EDLD+5364+Teaching+with+Technology

=Week 1 Reflection: = =**Constructivism **=

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I was especially intrigued by the YouTube video “Building Knowedge: Constructivism in Learning.” As I listened to the gentleman describe the contructivist theory of learning, I immediately thought of the word “schema.” As an educator, we try to help students build and add to their schema, their prior knowledge. If the student has no schema related to the concepts being taught, they have no “fiing system” with which to store the information. If they are able, they may remember tidbits of information at a later date and be able to apply experience, giving them that “AHA!” moment. I think contructivism is similar. When many people listen to a lecture and then write about their experience later, they will all come away with different AHA moments and different ideas. While one person may notice a specific story, another will remember a different piece of advice… This is because all of them have different experiences- and different schema- that helped them make connections in different areas. =====

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As a teacher, I think that it is very difficult to leave it up to the student to construct their own learning. I mean, what if they don’t construct the concepts you want them to develop. What if they leave out some important, but TAKS tested material? This shines a new light on what the teacher’s role is. Teachers need to create experiences for students to remember. Teachers must then help the students add knowledge to build that schema. When students come to us without experiences, according to this theory, it is obvious why they can’t remember what they are taught. In essence, we do not teach- we provide opportunities for students to learn. =====

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It is an understatement to say that we are connected…all over the world. Also, our brain creates connections with various experiences and other parts of the body. Connectivism is continuous, just like our learning. We do not just learn something now that will remain the same forever. We must be open to how those concepts now will change later. This requires us to understand concepts deeply, so that we can apply them later. Learning is continuous. Teaching is continuous. They are ever-evolving, ever-affecting the world around us. We must keep up with this ever-changing world. =====

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Technology can provide opportunities for students to learn. Technology can connect the student with other communities, people, and opportunities in which they can construct and connect to add to their learning. Technology can connect teachers and students as they learn. Technology can take us from the old-fashioned way of learning, by memorization and rote, into the 21st century way of learning, by experiencing and connecting. ===== = Week 2 Reflection = =A Diversity of Learners and UDL = This week has been spent getting to know and understand the Universal Design for Learning, or UDL model. A great amount of time has been given to the important understanding that teachers are presented with a diversity of learners together in one classroom. There was a great deal of emphasis on the critical components of teaching that enhance learning in such a classroom. It is necessary for students to be able to make their learning personal, to interact with what they know and what they will learn. They must feel like the learning is critical and relevant to their own lives. They must be allowed to discover, experiment, and create their own theories and explanations, which in turn is easier to remember. The UDL model ensures that all lesarners’ needs be met, whether students have disabilities, various learning styles, or varying interests. All of these areas must be considered by the teacher as the lessons are planned to gain maximum learning from each student.

Technology is a strong factor in meeting a variety of learning needs within the classroom. High-interest activities create self-motivation for the students as they strive to gain knowledge in a way that is relevant to them. Whether they are researching, creating, teaching, assimilating or collaborating, technology is a method that can keep the student involved in and responsible for his/her own learning. Allowing a child to find relevance in the world around them will make learning more fun, more relevant, more engaging for them, hopefully leading them to see the importance of life-long learning. After all, when the learning becomes their own, they can be proud of it, involved in it, and ready for what comes next. Our job as teachers is to equip every learner with the abilities and experiences that will enhance their lives and build up their knowledge as they become contributors in this world. =Week 3 Reflection (click here) = =Week 4 Reflection = =Collaboration and Technology = This week was a great time of reflection on collaboration and technology use in the classroom. Collaboration is vital in the classroom, for learning and teaching. Students and teachers don’t have only one role in the learning process. Students can both learn and teach in the classroom. Teachers can learn, teach, and facilitate in the classroom. Cooperative learning groups are excellent ways to begin collaboration. They should be relatively small, varying in abilities, and should be designed to lead students to discovery and collaboration. Collaboration is what the internet is all about. It is the present-day proof that all learning is best enhanced by relying on each other and working together. Collaborative groups should use a variety of strategies to gather ideas, present learned material and meet the varied learning styles of all group members. This collaboration can happen inside the classroom as well as outside the classroom. In the same ways that students can collaborate in the classroom, teachers can collaborate outside of the classroom. Educators always use catch-phrases such as “don’t reinvent the wheel” and other such jargain, yet they always think they have to start from scratch. Maybe it is because they don’t know where to start searching for ideas and activities. So, “more brains are better than one,” and teachers can become the students, learning from each other, whether it is understanding new technology or sharing new ideas. Technology use in the classroom supports not only the collaboration mentioned above, but it engages the learner and makes them a vital part of society. Isn’t that what educators want for their students? We want them to become lifelong learners. The various presentation methods available through technology allow students to choose the methods in which they present so that it will showcase their individual talents and understandings. It gives the students opportunities to assess the quality of information gathered in studies and draw their own conclusions. When students discover for themselves, the learning that takes place is more personal, more apt to be filed away in the long-term memory. Technology has the power to share, to engage, to increase collaboration, and to keep us from reinventing the wheel all the time. It keeps us up-to-date on current events, on the evolution of the world and on how people can and will contribute to the continuation of the human race. It is important to keep various learning and teaching methods in mind as we forge ahead in our classrooms. Technology is such a driving force behind every aspect of the world today. Every learner is unique. Every opportunity to learn should give all students a chance to explore, discover, and carry on with a clearer understanding of the world and the ability to contribute and create change. =Week 5 Reflection = = <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; margin: auto 0in;">A for Effort   = I love the rubric designed for measuring effort published in //Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works// (Pitler 2007). I think utilizing this rubric in the classroom, especially in my 4th grade classroom, could provide the scaffolding needed for students to se what “best effort” really means and how it affects their measures of success. Assessment is not only about the external, culminating tests, but also the internal- how we perceive ourselves, how we approach living and how we contribute to quality. Key parts of the learning process include attitude and progress in homework, class participation, paying attention, and constantly learning. The process of self-assessment is key to the student understanding the importance. The book says to create a spreadsheet for the rubric, which is fantastic, since the measurements can be graphed, even giving a pictorial representation of the effort shown and the progress made. In my class, I try to track progress in grades and test scores. For some students, this is encouraging and helpful to see their success. I hope that it will increase effort. But it may also just seem to reinforce what they already know. =<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Practice, Review and Learn = I think the key to learning is self-discovery. Students should be allowed to discover things and interact with those things. They should be able work and show their learning in a way that is meaningful. They need to make connections, compare and contrast, describe and really soak it all up. The integration of technology for all of these purposes provides engaging opportunities for students to show what they know and retain what they show. Video gaming can reinforce what they know, giving them immediate feedback, which is so helpful in the learning process. Presentation of information through web 2.0 tools and software gives the students choice in how to show what they’ve learned. If there is one thing I’ve learned through my teaching experiences this year, I’ve learned that students will always surprise you and are capable of more than we give them credit for. Give them the opportunity to use technology to research or present information, and they will go above and beyond your expectations. As a teacher, you will find yourself becoming the student as the kids show you more ways that technology can inspire and engage them. Hopefully, and ideally, the opportunities to discover, compare and contrast, show learning in a meaningful way will not only give them chances to think on a higher level, but to prepare them for the task of applying their learning in any situation. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','serif'; font-size: 9pt;">Pitler, H., Hubbel, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski K. (2007). //Using technology with classroom instruction that works.// Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

=<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Final Reflection = <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Throughout this course, my team and I were presented with the task of creating a unit that integrated technology and met the needs of a variety of learners in the classroom. Along with this unit, we had to provide ample training for the teacher in this classroom as well, regarding training and implementation of the unit. Our group consisted of teachers and administrators at various grade levels and with various experience with a variety of learners. At the beginning of the course, this task seemed daunting, at best, but I was pleasantly surprised at how the unit came together and the technology activities enhanced each learning experience. I think this project just seemed to come naturally to each team member as the ideas began to flow and work together cohesively. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">There are various theories of learning we discussed, such as constructivism and connectivism. These two theories were combined in our unit, in hopes of meeting the needs of a variety of learners. We wanted the students to not only construct meaning from their experiences, but to make connections between the learning and its relevance to the world and to life. We hoped to meet the needs of all learners using both of these theories through "positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing" (Pitler, 2007). <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology offers a variety of ways to support the needs of a variety of learners, such as learners with hearing and vision disabilities, gifted and below-level learners, as well as those students with learning disabilities. In the creation of our unit about summarizing, it was important to choose methods and materials that were interesting to the students, as well as well-scaffolded to ensure maximum comprehension. I believe that the use of web 2.0 tools creates a classroom where all students can make connections and engage in the learning so as to store the new skills in long-term memory. High-interest activities create self-motivation for the students as they strive to gain knowledge in a way that is relevant to them. Whether they are researching, creating, teaching, assimilating or collaborating, technology is a method that can keep the student involved in and responsible for his/her own learning. The only difficulty we may face in using these tools is the availability of the software or possible school internet blocking. For instance, I realized that my students cannot access smartsummary.com at school, which is a main activity in our summarizing unit. I am now in the process of looking into giving students access to this site, which will require me to describe its classroom use and enhancement of learning. I see many opportunities to use this tool as an opportunity to model, critique, and supplement summary writing, experiences that require constructivism, connectivism and higher-level thinking skills. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The unit consisted of a variety of parts common in each lesson. We used anticipatory sets to engage the student in the material, choosing music and censorship as the topic of interest. Each lesson used online materials to read, online videos and pictures to view, and web 2.0 tools to present newly-learned information in a meaningful way. By interacting with the text in meaningful ways, we hoped to enhance student comprehension of the concept of summarization. Technology tools such as Wordle, Inspiration, GreatSummary, blogs, wikis and are supported by Marzano’s nine instructional strategies, which “[enhance] students’ ability to organize information in a way that captures the main idea and supporting details” (Pitler, 2007). <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The team utilized Google Sites to compile information such as reflections, UDL lessons, e-books and tips for teachers. This site was a great collaboration tool where we could work on sections of the project alone and as a group. In creating and updating the site, we learned ins and outs of the site editor as well as organization skills and publishing ideas. We shared in writing reflections upon what we had experienced and accomplished up to that point. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">During this course, we were assigned the task of creating an e-book using the UDL builder. I was excited about this opportunity as another tool that could be used in or for the classroom. I created a book about my dolphin experiences, and I saw a great deal of opportunities to incorporate it into the group unit on summarizing. While I personally found a strong use for it in my unit, I didn’t see how the activity fit into the grand scheme of the course. It was never required that we incorporate the e-book into our unit, so it seemed just additional busy work. However, my favorite part of the e-book was the great use of side-coaches and interactive capabilities for students and teachers. Teachers can set up a story to ask questions, on summarization, perhaps, and/or students can ask questions or respond to prompts. The other side of the coin in this activity is the student’s ability to create an e-book, whether to show what they know or to use with peers as a teaching tool. No matter what, the e-book is sure to be engaging for the students, giving an alternative to the typical pencil-paper summarizing activities. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Throughout this experience, I have learned that “…how we view our roles as teachers influences how we teach with technology” (Sprague & Dede 1999). I view myself as a technology-savvy teacher. Therefore, I have experienced many ways to use technology to enhance curriculum and inspire students to interact with their learning. It takes a lot of time beforehand to set up these activities and think through the impact they can have on the learning experience. Integration is the key to any 21st century classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Pitler, H., Hubbel, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning, 27(1). Retrieved January 28, 2011 from the International Society for Technology in Education at http://imet.csus.edu/imet9/280/docs/dede_constructivisim.pdf