I was happy to know we would be using Google Sites. Learning is much more powerful in the moment and with group support. This project was perfect for a team of five in that everyone could take full ownership of an aspect. Each aspect held equal importance and allowed each of us to exercise creativity. My section was Resources. Honestly, I thought it would just be a combination of our previous assignment as resources. Thank goodness I read the requirements! This page called for five or more websites that students could use to support our MLA lesson. I took some time just searching for some different types of resources and ultimately decided to have a mixed set to address the various learning styles of students. In addition to the websites, I wanted to have videos on the page for students to access. It was important to make sure students with different learning styles could find a resource that would support them. So, there are over a dozen options. ENJOY! Project 11: 6th Grade English Course Site (REVISED) My Learning Experience: This week was about assessments and evaluation of skills taught using online tools. In teaching diverse learners, we have to also provide a variety of ways for those learners to show what they have learned. Quizizz and Kahoot are cool and engaging ways to assess student knowledge. Kahoot can only be done during live engagement while Quizizz can service both synchronous and asynchronous learning. I have used Kahoot and find that both students and adults really get fired up when answering questions. It's pretty cool. Quizizz has some nice tools as well including tracking student progress. Rubistar is awesome and changed the game in how I provide metrics for evaluation. I really like this site and think it's something I will definitely will be using to create rubrics. We also explored extending learning by providing resources and spaces for students to seek more knowledge. Our designated tools were Padlet and Thinglink. Both tools provide the same thing - a resource page for students that can be centered on a single topic or for a general subject. The biggest difference is that Padlet works like a bulletin board where you can post things (videos, pictures, notes, etc) related to the topic for students. Depending on the permissions, students can also post notes and add to the "pad". Thinglink actually uses a picture to drive the review and hyperlink parts of the picture. The hyperlinks can range from a note, a voice message, video, or another picture. Padlet is the most user-friendly and provides a great way interact with students. Thinglink has some benefits, however, the interface and cumbersome navigation make it difficult to fully embrace. It does offer a way to diversify information to support different learning styles. Overall, this week was full of some great tools. Project 9: Padlet Link: Padlet Thinglink Links: Thinglink - MLA Formating Thinglink - Getting Started Thinglink - MLA 101 Thinglink - MLA Organization Thinglink - MLA Diagram Project 10: Rubric Project 10: Quiz via Quizizz Reflection
Chapter 8 #2 Reflecting on your experience with the following subjects, (language arts, mathematics, history, science, music), which ones do you think would be adaptable for distance education and which ones would not? Why? Would there be a difference in adaptability depending on grade level? The short answer is that all subjects are adaptable for distance learning. So many programs offer online classes and do them well, long before the pandemic and the race to get online to keep students engaged with learning. However, some subjects offer more opportunities for enhanced learning and activities related to the lesson can be taken up a notch or two. The two subjects I feel that have the greatest amount of opportunity is Language Arts and Music. Both subjects have a plethora of layers that can translate well through distance learning. An example with English is an interactive composition tool like Google Doc to have students collaborate on a story by taking turns with different prompts or tasks for each person related to the lesson and the assignment. Additionally, by default the English class deals with reading, writing and comprehension mainly so more online tools cater to that area. As for music, it is an endless portal of access to sounds and songs to help heighten a student's awareness of music. From learning how to play an instrument to reading music to writing song lyrics, the amount of online resources that can connect to music is vast. History and mathematics (especially for practical purposes) are strong contenders. The difference in adaptability is coming from three different areas - grade level, learning style, and access to resources. The teacher must plan and execute with those three areas in mind for an optimal learning opportunity for all students. Technology can divide, however, there are greater opportunities to provide connections, commonalities, and compassion when using technology in an intentional, meaningful way to support student learning and growth. Learning Experiences This week was a needed break from group work and a chance to create assignments individually based on our agreed upon lesson topic - MLA. In hindsight, the topic is simple enough to create additional layers, however, another topic would provide some greater opportunities for diversity in the assignment layers. Overall, the assignments were pretty simple to complete. I have done screen captures for conferences and find Zoom to be the best option for me. I like how you are able to have an audio only and video file when you record. It's how some people record podcasts since it is fairly easy and if you need less than 40 minutes it is free! The video editing was for me like riding a bike - I've used iMovie, Final Cut, and Premiere to edit. I selected iMovie for its simplicity and ease of use. Plus, it is a free program on my computer and required no additional program downloads. I wanted to trim the beginning of the video and the end which took me a while to perfect. After several attempts, I opted for the separate clip feature and just deleted the unwanted clip. The Edpuzzle video tutorial must be from a paid account with so many options. The free version I as using was pretty basic and easy to use. I will be sharing this resource with my colleagues. I will also be using this next year as I have a video a week challenge I'm working on to push my team to engage more with students. This week's projects were straightforward and made me see how simple it is to make a video more engaging and interactive to encourage student learning. Project 6 - Screen Capture Project 7 - Video Editing Project 8 - Interactive Video |
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